Oct 26, 2021
The concept of a knowledge worker
The term knowledge worker was first coined by Peter Drucker. Ducker defined knowledge workers as high-level workers who apply theoretical and analytical knowledge, acquired through formal training, to develop products and services (CFI, 2019). He emphasized that due to the high level of productivity and creativity of knowledge worker, that they would be the most valuable assets in the 21st century organization. Professionals that can be referred to as knowledge worker includes engineers, pharmacists, architects, financial analysts, public accountants, physicians, scientists, design thinkers, and lawyers. Furthermore, knowledge workers have a high degree of expertise, experience, education and the primary purpose of their jobs involve the distribution, creation and application of knowledge.
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Definition of a knowledge worker by Peter Drucker
Professional that are referred to as knowledge worker
Nursing Informatics
Nursing Informatics is a subset of informatics, specific to the nursing field and the role of the nurse in the healthcare setting. There has been several interpretation of nursing informatics. The American Nurses Association (ANA), identified nursing informatics as a specialty that integrates nursing, science, computer science, and information science to manage and communicate data, information, and knowledge in nursing practice (ANA, 2001, pg.17).
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Nurse leader as a knowledge worker.
A nurse leader is one who inspire others to work together to achieve a common goal, for instance enhanced patient care or satisfaction. All nurses are called to nurse leadership, however there are different levels of nurse leadership. Nurse leaders are expected to help the organization to fulfill the organizations mission, vision, values, and strategies to achieve long-range plans. Nurse leaders part take in policy setting, overseeing quality measures are carried out, accountability for overall quality of patient care delivery, staff satisfaction and organizational outcomes. For a nurse leader as a knowledge worker to be productive in an organization, the nurse leader must understand that knowledge work requires continuous learning on the part of the knowledge worker, but equally continuous teaching on the part of the knowledge worker. Having said that, a knowledge worker nurse leader will depend hugely on evidenced based practice to be productive in a healthcare organization. The use of EBP by knowledge worker nurse leader will require learning and teaching. Most healthcare organizations or hospitals rely on evidenced based practice to improve patient care, increase job satisfaction, decrease cost etc. Utilization of EBP can increase job satisfaction thereby decreasing turnover, foster organizational cohesion, improve patient outcomes, and decrease hospital costs (Kim et al., 2016).
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Definition of a nurse leader
Nurse Leader as a knowledge worker
Organizational outcomes and productivity of a healthcare organization
The use of Evidenced Based Practice (EBP) by knowledge worker
What is an evidenced based practice and how can EBP help improve the role of nurse leader as a knowledge worker.
Stevens (2013) defined EBP as the integration of best research evidence with clinical expertise and patient values (p.2). Evidence-based practice (EBP) was also defined by Melnyk and Fineout-Overholt (2018) as a life-long problem-solving approach, that is characterized by using the external evidence from the most relevant research, the internal evidence from clinical expertise, and patients preferences and values. The intention of EBP is to utilize science and research evidence to standardize healthcare practices to create optimal and predictable health outcomes (Stevens, 2013). Nursing decisions using Evidence Based Practice (EBP) is achieved through the best research available, combined with knowledge, collaboration and clinical guidelines (Farokhzadian, Khajouei and Ahmadian, 2015).
Flowing from the scenario used in my discussion about the 85 years old female that was admitted into the unit with little or no medical information. The nurse was able to determine that this patient was admitted into the same hospital last month by searching the Electronic Health Record (EHR) using the patient name and birth date. The nurse pulled the record of the last visit and was able to determine that patient tested positive for methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) of the nares and also a Do Not Resuscitate (DNR). EHR is an evidenced based assessment tool which has been translated into practice, nurse managers and their staff are uniquely positioned to lead or join the effort to make a difference with nursing documentation and HER design.