Nurs460 – Health Informatics for Registered Nurses
Module 1: Informatics- History, Theory, Concepts and Competencies
Informatics Competencies for the BSN
Learning Activity
As information technology becomes ubiquitous in healthcare, a minimum set of informatics competencies becomes more important to everyone from hospital administrators who invest in the technology, to physicians and nurses who use the technology, and to patients whose care depends on the technology. In response to these expectations, the American Nurses Association (ANA) requested that nurses develop a core set of NI Competencies.
In 2002, Staggers, Gassert, and Curran conducted a Delphi study to determine informatics competencies for nurses at four levels of practice: 1) Beginning, 2) Experienced, 3) Informatics Specialist, and 4) Informatics Innovator. This study also identified 281 informatics competencies (all levels) that nurses need to function in a technology enabled healthcare environment.These competencies were initially proposed to the ANA and first published in the Scope and Standards of Nursing Informatics Practice (2001). Change, Poynton, Gassert, & Staggers (2011) recognized the rapid changes in technology required new skills for nurses so 42 additional competencies were validated.
Definitions
Staggers, Gassert, & Curran (2002) Informatics competencies for nurses at four levels of practice
- Beginning Nurses (Level 1)
“Beginning nurses have fundamental information management and computer technology skills and use existing information systems and available information to manage their practice.”
- Experienced Nurses (Level 2)
“Experienced nurses have proficiency in their domain of interest (e.g., public health). These nurses are highly skilled in using information management and computer technology skills to support their major area of practice. They see relationships among data elements, and make judgments based on trends and patterns within these data. Experienced nurses use current information systems, but collaborate with the informatics nurse specialist to suggest system improvements.”
- Informatics Specialists (Level 3)
“Informatics [nurse] specialists (INSs) are registered nurses prepared at least at the baccalaureate level who possess additional knowledge and skills specific to information management and computer technology. They focus on information needs for the practice of nursing, which includes education, administration, research, and clinical practice. INS’s practices are built on the integration and application of information science, computer science, and nursing science. In their practice, INS’s use…critical thinking, process skills, data management skills, systems development life cycle, and computer skills. Data management skills include identifying, acquiring, preserving, retrieving, aggregating, analyzing, and transmitting data.”
- Informatics innovators (Level 4)
“Informatics innovators are educationally prepared to conduct informatics research and to generate informatics theory. These nurses lead the advancement of informatics practice and research… [They] function with an ongoing healthy skepticism of existing data management practices and are creative in developing solutions. Innovators possess a sophisticated level of understanding and skills… [and] understand the interdependence of systems, disciplines, and outcomes, and can finesse situations to maximize outcomes.”
Application Activity
- Complete a self-assessment of your current informatics competencies.
- Go to the Assessment menu option to complete the Nursing Informatics Competency Questionnaire.
Note: This is not a test and will not be graded. Your responses will be confidential and used to plan future informatics activies throughout the curriculum.