Abstract
BackgroundExisting health informatics curriculum requirements mostly use a competency-based approach rather than a skill-based one.ObjectiveThe main objective of this study was to assess the current skills training requirements in graduate health informatics curricula to evaluate graduate students’ confidence in specific health informatics skills.MethodsA quantitative cross-sectional observational study was developed to evaluate published health informatics curriculum requirements and to determine the comprehensive health informatics skill sets required in a research university in New York, United States. In addition, a questionnaire to assess students’ confidence about specific health informatics skills was developed and sent to all enrolled and graduated Master of Science students in a health informatics program.ResultsThe evaluation was performed in a graduate health informatics program, and analysis of the students’ self-assessments questionnaire showed that 79.4% (81/102) of participants were not confident (not at all confident or slightly confident) about developing an artificial intelligence app, 58.8% (60/102) were not confident about designing and developing databases, and 54.9% (56/102) were not confident about evaluating privacy and security infrastructure. Less than one-third of students (24/105, 23.5%) were confident (extremely confident and very confident) that they could evaluate the use of data capture technologies and develop mobile health informatics apps (10/102, 9.8%).ConclusionsHealth informatics programs should consider specialized tracks that include specific skills to meet the complex health care delivery and market demand, and specific training components should be defined for different specialties. There is a need to determine new competencies and skill sets that promote inductive and deductive reasoning from diverse and various data platforms and to develop a comprehensive curriculum framework for health informatics skills training.
Highlights
A competency is a combination of skills, abilities, and knowledge needed to perform a specific task in a given context.In 1997, a National Postsecondary Education Cooperative (NPEC) Working Group examining data needs related to workforce development policies noted an increased interest nationally in skill standards, competency-based credentials, and assessment of work-based learning experiences
In the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded consortium work, they found that managers or recruiters from different companies did not understand the assessment results that were reported on the career transcripts
Students knew as beginning freshmen that the faculty in their major programs would have clear expectations for their learning that built upon the liberal learning skills gained in the general education core curriculum
Summary
A competency is a combination of skills, abilities, and knowledge needed to perform a specific task in a given context.In 1997, a National Postsecondary Education Cooperative (NPEC) Working Group examining data needs related to workforce development policies noted an increased interest nationally in skill standards, competency-based credentials, and assessment of work-based learning experiences. NPEC’s mission is “to promote quality, comparability and utility of postsecondary data and information that support policy development” (Public Law 103-382, Section 410, Improving America’s Schools Act of 1994). This Working Group recommended the establishment of a NPEC project that would look at these emerging trends from the context of data and data ramifications. Advances in educational technology making access to competencybased learning more prevalent combined with competition from groups other than traditional postsecondary providers accelerated interest in this topic. In this context, performance-based learning has gained increasing attention. The purpose of this case study was to explore the competency-based educational system at King’s College with a particular focus on the development of competencies and how they are assessed
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