What Makes Nursing Informatics a Specialty?
As mentioned earlier, under History of NI, ever since the 1970s, nursing was instrumental in the utilization of computers in the health care arena. Nurses were quickly realized as being foundational in the EHIS movement for effective and efficient patient care. Therefore, nurses began to look toward NI as career choices to combine their love of technology with supporting front-line users in their clinical practice.
McGonigle and Mastrian (2012) advise that "Nursing informaticians have been instrumental in developing, critiquing, and promoting standard nursing terminologies to be used in health IS. Nursing is involved heavily in the design of educational materials for practicing nurses, student nurses, other healthcare workers and patients" (p.134).
McGonigle and Mastrian (2012) advise that "Nursing informaticians have been instrumental in developing, critiquing, and promoting standard nursing terminologies to be used in health IS. Nursing is involved heavily in the design of educational materials for practicing nurses, student nurses, other healthcare workers and patients" (p.134).
The NIS roles and responsibilities:
Desborough, as cited by Hebert (2007), notes that the NIS may assume a number of various responsibilities including:
A wide variety of roles and responsibilities for informatics nurses has evolved where a survey of 500 nurses in the U.S. identified 26 position titles for NI nurses and many others are experienced practitioners with informal training in NI, who have learned their specialty “on the job” (Arnold, 1996).
In spite of this variation in job title, results of a survey of 48 nurses, currently in NI positions, showed their professional responsibilities still continue to include:
Hebert advises that " The NI nurses felt their major challenge was to bring the clinical voice to data-driven projects while meeting timelines, cost constraints, and facilitating desired outcomes" (2007, p.17).
Formal educational opportunities for NIS education:
McGonigle and Mastrian (2012) advise that "many nurses who entered into NI did so without any formal education. These nurses were the unit resource for computer or program questions. Many of these nurses acquired their skills with on-the-job training or by attending classes" (p.137). This does still occur however there are now also formal ways of learning these advanced skills, abilities and knowledge. There are many opportunities for formal nursing informatics education, such as "...programs at the baccalaureate and graduate levels in colleges and universities or informal educational opportunities, such as conferences, workshops, professional development certificate courses, distance learning modules, on-the-job training, and self study" (Sensmeier, 2010, 2010, p.52). The CNIA (2012b) currently lists 13 colleges and universities within Canada that offer various programs for the NIS. Internationally speaking, there are four locations noted, as well as 12 academic institutions in the United states, offering certificates to graduate degrees. Please refer to the link below for these 29 various websites for further information related to nursing and health informatics:
http://cnia.ca/education_links.htm
- The NIS " combines the expertise of nursing science, computer science to manage data gathered while caring for patients, and then making sure that IT system will aid in communicating that data to the appropriate personnel and carry out specific functions" (Ericksen, 2009, p.35).
- Utilizes the tools of critical thinking, process skills, data management skills (includes identifying, acquiring, preserving, retrieving, aggregating, analyzing, and transmitting data), systems development life cycle, and computer skills. (Staggers et al., 2002),
- Nurses with specialty NI knowledge are needed to contribute to decision-making around system selection and to develop systems that will benefit nurses (McGonigle & Mastrian,2012).
- Ensures that the clinical practices are built on the integration and application of information science, computer science and nursing science (Staggers et al., 2002).
Desborough, as cited by Hebert (2007), notes that the NIS may assume a number of various responsibilities including:
- Identifying health care information requirements
- Assisting with the development and testing of hardware and software
- Preparing IS documents such as proposals or training manuals
- Implementing and evaluating IS
- Training staff and supporting IS operations
A wide variety of roles and responsibilities for informatics nurses has evolved where a survey of 500 nurses in the U.S. identified 26 position titles for NI nurses and many others are experienced practitioners with informal training in NI, who have learned their specialty “on the job” (Arnold, 1996).
In spite of this variation in job title, results of a survey of 48 nurses, currently in NI positions, showed their professional responsibilities still continue to include:
- Support for users
- Training, development and project management (Arnold, 1996)
Hebert advises that " The NI nurses felt their major challenge was to bring the clinical voice to data-driven projects while meeting timelines, cost constraints, and facilitating desired outcomes" (2007, p.17).
Formal educational opportunities for NIS education:
McGonigle and Mastrian (2012) advise that "many nurses who entered into NI did so without any formal education. These nurses were the unit resource for computer or program questions. Many of these nurses acquired their skills with on-the-job training or by attending classes" (p.137). This does still occur however there are now also formal ways of learning these advanced skills, abilities and knowledge. There are many opportunities for formal nursing informatics education, such as "...programs at the baccalaureate and graduate levels in colleges and universities or informal educational opportunities, such as conferences, workshops, professional development certificate courses, distance learning modules, on-the-job training, and self study" (Sensmeier, 2010, 2010, p.52). The CNIA (2012b) currently lists 13 colleges and universities within Canada that offer various programs for the NIS. Internationally speaking, there are four locations noted, as well as 12 academic institutions in the United states, offering certificates to graduate degrees. Please refer to the link below for these 29 various websites for further information related to nursing and health informatics:
http://cnia.ca/education_links.htm