Final answer:
The nurse should reference the Electronic Health Record (EHR) to find comprehensive patient information across the healthcare system. EHRs raise significant privacy concerns and require careful policy development. Medical records are also crucial for epidemiological studies and healthcare research. Option b is correct.
Step-by-step explanation:
If a nurse wants to find all the pertinent patient information in one record, regardless of the number of times the patient has entered the health care system, the nurse should look for the Electronic Health Record (EHR).
Unlike the Electronic Medical Record (EMR), which may be more limited to a single practice's documentation, the EHR is a more comprehensive record that includes all the patient's interactions with the health care system, making it accessible to all providers involved in the patient's care. The privacy of electronic health records is a significant concern. Proper policies need to balance the benefits of such systems against privacy risks.
Important questions include: How can we ensure that patient data is secure against unauthorized access? What measures are in place to oversee the sharing of information to only those with a legitimate need? And how do we maintain the accuracy and integrity of the health records?
In epidemiological studies and other forms of healthcare research, it is common practice to review medical records. For instance, epidemiologists might use such data to select a sample of patients for interviews or a medical researcher could use a systematic sampling method - as in interviewing every third cancer patient.