Informatics Competencies: Annotated Bibliography
Prepared by: Patricia Hinton Walker, PhD, RN, FAAN
1. Abraham, I.G. Evers. et al(1991). “A summer institute on computer
Applixcations for nursing management: background, curriculum,
and evaluation.” Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing .22(4):
136-42.
Nursing managers are faced with a growing number of computer
applications for nursing management, yet they may lack the educational
preparation to assist them in using these technologiies for problem-solving
and decision-making. This article describes a Summer Institute on
informatics applications for nursing management taught by an
international and multidisciplinary team of faculty members, and offered at
the University of Limburg (Maastricht, The Netherlands). A discussion of
professional, scientific, and educational issues serves as the foundation
for curriculum content and instructional format. Evaluation data from both
offerings are reviewed and underscore the professional relevance and
didactic quality of the Summer Institute. The Summer Institute is
presented as a possible model of continuing education in computer
applications for nursing management transferable to Western European
and North American countries.
2. Arnold, J. M. (1996). "Nursing informatics educational needs." Computers in
Nursing 14(6): 333-9.
A survey was conducted among 497 respondents in a northeastern
metropolitan area to determine the informatics educational needs of
professional nurses. All subjects were asked to indicate on a four-point
scale their current knowledge and their desired knowledge in 23 content
areas. The population was subdivided into three subsamples based on job
classification. There were differences in the informatics educational needs
of nurse educators, nurse managers, and informatics nurses. There was
interest in returning to school for a graduate degree or certificate in
nursing informatics by a majority of the sample, although 71% of the
respondents already possess a higher degree.
3. Axford, R. and B. McGuiness (1994). "Nursing informatics core curriculum:
perspectives for consideration & debate." Informatics in Healthcare
Australia 3(1): 5-10.
Computer applications for nursing have developed to such an extent over
the past decades that a subspecialty, nursing informatics has now been
defined for the profession. Knowledge development and dissemination in
nursing informatics has focused on the intricacies of the technology and
nurses responses to computers. Less attention has been given to nursing
information per se and to the potential impact of electronic information
processing upon it. In the 1990's this deficit is beginning to be addressed.
Possibilities for core curriculum content begin with a clear understanding
of the concept of nursing informatics and an examination of how educators
throughout the world have incorporated this content into their curricula. An
expansion of existing frameworks for pre-service undergraduate education
is offered as a basis for further discussion and development.
4. Bickford, C. J., K. Smith, et al. (2005). "Evaluation of a nursing informatics
training program shows significant changes in nurses' perception of their
knowledge of information technology." Health Informatics Journal 11(3):
225-35.
A survey of nurses attending a Weekend Immersion in Nursing Informatics
(WINI) program showed a statistically significant change in the nurses'
perception of information technology (IT) and of their ability to apply IT to
affect the quality of patient care. Attendees first identified their level of
expertise based on the Informatics Competencies for Nurses at Four
Levels of Nursing Practice, and then completed surveys pre- and
postprogram attendance to measure their personal assessments of their
knowledge and abilities in specific areas of nursing informatics,
information technology, and healthcare information systems. Such
personal assessments are mandated in the professional standards of
nursing informatics practice. (C) 2005 SAGE Publications Ltd.
5 .Booth, R. G. (2006). "Educating the future eHealth professional nurse."
International Journal of Nursing Education Scholarship 3(1): 1-10.
Nursing is at the cusp of a truly revolutionary time in its history with the
emergence of electronic health (eHealth) technologies to support client
care. However, technology itself will not transform healthcare without
skilled practitioners who have the informatics background to practice in
this new paradigm of client care. Nurse educators have been slow to react
to the matter of the necessary knowledge, skills, and practice
competencies required for nurses to function as eHealth practitioners.
Specifically, undergraduate nursing education must take a proactive
stance towards curriculum development in the areas of eHealth and
informatics. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to propose
recommendations about the review and redesign of nursing curricula in
relation to nursing informatics. Recommendations include increased
information literacy education, interdisciplinary collaboration, and clientcentred technologies. Recommendations for faculty development in
nursing informatics are also provided.
6. Carty, B. (2001). "Nursing informatics: the future is now." Journal of the New
York State Nurses Association 32(1): 11-4.
Nursing informatics is a new and evolving specialty. The potential for
specialists in this area of practice to influence the nursing profession,
affect healthcare delivery, and participate in the design and development
of future healthcare systems is remarkable. This paper explores the nature
of nursing informatics, the educational preparation, and the variety of roles
within the specialty.
7. Carty, B. and J. Kelly (2001). "A collaborative model for nursing informatics
education within an urban enterprise system." ITIN 13(2): 4-8.
Although the need for nurses with expertise in clinical informatics persists,
the availability of specialised programs in nursing education continues to
be insufficient to meet the demand. This paper describes the development
of a graduate program in nursing informatics that emphasises
collaboration among disciplines and focuses on a strong clinical
component to ensure the integration of theory in the clinical informatics
setting. Two years prior to the enrolment of the first class, an extensive
plan was devised which included the development of a comprehensive
curriculum, the inclusion of clinical affiliates to insure adequate clinical
experience, and the identification of potential faculty who would reflect
disciplinespecific, as well as interdisciplinary, philosophies in the new
curriculum., As a result, the curriculum integrates both a nursing domainspecific as well as an interdisciplinary model of education. In addition
students experience a rich variety of clinical learning environments and
are mentored by faculty in clinical settings as diverse as home health and
acute care settings. Clinical and course projects are developed within the
context of "real world" situations and students are required to complete
600 hours of clinical experience prior to graduation. Students work in
clinical dyads to enhance and develop systems for the delivery and
research of clinical care.
8. Curran, C. R. (2003). "Informatics competencies for nurse practitioners."
AACN Clinical Issues: Advanced Practice in Acute and Critical Care 14(3):
320-30.
Informatics knowledge and skills are essential if clinicians are to master
the large volume of information generated in healthcare today. Thus, it is
vital that informatics competencies be defined for nursing and
incorporated into both curricula and practice. Staggers, Gassert, and
Curran have defined informatics competencies for four general levels of
nursing practice. However, informatics competencies by role (eg, those
specific for advanced practice nursing) have not been defined and
validated. This article presents an initial proposed list of informatics
competencies essential for nurse practitioner education and practice. To
this list, derived from the work of Staggers et al., 1 has been added
informatics competencies related to evidence-based practice. Two nurse
informaticists and six nurse practitioners, who are program directors, were
involved in the development of the proposed competencies. The next step
will be to validate these competencies via research.
9. Gassert, C. A. (1998). "The challenge of meeting patients' needs with a
national nursing informatics agenda." Journal of the American Medical
Informatics Association 5(3): 263-8.
Information has become a capital good and is focused on outcomes.
Clinical guidelines are being developed to standardize care for
populations, but patient preferences also need to be known when planning
individualized care. Information technologies can be used to retrieve both
types of information. The concern is that nurses are not adequately
prepared to manage information using technology. This paper presents
five strategic directions recommended by the National Advisory Council on
Nurse Education and Practice (Department of Health and Human
Services, Division of Nursing) to enhance nurses' preparation to use and
develop information technology. The recommendations are 1) to include
core informatics content in nursing curricula, 2) to prepare nurses with
specialized skills in informatics, 3) to enhance nursing practice and
education through informatics projects, 4) to prepare nursing faculty in
informatics, and 5) to increase collaborative efforts in nursing informatics.
The potential impact of these strategic directions on patients is discussed.
10. Grobe, S. J. (1989). "Nursing informatics competencies." Methods Inf Med
28(4): 267-9.
The purpose of the paper is to present both the processes and the results
of a task force organized to recommend nursing informatics competencies
for practicing nurses, nurse administrators, nurse teachers and nurse
researchers. The competencies are designed to be useful in preparing
nurses for their specific roles. The criterion for inclusion of a specific
informatics competency statement was task force consensus.
11. Hebert, M. (2000). "A national education strategy to develop nursing
informatics competencies." Canadian Journal of Nursing Leadership 13(2):
11-4.
Advances in the sophistication of information and communication
technologies offer nursing practitioners opportunities for better information
management, more complete documentation of their work, and knowledge
development to support evidence-based nursing practice. However, a
nursing culture that recognizes and adopts the contributions of technology
to practice is required to take advantage of these opportunities. The
nature of this change suggests a shift in emphasis from specialists in
Nursing Informatics (NI) to NI being integrated into all four domains of
nursing practice. The magnitude of change required on individual,
organizational and professional levels points to the need for Nursing
Informatics education strategies on a national level. Recognizing the role
and history of NI specialists, defining NI and the required NI competencies
are necessary first steps in developing such a plan. Expanding and
adapting the educational infrastructure required to support this initiative
follows. A working committee at the national level with representatives
from a number of stakeholder groups is currently working on a National
Nursing Informatics Project to address these issues. This article
summarizes key points of an initial discussion paper.
12. Magnus, M. M., M. C. Co, Jr., et al. (1994). "A first-level graduate studies
experience in nursing informatics." Computers in Nursing 12(4): 189-92.
The authors describe a nursing informatics experience for first-level
graduate students in nursing. Three content areas were included in the
course: 1) achieving mastery of basic computer competencies; 2)
evaluating emerging patterns and trends in electronic information
processing; and 3) establishing electronic connection.
13. McNeil, B. J., V. Elfrink, et al. (2006). "Computer literacy study: report of
qualitative findings." Journal of Professional Nursing 22(1): 52-9.
Computer literacy and information literacy are critical to the future of
nursing. The very nature of health care is being transformed in response
to environmental drivers such as the demands for cost-effective delivery of
high quality services and enhanced patient safety. Facilitating the quality
transformation depends on strategic changes such as implementing
evidence-based practice (), promoting outcome research (), initiating
interdisciplinary care coordination [Zwarenstein, M., Bryant, W. (2004).
Interventions to promote collaboration between nurses and doctors. The
Cochrane Library(I)], and implementing electronic health records ().
Information management serves as a central premise of each of these
strategies and is an essential tool to facilitate change. This report of the
analysis of qualitative data from a national online survey of baccalaureate
nursing education programs describes the current level of integration of
the computer literacy and information literacy skills and competencies of
nursing faculty, clinicians, and students in the United States. The
outcomes of the study are important to guide curriculum development in
meeting the changing health care environmental demands for quality,
cost-effectiveness, and safety. Copyright (C) 2006 by Elsevier Science
(USA).
14. McNeil, B. J., V. L. Elfrink, et al. (2003). "Nursing information technology
knowledge, skills, and preparation of student nurses, nursing faculty, and
clinicians: a U.S. survey." Journal of Nursing Education 42(8): 341-9.
Because health care delivery increasingly requires timely information for
effective decision making, information technology must be integrated into
nursing education curricula for all future nurse clinicians and educators.
This article reports findings from an online survey of deans and directors
of 266 baccalaureate and higher nursing programs in the United States.
Approximately half of the programs reported requiring word processing
and e-mail skill competency for students entering nursing undergraduate
programs. Less than one third of the programs addressed the use of
standardized languages or terminologies in nursing and telehealth
applications of nursing. One third of the programs cited inclusion of
evidence-based practice as part of graduate curricula. Program faculty,
who were rated at the "novice" or "advanced beginner" level for teaching
information technology content and using information technology tools, are
teaching information literacy skills. The southeastern central and Pacific
regions of the United States projected the greatest future need for
information technology-prepared nurses. Implications for nurse educators
and program directors are discussed.
15. Roberts, J. M. (2000). "Developing new competencies in healthcare
practitioners in the field." Stud Health Technol Inform 72: 73-6.
The Life-long Learning concept is one which is appropriate for those who
have (or create) the opportunities to develop their competencies once they
are in an operational role. All models of healthcare delivery and
management are VOLATILE and therefore the way of addressing new
competencies cannot be prescriptive or stand still for too long, but the
concepts do endure. Learning, in order to 'keep up to date' is very
necessary--technology, new clinical practices and interventions, new drug
interactions, increased patient demands ... all add to the need to move
with the times. This paper addresses some of the issues surrounding this
challenge in the domain of informatics in support of healthcare delivery
and management.
16. Smith, M. A. (2002). "Efficacy of web-enhancement on student technology
skills." On-Line Journal of Nursing Informatics 6(3): 6p.
Healthcare institutions have increased technology use in patient
management prompting integration of technology into nursing education.
Transitioning courses from place-based (on-site) to web-based can be
time intensive and stressful for students and faculty. Web-enhancement
can serve as a transitioning technique, which would allow gradual
introduction to software applications throughout the semester for both
students and faculty. Access to faculty and course materials can be
facilitated with this technological intervention. Through web-enhancement,
students can take an active role in their learning. Web-enhancement can
facilitate integration of technology competencies into nursing curricula.
17. Staggers, N. and C. M. Lasome (2005). "RN, CIO: an executive informatics
career." CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing 23(4): 201-6.
The Chief Information Officer (CIO) position is a viable new career track
for clinical informaticists. Nurses, especially informatics nurses, are
uniquely positioned for the CIO role because of their operational
knowledge of clinical processes, communication skills, systems thinking
abilities, and knowledge about information structures and processes. This
article describes essential knowledge and skills for the CIO executive
position. Competencies not typical to nurses can be learned and
developed, particularly strategic visioning and organizational finesse. This
article concludes by describing career development steps toward the CIO
position: leadership and management; health-care operations;
organizational finesse; and informatics knowledge, processes, methods,
and structures.
18. Yee, C. C. (2002). "Identifying information technology competencies needed
in Singapore nursing education." CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing
20(5): 209-14.
The purpose of the study was to identify Singapore's healthcare industry's
minimum information technology (IT) performance standard expectations
for nurses' competencies. A needs assessment was conducted with a
panel representing nursing education, nursing management and nursing
practice. The findings in this study would provide suggestions to improve
the current diploma and advanced diploma nursing programs curricula to
meet the present workforce demands. The experts agreed that information
technology is necessary and there were two main categories of IT skills
identified, basic IT skills and work-related IT skills.
19. (2004). "Emerging technologies center. Informatics competencies." Nursing
Education Perspectives 25(6): 312.
20. Weaver, C. A. and D. Skiba (2006). "ANI connection. TIGER Initiative:
addressing information technology competencies in curriculum and
workforce." CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing 24(3): 175-6.