My First Post for Module 1

Hello, everyone!  I am K. Baron.  I am in my third semester of the distance DNP program to become a family nurse practitioner.  I have 7 children, and 5 grandchildren.  I have 2 children still living at home.  I enjoy walking and cooking for my family.  I love to prepare gourmet meals, but lately I have been embracing preparing quick, healthy meals that taste great.  I enjoy walking outside around the potato and wheat farms of my neighborhood in Rexburg, Idaho.  I have nursing experience in ER, NICU, and most recently IV infusions.  I am currently on a leave of absence from my employer, so that I can put more time toward my family and my studies.

            I think it is important for a graduate level nurse to know about information management, because information technology helps the nurse to effectively manage the practice.  Information technology can help the nurse to identify trends in disease and health promotion practices within the practice, and the nurse can compare the trends to community and nation-wide information.  Information technology can help the nurse practitioner to give better care to the patient by monitoring the patient closely, scheduling needed appointments, coordinating diagnostic data, and by providing the correct education to the patient to promote healthier self-care.  Information technology, such as social networking is useful as an inexpensive way to market the practice while delivering patient education.

            In the practice setting that I have last worked (a free-standing infusion center, and home infusions), staff nurses had very little interaction with information technology.  One of the infusions the nurses administered was on the fast track with the FDA, so the nurses would do data entry for an outside company that reported infusion results back to the FDA.  Nursing leadership within the company uses MS Office, Adobe Acrobat, and Windows media.  The pharmacists have a separate program that stores patient data such as medications, labs, and allergies.  It also generates orders and labels for the pharmacy.

            The distance program has been difficult for me because I don't feel the routine connection with other students that takes place in the classroom.  I know that attending distance is a blessing, because I cannot relocate to go to school.  I think this experience with social networking will increase that sense of connectedness that I am missing from the classroom.  I am excited to share and follow my fellow classmates' blogs.  I am interested in gaining blogging experience, so that I may use it in my practice.

"See" you in cyberspace!