Nursing Informatics is a growing field utilized in all areas of nursing care. Nurses working in nursing informatics are responsible for converting the needs of patients and nurses into computer programs that accurately depict the level of care provided to the patient.
What is Nursing Informatics?
Nursing Informatics is a combination of information science, computer science and nursing science (Topaz, 2013). Nursing Informatics utilizes nursing science and health care technology to improve patient care and outcomes (Topaz, 2013). McGonigle, Hunter, Sipes, and Hebda (2014) define nursing informatics as “the practice of using nursing science and technology to enhance the pathway that data take to become knowledge to improve patient care” (p. 324). …show more content…
Computerized physician order entry, centralized external fetal monitoring, mobile virtual critical care, and telemetry monitoring are a few technology based nursing informatics systems that are utilized daily in the clinical setting. The information obtained by the clinical nurse can be used to track patient outcomes, evaluate data trends, assess nursing assignments, and validate interventions (McGonigle, Hunter, Sipes, & Hebda, 2014).
Assessing Nursing Informatics Competencies
Assessing a baseline of nursing informatics competencies in nurses is vital in the development of nursing education and adequately preparing nurses to utilize information technologies to promote safe and evidence based nursing care (Hebda & Calderone, 2010). Novice nurses may have less knowledge and experience in clinical nursing and less exposure to healthcare informatics systems; however, they typically have an adept knowledge in basic computer skills, technology and computer applications (Choi & De Martinis, 2013).
Challenges of Nursing