COMMON SOFTWARE USEFULL TO NURSES

—  Common Software Useful to Nurses

—  Chat Rooms

—  Electronic Bulletin Boards

—  Listservs

—  MAR Software

—  ADT (admission, discharge and transfer)

—  COMPUTER SYSTEMS

Ø  A complex entity consisting of an organized set of  interconnected components  or factors  that function together as a unit to accomplish a  result that one part alone could not.

Ø  Functionality is realized when computers are connected to other computers in a network.

Ø  Based on Systems Theory

Ø  Provide the understanding of how the power of individual  computers  has been enhanced through linking multiple computers into a single system & computers into Networks.

—  System Theory

Ø  Provides s the conceptual basis for understanding  complex entities  that consist of multiple interrelated parts working together to achieve a desired result.

Ø  Such entities are called systems.

—  Proposition of System Theory

Ø  A system takes in input on which to perform process.

Ø  The processes performed by a system on input result in system output.

Ø  The processes in a system are subject to control forces.

Ø  Feedback is the key mechanism of control in a system.

Ø  A system’s parts interact in such a way that the parts are interdependent with respect to the system’s processes.

Ø  Impingement on one part in a system will produce effects on the system’s processes and may produce distortion on other parts of the system.

Ø  Distortion in one part of a system may be symptom of a problem in another component

Ø  Thus, correction of a malfunctioning part will correct the system functioning only if the malfunction was a primary malfunction and not secondary malfunction.

Ø  Effects on the system’s processing function will affect the system’s output

Ø  A system is more than sum of its parts.

—  System Elements(6)

—  Interdependent parts

—  Input

—  System process

—  Output

—  System control

—  Feedback

—  Interdependent parts

Ø  Parts interact to conduct some process.

Ø  Without interaction  system process could not occur.

Ø  Each acting alone could not perform system process.

(mathematical, logical and data transfer requiring interaction among CPU, RAM and ROM chips in the mother board)

—  Input

Ø  Any factor from external environment that is taken into the system.

Ø  OS loaded into a RAM in a computer system.

Ø  May consist of data  that the system has to process.

—  Output

Ø  Any product  as a result of a system process.

—  Feedback

Ø  Output from one part  of a system process  that serves  as input to another part of  another  part of a system process.

Ex. Saving a file to a disk that is already full,

               ventilator that initiate or don’t initiate breathing