Systems development life cycle (SDLC)

Response 1

Systems development life cycle (SDLC) delivers efficient and effective information systems that fit an organization’s unique strategic business plan. There are three approaches that SDLC can occur: within the organization, outsourced, or be a blend of the two approaches. The organization’s mission drives the business plan, which ultimately addresses the need and helps develop the plan. The development process of the SDLC follows the waterfall model, where one phase flows into the next. The SDLC process is like the nursing process: assess, diagnose, plan, implement, evaluate, and revise. More so, for SDLC, organizations assess feasibility, design analysis, system specification, program, test, implement, maintenance, and destruction (McGonagall & Mastrian, 2018). Every step to this process is a thorough plan from literally beginning to the end, including the system’s destruction. Since nurses are the backbone of healthcare, they must be included in every step of the SDLC. This discussion forum will discuss potential consequences that a healthcare organization can face for not involving nurses in each stage of the SDLC. Furthermore, this post will also explain how nurses’ inclusion can help address some issues.

During the SDLC, often TELOS technology is used: technological, economic, legal, operational, and schedule feasibility. With the implementation of TELOS technology, organizations can weigh in their options for the project’s feasibility. Failure to include nurses in the feasibility phase can lead to ineffective development. The following consequences can stem from not having the nurses in each stage of the SDLC:  loss of initial engagement, loss of trust in the change process, frustration and burnout from the new system that was adapted, and loss of personal connection to the new system. Failing to involve nurses implies that they will first contact the system at its implementation phase. They will be bombarded with training days to familiarize themselves with the new system before going live with it. This quick training may not be enough for the nurses to learn everything they need, losing the essence of the system and slowing up the workflow (Cleveland, 2019).

The inclusion of the nurses in each stage of the SDLC results in greater initial engagement. Moreover, when nurses are included in the feasibility phase, they feel like they are part of the decision-making process (shared governance). So, they develop a personal connection to the system. As they develop this personal connection, they get motivated to help patients and improve care. Brennan and Wendt (2021) state that when nurses and the interdisciplinary team follow an organized decision-making process about practice standards and quality improvement, improved outcome and shared success is expected. The nurses’ empowerment from the shared accountability and vision helps prevent stagnation, frustration, burnout and allows them to focus their time and energy on the successful implementation of the new system.

In my healthcare organization, I did have a chance to provide any input in the selection and planning of a new health information technology system. However, I know that my organization is vast on a shared governance model and management included nurses at every stage of the SDLC for the current system we have in place. During the planning and designing phase, nurses identify the issues at hand for the current system since they witness how the whole process plays out. The elimination of unnecessary assessments in charting improves the workflow and helps nurses focus more on patient care. Nurses’ role is essential in the success of the system. 2APA refrences

REsponse 2

Nurses have concerns that the utilization of technology are not always associated with functionality which cause stress and frustration. Usability and reliability reserve specific importance when discussing new technologies in healthcare where technology must be fit for purpose. Design and technical issues continue to impact delivery of care and could consequently lead to patient and user dissatisfaction. For exponential growth in technology advancement remains embraced nurses must be involved in the development of systems (Brown et al., 2020).

Many nurses felt they lacked the autonomy to implement change and were positively noted to take pride and appreciation to be apart of a change to help improve patient outcomes (Brennan & Wendt, 2021). The systems development life cycle (SDLC) is categorized into phase: feasibility study, system investigation, system analysis, system design, system implementation, and review (Kim et al., 2020). The first phase of the SDLC could potentially have issues finding a means to address an issue, a nurse could help direct the source of the problem. The investigation phase could potentially have problems with gathering relevant data that pertains to the topic which nurses have experience doing and could be beneficial. As nurses we analyze, design, and implement care plans and other differentiated means while working in healthcare and could help address issues under these phases of the SDLC. Analyzing, designing, and implementing a technology geared towards a specific user would prove to be beneficial to incorporate the skills and knowledge the user possesses for improvement opportunity. Nurses led to believe that the impact of technology systems will enhance patient care are shown to be more willing to embrace and accept the new advancement according to Brown et al. (2020).

While working on my unit we had a new interface to centricity that would potentially make our lives as nurses less burdensome when it came to documentation. Although apprehensive in the beginning we were asked our opinions of the new technology and if we had any suggestions for improvement. The system was hands down the best technology we had ever received we helped work out some issues that presented redundancy which made our obligation list smaller. For example, when opening a patient chart that had been seen before arrived, we would have to re-enter all the information, down to the allergies and medication lists, informatics was able to merge those charts and allow for the systems to communicate with the other. Accessible, reliable, stable systems are essential for the successful integration of new technologies into the work of nurses’ (Brown et al., 2020). 2APA references