Application: Using the Data/Information/Knowledge/Wisdom Continuum
Introduction
The present-day healthcare system is faced with a myriad of emerging challenges which have to potential to compromise the achievement of the desired healthcare outcomes. By the virtue of skills, talent and expertise, healthcare providers notably, the nurses have an obligation to provide solutions to these problems through adopting an inquiry-oriented approach to practice and using data obtained from observation or interaction with the system to come up with practical solutions to these problems. The Data/Information/Knowledge/Wisdom Continuum (DIKW) or simply the “wisdom hierarchy” provides a viable model that healthcare providers can use to move from simple data to clinical wisdom that shapes practice (Matney et al., 2011). This underscores the need for all healthcare providers to possess sound skills in utilizing this tool in order to help in addressing the challenges facing the contemporary healthcare system.
For instance, from my clinical experience, it is apparent that patient falls are quite common. This results to injuries, exacerbation of patient condition or even mortality. As such, guided by the clinical question; “Does hourly rounding help in preventing the occurrence of patient falls?” I intended to use the DIKW continuum to develop clinical wisdom that may be used in a meaningful and practical way to reduce this undesired outcome. From personal observation, lapses in patient monitoring could be the primary cause of increased in-hospital falls and as such seek to understand this problem in a more comprehensive manner and gain a vantage in terms of developing an evidence-based solution.
Application of the Data/Information/Knowledge/Wisdom Continuum
Obtaining data is the first step in this continuum and in this context, data is obtained through observation and revisiting clinical records on patient falls in order to understand the severity of the problem. Obtaining this data would go a long way in understanding the various facets of the problem including what is the cause of patient falls as well as where and when patient falls commonly occur. This would place me at a strategic point in terms of proceeding with knowledge development since I will be equipped with hints as to what information to look for.
The information phase of this continuum seeks to synthesize data into meaningful information by trying to decode what the data means or the situation that data represents (Matney et al., 2011). As such, in this stage, there is the need to look for additional information that supplements what has been obtained at the primary level in the form of data. A sizeable amount of research has been done on this clinical issue and as a result, an equally huge amount of literature exists on this issue. In this connection, searching for literature is pretty essential in further understanding patient falls and gaining additional information on the issue. Nonetheless, it is important to acknowledge the importance of obtaining information that is question-specific, credible and accurate. This makes it necessary to develop a search strategy that outlines the key words that would be used during the information search so as to narrow or confine the search results to the articles that answer the clinical question. Additionally, there is an equal need to rely on credible sources of information. For this reason, the following search terms/words would be used for meeting this purpose; “patient falls, in-hospital patient falls, causes of patient falls, results of patient falls, hourly-rounding and strategies to reduce patient falls”. On the other hand, the following databases would be used for the purpose of this information searching; Pubmed, Cochrane Library, Embase, Medline and CINAHL. Once the search is complete, I would conduct an appraisal of each article in order to remain with the most relevant articles that help in answering the clinical question and bear a high level of evidence. Consequently, I would synthesize this information into a conceptual framework that shows the relationship between hourly rounding and reduction of patient falls. This would involve organizing this information into graphs and charts that show the linkages between the two variables. The next step would be to validate the information or the conceptual framework, hence transforming it into logical knowledge (Laureate Education, 2012). Believably, knowledge would lack meaning not unless it is converted in a practical and operational concept (Laureate Education, 2012). As such, I would take various steps into gaining a meaningful use of this knowledge and gaining knowledge that would be used in clinical practice to reduce falls. This would essentially be through initiating a “hourly rounding” campaign which would involve educating fellow colleagues on the importance of hourly rounding and reconstituting the existing policies to support hourly rounding as an evidence-based approach.
Can informatics be used to gain wisdom?
As seen, using the DIKW continuum and subsequently gaining wisdom involves a substantial amount of work in terms of retrieving information, analyzing information, information management and subsequently, the interpretation of the information into meaningful facts. This being this case, informatics gain a lot of relevance in gaining wisdom. Through harnessing the power of informatics, healthcare providers can effectively analyze, manage and interpret information into knowledge that can be used for resolving problems (American Nurses Association, 2015). The beauty of informatics in this pursuit of wisdom is that it provides effective tools for data/information handling which are indubitably accurate and reliable (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2015).
Summary
As depicted, the Data/Information/Knowledge/Wisdom Continuum is an effective tool for helping in resolving healthcare challenges. Nonetheless, the successful use of this continuum relies on the ability for one observe where weaknesses exist, ask the appropriate questions or inquiries and subsequently, use the systematic steps of moving from data to wisdom. It is thus imperative for one to be a good consumer of health-related literature and effectively employ analytical and appraisal techniques to decipher information and come up with best knowledge that can be used in a meaningful manner as wisdom (Laureate Education, 2012).
References
American Nurses Association. (2015). Nursing informatics: Scope & standards of practice (2nd ed.). Silver Springs, MD: Author.
Laureate Education (Producer). (2012). Data, information, knowledge, and wisdom continuum. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Matney, S., Brewster, P. J., Sward, K. A., Cloyes, K. G., & Staggers, N. (2011). Philosophical approaches to the nursing informatics data-information-knowledge-wisdom framework. Advances in Nursing Science, 34(1), 6–18.
McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2015). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge (3rd ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning.
