Significance of Statistical Application in Nursing

Significance of Statistical Application in Nursing
Author
Author Affiliation
Course
Professor
Date
Significance of Statistical Application in Nursing
Introduction
Health statistics refer to numbers that summarize information related to health used in making decisions such as allocating funds and resources (Hayat, Powell, Johnson, & Cadwell, 2017). Experts and researchers from government, non-profit, and private institutions collect and analyze data to determine trends, future projections, and the state of health care and public health. For instance, during the Covid-19 pandemic, it is vital to decide whether the current public health measures help eliminate the virus. Experts can do this by determining the number of infections based on the number of reported cases continuously. Thus, statistics can tell the number of people with a disease, if treatment is safe (effective), rates of mortality, and the level of access to care. Nursing is among the critical areas of health care that rely on statistical data to provide effective care and informed decision making.
Obtaining Statistical Data
The role of nurses in healthcare systems is continuously evolving, and one way in which the transformation is taking place is through the collection and application of statistics. Nursing forms America's largest portion of the healthcare profession, with more than 3.8 million registered nurses out of which 84.5% are registered (AACN, 2019). Nurses also form the country's largest single segment of the workforce, highlighting its importance in its health and wellbeing. Additionally, nurses are the primary caregivers of all healthcare professionals delivering most of the US's long-term care plans. Therefore, they are best placed in collecting data because of their high frequency of interaction with patients. There are several ways in which nurses help in the collection of statistical information.
Manual Observation and Collection
Nurses interact with ward-based sources like handover records, patient medical records, ward discharge/ transfer records. The interaction allows nurses to observe trends, irregularities, and improvements in specific health outcomes (Sarkies, Bowles, Skinner, Mitchell, & Haas, 2015). The approach embodies a manual collection of data through observation because all the data sources are paper-based and are key, especially where clinical trials are done with limited resources.
Retrospective Data Extraction
Nurses are also in constant interaction with the electronic patient management programs (systems), where they play a role in the input and extraction of patient information. In countries like Australia and New Zealand, Patient Administrative Systems are applied in tracking inpatient episodes (Sarkies, Bowles, Skinner, Mitchell, & Haas, 2015). The systems include discharge and admission information and vital patient records, including medical history. Retrospective analysis of the systems can provide data and information key for decision-making.
Retrospective Data Review
Inpatient medical records also consist of scanned data and information. Further, most hospitals routinely scan paper-based health records to fit them into an integrated digital record. The process allows f...