Using and managing information for better health care

The fourth title in the PDQ Care series of open learning packs for nurses, midwives and health visitors.

Nurses at all levels are becoming increasingly aware of their responsibilities with regard to managing patient information.

They also realise that the efficient management of information can increase the efficiency and quality of the care patients receive.

Provision of quality health care to all clients, both in hospital and in the community has become one of the major issues in modern professional nursing practice and anything which contributes towards achieving quality care is of great relevance to nurses.This pack aims to help the user by: Y increasing awareness of information as an individual and organisational resource Y helping the reader to define his/her own information needs and to assess the quality of the information currently received and communicated Y teaching the user how to extract information from available data as a basis for efficient decision making and action planning Y showing how a model of information management may be used to diagnose problems and ultimately improve nursing care Y providing information on legislation and good practice relevant to the management of information by all nurses Y creating an understanding of how good information management can promote effective provision of health care throughout the organisation responsible for its provision Like other titles in PDQ Care, the pack content has been critically reviewed by a panel of readers and field tested by potential users.