Title: Systems Development Life Cycle
Introduction
Fernandes, Pai & Colaco (2018), states that a System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a method of project management that mainly constitutes several steps of passing information and ideas repeatedly in progression. The SDLC ensures the provision of a framework of standard project management that leads to quality health outcomes and can be applied in health care improvement. The SDLC consist of five stages, namely; requirement capture and analysis, design, development (coding), testing, and maintenance. Nurses have a role to play in each step of the SDLC. Excluding nurses from the process of decision making and implementation of SDLC can lead to poor health outcomes.
In requirement capture and analysis phase is the first step that involves the collection of data for the project and various clients. If a nurse isn’t engaged, they will not understand the requirement or data collected from this phase (Merhi, 2015). In design, which is the second stage of SDLC, consists of preparation of project design according to requirements provided in step 1. If a nurse isn’t involved, he/she won’t be able to understand appropriate software and hardware the health information technology system. According to Fernandes, Pai & Colaco (2018), phase three is development(coding) whereby there’s division of work into modules and units for coding to commence. If the nurse isn’t involved, he/she won’t understand the operations, structure of the health information technology system. The testing phase entails testing of developed codes to confirm if they are in line with all requirements. If a nurse isn’t involved, he/she will not relate the coding system and the operation of the health information technology system. In the maintenance phase, there is the identification of product problem the moment the health care personnel uses it. If the nurse isn’t involved, won’t the be to evaluate the effect of the health information technology system as in Merhi (2015).
I was involved in the planning and selection process, and My input was that it should be able to enhance patient continuity of care, retrieve patient data, and comply with organizational objectives. It motivated me because I was able to understand and interpret the information technology system. Through that, I can be able to manipulate the operations and structure of the project and educate other nurses. For example, if a nurse is not able to understand the structure of the health information technology system, there will be difficulty in recording and retrieval of health records and affects health outcomes (Merhi, 2015).
References
Fernandes, A. M., Pai, A., & Colaco, L. M. M. (2018, March). Secure SDLC for IoT Based Health Monitor. In 2018 Second International Conference on Electronics, Communication and Aerospace Technology (ICECA) (pp. 1236-1241). IEEE.
Merhi, M. (2015). A process model leading to successful implementation of electronic health record systems.