Linda W. Byrd

Reflective Journaling and Development of CULTURAL HUMILITY IN STUDENTS

RESEARCH ABSTRACT Cultural humility requires self‐evaluation and the awareness that ones own culture is not the only or best one.Teaching health care providers to become culturally humble includes the development of critical thinking skills and the ability to reflect on practice. Journaling as a teaching strategy helps students develop these skills. This article describes the use of reflective journaling as students progressed through four semesters of a community clinical experience. This qualitative, descriptive study was based on the principles of naturalistic inquiry with personcentered written reflections. Two hundred journal entries from 50 students were reviewed, and 11 themes were identified. Cultural humility cannot be learned merely in the classroom with traditional teaching methods. Reflection on experiences over time leads to the development of cultural humility.

Contrasting IT Capability and Organizational Types: Implications for Firm Performance

The Resource-Based View RBV has become one of the most popular ways to examine the impact of IT on firm performance. An increasing number of researchers are using the theoretical underpinning of the RBV to ground their research in investigating this relationship. This paper follows in this tradition by developing multidimensional measures for two dimensions of IT capability, inside-out IT capability and spanning IT capability. In this regard, the authors relate these dimensions to firm performance as profit ratios and cost ratios. Inside-out capability is the IT resources deployed from inside the firm in response to market requirements and opportunities. However, spanning IT capability involves both internal and external analysis and is needed to integrate the firms inside-out and outside-in IT competences. This study also makes an exploratory comparative assessment of the relative impact of inside-out IT capability and spanning IT capability, while analyzing the differences on the impact of IT capability in diverse types of organizations. Finally, the authors give evidence that different dimensions of IT capability may have different effects on performance measures.

An Examination of an Information Systems Flexibility Framework

This paper investigates IS flexibility as a way to meet competitive challenges in hypercompetitive industries by enabling firms to implement strategies by adapting their operations processes quickly to fast-paced changes. It presents a framework for IS flexibility as a multidimensional construct. Through a literature review and initial case study analysis, factors to assess flexibility in each dimension are constructed. Findings of an exploratory study conducted to test the framework are reported. Based on the above it is argued that the concept of IS flexibility in hypercompetitive industries IS flexibility must be pursued from a holistic perspective to understand how it may be exploited to achieve a competitive advantage.

The impact of clinical information technology on information quality in US hospitals

The healthcare industry today is information-intensive. The quality of healthcare and the reduction of medical errors are directly related to the quality of information for clinical decision making in hospitals. Therefore, it is an imperative to improve the quality of information in these organisations. Information Technology (IT) is one resource that has proven to improve information quality in other industries. This study examines the prospect of clinical IT in hospitals improving the quality of information. The study found that IT does improve several aspects of information quality, that of accuracy, reliability and timeliness, although the impact is currently rather low. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Accuracy of information as a mediator of IT and quality of healthcare

Hospital administrators, healthcare providers and healthcare delivery systems strive to provide safe and quality care for patients in very complex environments. Information technology (IT) has been taunted as a way to reduce medical errors while increasing the overall quality of healthcare in organisations that provide these services. This study investigates how clinical IT may impact the quality of healthcare in healthcare institutions through the effect of accuracy of information for the clinical decision making of registered nurses. Key informant method was used with a survey mailed and email. Response rate was 21.4%. A principal finding is that IT affects accuracy of information as well as the quality of healthcare in hospitals. Our analysis is an early investigation and guide to future research that helps to facilitate the accumulation of knowledge of the effects of the implementation of IT in healthcare organisations.

Investigating the Mediating Effect of the Accuracy of Information in the Relationship between IT and the Quality of Healthcare in Hospitals

The safety and quality of healthcare is of great concern in the United States. Hospital administrators, healthcare providers, and healthcare delivery systems all strive to provide safe and quality care for patients in complex environments. Many have suggested that information technology (IT) may reduce medical errors and increase the quality of healthcare in healthcare organizations. This study investigates how clinical IT may improve the quality of healthcare through its effect on the perceived accuracy of information for clinical decision making available to nurses in hospitals. The study found evidence that IT does positively affect the perceived accuracy of information that, in turn, affects the quality of healthcare in hospitals. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Contrasting the Dimensions of Information Quality in Their Effects on Healthcare Quality in Hospitals

This study examines the relationships between the dimensions of information quality and healthcare quality. Past studies have confirmed a positive relationship between these two constructs, however, the relationships among the underlying dimensions of the constructs have not been explored. One of the primary purposes of this study is to show that different dimensions of information quality have different relationships with dimensions of healthcare quality. As the paper indicates, this development has implications for researchers and practitioners interested in these two constructs.

The examination of the underlying dimensions of information quality to create a research instrument

This study examines information quality in the context of clinical decision making by nurses in hospitals in the USA. The study uncovers underlying dimensions of the information quality construct. These dimensions are used to develop a questionnaire to measure information quality. The instrument is validated through a research process that includes a pretest, pilot test and survey. Chief Nursing Officers (CNOs) from 214 hospitals completed the survey. Their responses were used to confirm the validity and reliability of the instrument. The instrument can be used in studies examining information quality as either a dependent or independent variable.

Examining the effects of healthcare technology on US hospitals' operational cost

The cost of healthcare in the USA is ever increasing. Healthcare providers and other stakeholders have noted the effects of information technology (IT) on cost reductions of operations in other industries and have championed a move to more IT investment in the healthcare industry. This study examines some early IT investments by single system US hospitals to determine if integrated IT applications help reduce cost relative to hospitals that have not made such investments. The finding shows that, thus far, investments in IT have actually increased costs in hospitals.