Nursing Knowledge: Big Data Science Conference focuses on value of nursing, forging new partnerships
June 21, 2023
The 11th annual Nursing Knowledge: Big Data Science (NKBDS) Conference brought national and international experts to Minneapolis to discuss the value of nursing and the ways informatics can help foster improvements in nursing practice, research, education and leadership.
The conference, held June 7-9 at McNamara Alumni Center, also discussed the potential for collaborations between informaticians, nurse leaders and executives.
Olga Yakusheva, PhD, MSE, University of Michigan School of Nursing professor, delivered the keynote The Age of Big Data in Healthcare: Demonstrating the Value of Nursing to Patient Outcomes. Yakusheva pioneered the development of a new method for outcomes-based clinician performance productivity measurement using electronic medical records. With this work, she was able to measure, for the first time, the value-added contributions of individual nurses to patient outcomes.
“Using electronic health records and big data analytics, we applied the same measures from the field of economics to measure the individual contributions of the nurse on the outcomes of the patient so that we can define an individual provider effect,” she said.
Yakusheva is currently working to uncover traits and success strategies of highly-effective nurses, including education, experience and expertise, as well as a more granular analyses of nurse staffing, optimizing nurse-patient assignments at the patient level.
“There is a lot of work that you can do with this approach,” said Yakusheva.
A panel moderated by Catherine Ivory, PhD, RN, FNAP, FAAN, discussed Capturing and Leveraging the Value of Nursing with panelists Kathy Chappell, PhD, RN, FNAP, FAAN, from ANAE, Whende Carroll, MSN, RN-BC, FHIMSS, from HIMSS and Elizabeth Swanson, PhD, RN, from University of Iowa College of Nursing.
Robyn Begley, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN, American Organization for Nursing Leadership CEO and American Hospital Association CNO, delivered Nurse Executives, Big Data, and Leading Healthcare Transformation.
Begley shared her focus in the current environment is on workforce issues. “We are at a crossroads and this is a wakeup call for all of us,” said Begley. She said these workforce issues will require future of models of care that include an interdisciplinary approach, academic/practice partnerships, new leadership competencies, and optimizing technology in practice and education. “The emergence of new technology and care models is really where the rubber meets the road,” said Begley.
A nurse executive panel, moderated by Dean Connie White Delaney, PhD, RN, FAAN, FACMI, FNAP, included Begley, Essentia’s CNE Rhonda Kazik, DNP, RN, CENP, and Mayo Clinic’s CNO Ryannon Frederick, MS, RN.
The nurse executives discussed how they are utilizing nurse informaticists and how they utilizing data and information – in addition to using stories – to show the value of nursing. Additional topics included care delivery models, workforce issues and the need to forge new partnerships.
The eight NKBDS workgroups reported on major achievements in 2022 and discussed top priorities for the coming year.
The 2024 Nursing Knowledge: Big Data Science Conference will be held June 5-7 in Minneapolis.