Expanding the faculty capacity to help meet the increased national demand resulting from the addition of nursing informatics in the baccalaureate program: A Philippines experience

Abstract

With the increasing use of technology in health care and the inclusion of nursing informatics in the revised baccalaureate nursing program in the Philippines, there is a need to increase the number of faculty who can competently and confidently teach the course. This paper reports on the planning, development, implementation and evaluation of a professional development program, entitled “Teaching Nursing Informatics”, an eight-week course offered via distance learning using synchronous and asynchronous modes. Topics included concepts and theories that influenced the rise of nursing informatics, its metastructures, classification systems, system planning and design, data mining, population health and precision medicine, decision support, electronic medical records, point of care technologies, and other related topics. The course was taught using problem-based learning to help critically analyze real system and process issues that can be mitigated by nursing informatics concepts and technologies. Using project management principles, educator-participants developed group projects to integrate and demonstrate lessons learned in the program. The pedagogical approaches used were deemed effective and appropriate that course participants gave it high marks and positive feedback. Some challenges and opportunities in terms of content, pedagogy, and technology were also highlighted as factors that influence program outcomes. Teaching Nursing Informatics, offered through open and distance learning, can be replicated locally and globally. It is a viable and practical model that increases faculty capacity, confidence, and competence in educating nurses and nursing students in the fundamentals and applications of nursing informatics to enhance their professional practice and ability to provide safe patient care.