Conclusion
While caring for clients in this new Information Age, nurses are, and will continue to be, knowledge workers, with various skill levels and competencies. Consequently, the NIS will play a crucial and pivotal role in the education of nursing students and those currently practicing, to assist in the realization of the EHIS for the health arena. When discussing the future of NI, McGonigle and Mastrian advise that all NI candidates, in addition to being change agents, must "...also be ready to leave the bedside because nurses entering into this field will no longer be working at the bedside. NI is very challenging but very rewarding field. In an ideal world, all healthcare agencies will employ a least one NIS, and all nurses will embrace the knowledge worker title" (2012, p.143).
Nursing contributions of NI:
Nagel promotes that " Beyond change and innovation theory, there are other theoretical views that can provide further guidance in the work of implementation and specifically end-user engagement. In particular, understanding issues of organizational behavior, methodologies of process re-engineering, approaches to adult learning theory and human factors considerations will bring additional value and likelihood of successful EHR adoption” ( 2008, p.87).
Going forward with NIS roles:
Nursing contributions of NI:
- NI have been instrumental in developing, critiquing, and promoting standard nursing terminologies to be used in the EHIS (Hebert,2007).
- Nursing is involved heavily in the design of educational materials for practicing nurses, student nurses, other healthcare workers, and patients (Hebert, 2007).
- "Computers have revolutionized the way individuals accesses information and have revolutionized educational and social networking processes” (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2012, p.134).
Nagel promotes that " Beyond change and innovation theory, there are other theoretical views that can provide further guidance in the work of implementation and specifically end-user engagement. In particular, understanding issues of organizational behavior, methodologies of process re-engineering, approaches to adult learning theory and human factors considerations will bring additional value and likelihood of successful EHR adoption” ( 2008, p.87).
Going forward with NIS roles:
- It is not the advanced technologies that will bring about these expected changes, but rather, the knowledgeable users and developers of this technologies that will make the differences in patient outcomes (Hebert, 2007).
- Therefore, the emphasis must shift from the "using the technology" to actually "facilitating information management and knowledge generation" (Hebert, 2007).
- Activities such as developing critical pathways, performance indicators and outcome evaluation require information. However, in spite of a strong history of nurses who specialize in NI, there has not been widespread adoption of information technology into the culture of nursing (Hebert, 2007).
- "This is a key impetus for identifying necessary competencies and developing educational strategies to achieve them" (Hebert, 2007, p.12).
Health Informatics statistics in Canada:
COACH warns that " There is a serious risk that labour shortages and skills shortages will constrain the successful implementation of EHIS technologies in Canada. System-based, human resources planning measures should be a priority to ensure that the substantial investments that governments at all levels are making in EHIS technologies deliver the promised benefits" (2009, p.2).
There is now work underway for a 2014 report that will:
- 32,540: Current workforce
- 6,320 -12,330: Additional professionals needed by 2014
- 10%: Vacancy rate in 6 of 27 occupational groups studied
- 8,880: Professionals now needing broader skills
- 13,690 - 32,170: Professionals requiring broader skills by 2014 (COACH: Canada's Health Informatic's Association, 2009)
COACH warns that " There is a serious risk that labour shortages and skills shortages will constrain the successful implementation of EHIS technologies in Canada. System-based, human resources planning measures should be a priority to ensure that the substantial investments that governments at all levels are making in EHIS technologies deliver the promised benefits" (2009, p.2).
There is now work underway for a 2014 report that will:
- Estimate the size of the current Canadian health informatics and health information management workforce as well as its skill mix
- Determine how the workforce developed relative to estimates in the 2009 report look forward to 2017 and beyond, estimating workforce requirements into the future (COACH: Canada's Health Informatics Association, 2014)