KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES IN HEALTHCARE ENVIRONMENTS. HOW CAN THIS AFFECT NURSES?

Introduction
Managing knowledge of medical professionals within health care organizations is critical to prosper in competitive health environments. Nurses are knowledge intensive and primary professionals in health care organizations.
Nurses in order to be able to meet the challenges that nursing faces in working with communities and health care systems, need to be competent in a variety of skills. Since the healthcare environment is changing rapidly, effective management of the knowledge base in this area is an integral part of delivering high quality patient care.
Purpose
This study will aim to:
a) Identify the available nursing knowledge base and the gaps in the knowledge base, b) Identify the barriers to effectively putting nursing knowledge into practice and what can be done to overcome them and
c) Discuss the needs of the nursing workforce and how it can be best supported.

Methodology
The study explored the following sections: a) The way that nurses feel about the concept of “training” and “competence” in their professional life b) The health information resources and services organized and managed in the healthcare environment, from the scope of the access they had and c) the continuing education curriculum as a means of augmenting the knowledge, skills and attitudes of nurses.
Results
Nursing process involves several complex and knowledge-intensive practices that highly depend on nursing professional know-how and experience. Thus, whether nurses can utilize and manage their knowledge in nursing process effectively, is vital to the quality of care.
Our study showed that nursing professionals had access to the knowledge base but data analysis identified uncertainties in their “application of knowledge and skills,” and also issues such as not: “being self-confident, "having authority,” “being supported” and concerns about: “unification and solidarity” and “organizational culture and structure”.
Discussion
Knowledge management is a management paradigm that includes concerted, coordinated and deliberate efforts to manage the organizational knowledge. As the pressures on hospitals mount to increase productivity and decrease cost, the management of their knowledge resources is essential. The current climate of accountability in the health and social care professions demands a high level of responsibility by health professionals in terms of updating and credibly using their professional knowledge. Nurses appear to have some concerns and uncertainties about their scope of practice and the knowledge and power issues involved in it.
Conclusion
Knowledge management can be viewed as turning data into information and forming information into knowledge. Management becomes less about setting and policing rules for workers and more about establishing strategy, setting goals, showing leadership, and measuring. Health care data can be acquired, communicated, stored, and managed, and processed into information and knowledge. This knowledge is useful to nurses in decision-making at the operational, tactical, and strategic planning levels of health care. Education, empowerment, connection and coordination with all the members of the health care team determine the success of creating knowledge based healthcare organizations and of developing a competent nursing workforce.