Decision support systems were first designed and implemented in the corporate world to support business management. The integration of support systems into health care organizations brings a sharpened analysis capacity to data warehousing and data mining. This refined data analysis capability can lead to improved patient care and diagnoses through evaluation of various symptoms, prediction of certain drug interaction outcomes, and much more.

In this Discussion, you explore the use of clinical decision support systems and consider their value in assisting advanced practice nurses in making informed decisions and providing quality health care.

To prepare:

Review the information in the Learning Resources focusing on the use of clinical decision support systems.

Consider where you seek support for clinical decisions. Do you seek advice from other health care professionals in your organization? Do you use computerized clinical decision support systems? Do you perform your own research? Assess the advantages and disadvantages of each approach.

Reflect on how decision support technologies, including databases, might assist nurses in clinical practice.

Consider how you can validate the integrity of the data you are using in a clinical decision support system.

Peruse the information presented at the Open Clinical website presented in this week's Learning Resources. Locate an article that focuses on how clinical decision support systems can be used to support or improve patient care. How does the information in the article align with or differ from your own experiences?

ASSIGNMENT: WRITE a description of how you currently seek support for clinical decision making and how you determine the integrity of the information you gather. Analyze the advantages and disadvantages of using computerized clinical decision support systems in clinical practice. Justify your response. Finally, summarize the article you selected from the Open Clinical website and include an evaluation of how computerized clinical decision support systems can be used to improve care.