Why Big Data?: Why Nursing?

Abstract

Attention on “big data” spans nursing and the health sciences, and extends as well to engineering/computer sciences through to the liberal arts in professional literature. A current Google search (3 Nov 2016) of “big data” yields 288 million entries. A focused search of “big data and nursing” yields more than 3.9 million entries. Thus we ask, “Why big data? Why nursing?” The focus of this chapter is to provide an overview of why big data has emerged now and to make the case for how big data has the capacity to change health, healthcare systems, and nursing. This chapter lays a foundation for the chapters and case studies to follow that explore what data, knowledge, and transformation processes are needed to put information and knowledge into the hands of nursing wherever nurses are working. In this chapter we examine the big data sources within and beyond nursing and healthcare that can be collected and analyzed to improve nursing and patient, family and community health. This chapter entices the reader to examine “Why big data now?” and “Why big data in the future?” This chapter is meant to stir curiosity for “Why should I be knowledgeable?” Whether the reader’s role is in clinical practice, education, research, industry, or policy, the applied uses of big data analytics are empowering change at an exponential speed across all domains. Big data has the capacity to illuminate nursing’s discovery of new knowledge and best practices that are safe, effective and lead to improved outcomes including well-being of providers; it also can expand nursing’s vision and future possibilities through increasing awareness of what nursing doesn’t know. The importance of nursing’s lens on the new discoveries obtained through big data and data science is critical to the transformation of health and healthcare systems. This transformation completes the challenge of placing the person at the center of all care initiatives and actions.