Nursing Informatics: Enhancing Practice
Nursing Informatics: Enhancing Practice
(Nursing Informatics: Enhancing Practice)
key functional area(s) of nursing informatics relevant to your current position (SEE BY DAY 3) for full content
Question description
BY DAY 3
Post the key functional area(s) of nursing informatics relevant to your current position or to a position 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.
Week 2: Core Competencies and Scope of Practice in Nursing Informatics
The continued integration of information technology within the nursing profession is resulting in the development of nursing informatics as a distinct specialty. As with other specialty areas, nursing informatics has unique foundational documents, concepts, competencies, and functions. How might information technology competencies pertain to your professional practice?
This week focuses on the core competencies and scope and standards of practice in nursing informatics. If you are not specializing in nursing informatics, some functional areas will be more relevant to your professional role than others. Therefore, this week you will analyze the key functional areas of nursing informatics and consider competencies that would be useful in your professional role. In addition, you assess how information technology skills can improve nursing practice.
Discussion: 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.
BY DAY 3
Post 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.
Learning Objectives
Students will:
- Analyze the key functional areas of nursing informatics
- Formulate a personal plan to improve health information technology competencies appropriate for your professional role
- Assess how information technology skills can improve nursing practice
Photo Credit: [JGI/Tom Gril]/[Blend Images]/Getty Images
Learning Resources
Note: To access this week’s required library resources, please click on the link to the Course Readings List, found in the Course Materials section of your Syllabus.
REQUIRED 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. (2018). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge (4th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning.
- Chapter 7, “Nursing Informatics as a Specialty”This chapter details the roles, competencies, and skills that ensure effective nursing informatics practice. The text also details the future of nursing informatics.
- Pages 12–19This 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.
