Decision support and the clinical nurse specialist.

I nformation technology is becoming increasingly available at the point of care. Electronic health records, barcode medication administration, and computerized provider order entry are a few of the innovations found in most healthcare facilities. Simply automating a process, however, does not contribute to patient care quality. The true value-added component of automation is derived from being able to use collected information in a new and different way, especially to facilitate the decision making of nurses and other healthcare professionals. The purpose of this article is to describe decision support systems (DSSs), explore their relevance to nursing, and identify ways the clinical nurse specialist (CNS) can be integral in their design and implementation.