Nursing Informatics Competencies

Today’s fast-paced health care environment demands nurses to be skilled not only in their clinical practice or specialty area but in the use of technology tools that improve practice and lead to better patient care. Basic and advanced technology competencies are required and expected as technology increasingly touches and changes the job of every nurse. Numerous organizations, including the American Nurses Association (ANA), the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA), and Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), have developed nurse-specific technology competencies. The challenge for nurses is to identify both needs and training opportunities.

In this Discussion, you identify the role informatics plays in your professional responsibilities. You pinpoint personal gaps in skills and knowledge and then develop a plan for self-improvement.

To prepare:

• Review Nursing Informatics: Scope and Standards of Practice in this week’s Learning Resources, focusing on the different functional areas it describes. Consider which areas relate to your current nursing responsibilities or to a position you held in the past. For this Discussion, identify one or two of the most relevant functional areas.
• Review the list of competencies recommended by the TIGER Initiative. Identify at least one skill in each of the main areas (basic computer competencies, information literacy competencies, and information management competencies) that is pertinent to your functional area(s) and in which you need to strengthen your abilities. Consider how you could improve your skills in these areas and the resources within your organization that might provide training and support.

Post on or before Day 3 the key functional area(s) of nursing informatics relevant to your current position or to a position you recently held, and briefly describe why this area(s) is relevant. Identify the TIGER competencies you selected as essential to your functional area(s) in which you need improvement. Describe why these competencies are necessary and outline a plan for developing these competencies. Include any resources that are available to you within your organization and the ways you might access those resources. Assess how developing nursing informatics competencies would increase your effectiveness as a nurse

Readings

• American Nurses Association. (2015). Nursing informatics: Scope & standards of practice (2nd ed.).Silver Springs, MD: Author.
  • “Functional Areas for Nursing Informatics” 

    This chapter describes the key functional areas of nursing informatics. It also clarifies the roles of informatics nurse specialists and informatics nurses. 

  • “Informatics Competencies: Spanning Careers and Roles“

    This chapter details an informatics competencies matrix that has been developed by reviewing research. It outlines best practices for successful use of health information technology.

• McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2012). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge (Laureate Education, Inc., custom ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
  • Chapter 8, “Nursing Informatics Roles, Competencies, and Skills”

    This chapter details the roles, competencies, and skills that ensure effective nursing informatics practice. The text also details the future of nursing informatics.

  • Chapter 9, “Information and Knowledge Needs of Nurses in the 21st Century”

    In this chapter, the author emphasizes the need for embedding the core concepts and competencies of informatics into the practice of nurses. The chapter describes how this integration of concepts and competencies is necessitated by the integration of clinical information technologies into nursing practice.

• Wakefield, M. K. (2008). The Quality Chasm series: Implications for nursing. In R. G. Hughes (Ed.), Patient safety and quality: An evidence-based handbook for nurses (Vol. 1, pp. 47–66). Rockville, MD: U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK2677/
  •  Pages 12–19

    This chapter discusses four of the Institute of Medicine’s reports on the quality and safety of health care. Specifically, the chapter focuses on the issues, concepts, findings, and recommendations of To Err Is Human, Crossing the Quality Chasm, Health Professions Education: A Bridge to Quality, and Quality Through Collaboration: The Future of Rural Health Care.

• Cheeseman, S. E. (2011). Are you prepared for the digital era? Neonatal Network, 30(4), 263–266.
  Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

  This article explores the application of health information technology (HIT) in neonatal intensive care units. In addition, the article highlights national initiatives advocating for the implementation of HIT throughout the health care delivery system.

• AMIA. (2012). AMIA. Retrieved from http://www.amia.org/

  This homepage of AMIA (formerly known as the American Medical Informatics Association) details the activities of the AMIA, including its publications, programs, events, and policies.

• Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society. (2012a). Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society. Retrieved from http://www.himss.org/

  This homepage of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society displays research conducted by HIMSS and introduces various tools, events, and resources for professional development.

• Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society.(2012b). Resources/reports. Retrieved from http://www.thetigerinitiative.org/resources.aspx

  This page of the TIGER website contains a list of resources and reports related to the development and implementation of technology informatics.

• Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society.(2012c). The TIGER initiative. Retrieved from http://www.thetigerinitiative.org/

  This site includes information on the phases of the TIGER Initiative and includes related resources and reports, opportunities for strategic partnerships, and general information about TIGER.

• Technology Informatics Guiding Educational Reform. (2009). TIGER informatics competencies collaborative final report. Retrieved from http://tigercompetencies.pbworks.com/f/TICC_Final.pdf

  This text details foundational informatics competencies that nurses should possess in order to meet standards of providing safe, quality, and competent care. In particular, this article specifies requirements for nurses in the areas of basic computer competencies, information literacy, and information management.

• The TIGER Initiative. (2009). Informatics competencies for every practicing nurse: Recommendations from the TIGER collaborative. Retrieved from http://www.thetigerinitiative.org/docs/TigerReport_InformaticsCompetencies.pdf

  This report supplies the findings and recommendations of the Informatics Competencies Collaborative Team. The text describes the background, methodology, findings, and recommendations for future work as stated by the team.

• Quality and Safety Education for Nurses. (2012). Quality and Safety Education for Nurses. Retrieved from http://www.qsen.org/

  This homepage supplies information on quality and safety competencies, teaching strategies, faculty resources, pilot schools, and QSEN Consultants.

Media

• Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2012d). Health information technology competencies. Baltimore, MD: Author. 

  Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 10 minutes.

  This video features interviews of Katie Skelton, Doris Fischer, Carina Perez, Shannon Mori, and Carmen Ferrell. They explain key skills and competencies that will allow nurses to capitalize on the benefits of health information technology in the health care setting.

Optional Resources

• Schleyer, R. H., Burch, C. K., & Schoessler, M. T. (2011). Defining and integrating informatics competencies into a hospital nursing department. CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing, 29(3), 167–173.
  Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.