Chapter 8by Julie A. Kenney and Ida Androwich

Nursing Informatics Roles, Competencies and Skills

Objectives

• Provide an overview of nursing informatics historical development.

• Explore the concept of nurses as knowledge workers.

• Discuss the evolving roles and competencies of nursing informatics practice.

Key Terms Defined

• Advocate/Policy developer• Certification • Cognitive Activity • Consultant • Continuous Learner • Core Sciences

Key Terms Defined• Data • Data Gatherer • Decision support • Educator • Entrepreneur

Key Terms Defined• Industrial Age • Informatics • Informatics Innovator • Informatics Nurse Specialist • Information

Key Terms Defined

• Information Age • Information User • Informatique • Interdisciplinary Knowledge Team • Knowledge

Key Terms Defined• Knowledge Builder• Knowledge User • Knowledge Worker • Medical Informatics • Nursing Informatics Competencies

Key Terms Defined

• Product Developer • Project Manager • Researcher • Technologist • TIGER Initiative

What is Nursing Informatics?

• The origin of informatics • How the Health Information and Management

Systems Society defines informatics• What is nursing informatics?

What is Nursing Informatics?

• Nursing Informatics as a science • Key components of NI practice• The foundation of NI practice• The use of computers in the 1950’s

History

• How were computers used in the 1950’s? • The importance of computers in the 1970’s• What emerged in the 1980’s? • What affected NI in 1995?

History

• More sophistication post 2000• Telemedicine as a specialty • Nursing Informatics rapid growth

The Nurse as a Knowledge Worker• The use of data and nursing • Data becomes knowledge • How nurses use data and knowledge• A definition of knowledge

The Nurse as a Knowledge Worker

• How a worker is defined• What is a knowledge worker? • Who is a knowledge worker?

Knowledge Worker Concept

• More knowledge workers are needed, what are the obstacles?

• New training is needed• Knowledge workers as innovators• The need for individuals with multiple

disciplines

Knowledge Worker Concept

• Shifting leadership • The importance of a well functioning team • The danger of a lack of information

Knowledge Worker Concept

• A change in management to support knowledge workers

• Earning loyalty from knowledge workers

Knowledge Workers and Healthcare

• Healthcare’s transition • How to accomplish this transition• Supporting employees in our age of

knowledge• Outcomes should be measured by quality

instead of quantity

Nurses as Knowledge Workers

• A combination in nursing • What knowledge workers interpret • Non-knowledge workers are needed too• What do nurses rely on?

Nurses as Knowledge Workers

• Data gatherers• Collection and recording• Transitions that nurses face• What the data gatherer requires

Nurses as Knowledge Workers

• What the information-user role requires • The knowledge-user role • The knowledge-builder role • The knowledge needs of nurses

Nursing Challenges

• The first step is to be recognized as a knowledge worker

• The road needed to travel is still long

The Nurses Knowledge Needs• What is helping the healthcare field? • The amount of knowledge nurses deal with• What do nurses rely on?• Decision support systems

The Nurses Knowledge Needs

• One challenge in healthcare• Validating the placement of the competencies • Looking at identified competencies

Nursing Informatics Specialty Practice

• NI as a profession• Nursing and information systems• Nursing and the design of educational

materials • The revolution of computers and the way

patients are cared for

Nursing Informatics Specialty Practice

• What does NI represent?• NI : A viable and essential nursing specialty• Are nurses entering this field on purpose?• Helping nurses incorporate this new

technology

Nursing Informatics Specialty Practice

• Nurses as project managers• The first two graduate NI programs• Programs should be researched to see if they

include informatics• What is the focus of NI as a nursing specialty?• Continuing education is important in NI

Thought Provoking Questions

Hospital C is looking to implement an EHR. It has been suggested that a NIS be hired. This position does not involve direct patient care and the administration is struggling with how to justify the position. How can this position be justified?

Thought Provoking Questions

This chapter discusses the fact that nurses are knowledge workers. How does nursing move from measuring the tasks completed to measuring the final outcome of the patient?