Technology Informatics Guiding Education Reform Research Articles

Developing a professional-practice-model-based nursing organizational informatics competency model

BackgroundThe development of nursing informatics started late in China. There is an urgent need to develop a clinical practice model that can guide nursing managers in constructing an organizational nursing informatics competency. ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to develop a nursing organizational informatics competency model based on the Professional Practice Model (PPM) and to provide a reference for training in clinical nursing informatics in hospitals. MethodsA multidisciplinary team in the hospital was first formed as the working group, consisting of nurses trained with the TIGER (Technology Informatics Guiding Education Reform) Taiwan model and had practical experience in system development. We used an exploration map to help build the prototype of the hospital nursing informatics competency model. Then, a final model was constructed by experienced out-of-hospital experts using the Delphi method. The final model was determined according to the validity analysis. ResultsTen hospital stakeholders were invited to form the multidisciplinary working team to develop the prototype organizational PPM model. Two rounds of Delphi were conducted to twelve experienced nurses' informatics experts outside the hospital by e-mail. The results showed that the questionnaire return rate was 100 %, the expert authority coefficient was 0.84, the general validity of the two rounds of content was 92.46 % and 100 %, respectively, and the coefficient of variation of all items was < 0.3. The final model included five categories, including management strategy and leadership, organizational structure and operation, improvement of the environment for nursing information practice, cultivation of core competence in nursing information, and project management of the nursing information system, with 61 elements in total. ConclusionsWe propose this model to help hospital nursing managers to establish a plan of action to build up organizational clinical informatics competency.

Psychometric Testing of the Turkish Version of the Technology Informatics Guiding Educational Reform-Based Assessment of Nursing Informatics Competencies Tool.

Nursing informatics competencies are vital to benefit from information technologies to improve patient outcomes. It is essential to use a reliable and valid instrument for evaluating competencies. The Technology Informatics Guiding Educational Reform-Based Assessment of Nursing Informatics Competencies Tool is a valid and reliable tool used to evaluate nursing informatics competencies in nurses who primarily speak English. This cross-sectional research aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of a Turkish version of the instrument. Data were collected from 518 nurses working in two university hospitals in Istanbul, Turkey. The tool was translated into Turkish, validated by professional experts, back-translated, and analyzed. Thirty nurses completed the tool twice for test-retest reliability. A four-factor structure identified in exploratory factor analysis (73.64% of the total variance with all items loaded >0.40 [0.44-0.88] for each factor). Cronbach's α reliability coefficients of the subsets were .98 for basic computer skills, .97 for clinical information management, and .98 for information literacy. The total item correlations for subsets were between 0.57 and 0.84. The Turkish version of the Technology Informatics Guiding Educational Reform-Based Assessment of Nursing Informatics Competencies demonstrated sufficient reliability and validity for assessing nursing informatics competencies within Turkish culture.

Technology Informatics Guiding Education Reform (TIGER). The Future of Interprofessional Education Is Here!

This session will describe the TIGER Initiative journey, its evolution and accomplishments nationally and internationally. A powerful demonstration of the TIGER Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) will be highlighted along with case studies from around the world, with emphasis on global competencies and opportunities for engagement in all current TIGER activities and future plans.

Informatics competencies essential to decision making in nursing management

To identify informatics abilities essential to decision making in nursing management. Survey study with specialist nurses in health informatics and management. An electronic questionnaire was built based on the competencies Information Literacy (five categories; 40 abilities) and Information Management (nine categories; 69 abilities) of the TIGER - Technology Informatics Guiding Education Reform - initiative, with the guiding question: Which informatics abilities are essential to decision making in management? Answers were sorted in a Likert scale, ranging from 1 to 5. Rasch analysis was conducted with the software WINSTEPS(®). Results were presented in logits, with cutoff value zero. Thirty-two specialists participated, coming from all regions of Brazil. In the information literacy competency, 18 abilities were considered essential and in Information Management, 38; these were sorted according to their degree of essentiality. It is believed that the incorporation of these abilities in teaching can support the education of nurse managers and contribute to evidence-based practice, incorporation of information and communication technologies in health and information management.

Information management competencies for practicing nurses and new graduates

Nursing informatics skills are required at all levels of nursing practice. Of those basic skills, management of information through the electronic health record (EHR) is paramount. Previous research has explored computer literacy of nurses but has not investigated the competencies that relate specifically to information management. The purpose of this research study was to gather practicing nurses’ views of current information management competencies published by the Technology Informatics Guiding Education Reform (TIGER) initiative, as they pertain to new graduates. A convenience sample of members from the InspireNet online user group was surveyed. The results suggest that overall, nurses tend to agree with the information management competencies; however, informatics education is most needed for those who have been practicing nursing for longer, rather than for novice nurses.

Informatics Competencies in Nursing Management.

This study aimed to identify in scientific literature the informatics competencies required from the nurses to make decision in management process. Through a scoping review, literature databases were searched to find articles published in Portuguese, English, or Spanish, until July 2013. 188 articles were found, and seven were included in this study, published between 1994 and 2011. The studies were written in English (5; 71%), in USA (5; 71%), using experience reports or literature review designs (5; 71%). The informatics competences were categorized according the Technology Informatics Guiding Education Reform (TIGER). The findings highlight gaps in informatics competence to make decisions in the management process--essentially in information management competence.

DRNE: Bridging the Gap Between Nurses and Information Technology Specialists

With the implementation of electronic health records (EHR) the amount of information collected has skyrocketed. Now that standardized nursing taxonomies are being adopted, such as the Critical Care Classification System (CCC), the computer skills of nurses in the new digital world should be addressed. Nurses must translate the digital capture of live data from the EHR into an increase in patient safety, patient outcomes, and nursing workflow. Conveying the importance of how the new streamlined process of digital data capture will simplify the patient continuum of care to nurses is critical. Consequently, with the implementation of electronic health records (EHRs) now in place, nurses need more clinical and technical support. In 2013, four hospitals surveyed their nurses about their experiences after their EHRs went live. Responses varied with one resounding theme best summarized by this statement, “You can tell that a nurse didn’t design this program!” (personal communication, 2013). The lack of IT support and the lack of communication from the IT department when problems are/are not resolved also emerged as common themes. For instance, submitting a “ticket” about problems which cannot be tracked results in an increased level of frustration for medical staff. “Every ticket gets ignored or the response is the issue has been solved when it hasn’t; this has been going on for months,” is just another example of the nurses’ frustration (personal communication, 2013). The problem addressed in this research study is that there is not a streamlined and effective mechanism in place to track the status of a ticket submitted to IT within the hospital setting. This failure affects patient outcomes/safety and causes frustration between the IT staff, nurses, and other hospital staff. Goals of this research include the proposal of a new communication process/workflow between IT staff and nurses to alleviate frustration, improve communication, and provide nurses with more resources when charting in the EHR. Assess the Need for Change in Practice The Internet has revolutionized healthcare. New technologies, new hardware/software programs, and new mobile applications are creating opportunities in healthcare that were not possible ten years ago. With the implementation of more demanding technology in the healthcare environment, nurses are challenged by incorporating technology within every aspect of the nursing process. During the assessment and diagnostic phases, nurses are required to gather, assimilate, think critically, and interpret the data, form a diagnosis and chart it flawlessly in the EHR. In the planning and implementation phase of the nursing process, nurses rely on an interdisciplinary approach for patient care. However, are nurses confident that all members of the medical team effectively use the technology in the work environment? Ultimately, does the patient trust their medical team accessing their personal information stored via an EHR? During the evaluation phase nurses interact with their patients using various communication methods hosted on the hospital’s server, such as responding to patient’s questions in the emails, scheduling appointments, and periodically updating patient information in the EHR, which then can be transmitted to an app on the hospital’s mobile phone or tablet. Therefore, the digital nursing experience is quickly becoming an important aspect of the nursing process, which has a direct effect on patient care. Because of this the need for change in the clinical setting is centered on the nurse’s ability to develop the necessary computer skills in order to be successful in this digital age of healthcare. Nurses need to not only understand what information is important but where to chart, locate, and update it within EHRs. Hospitals should include more educational training and IT support not only when a new EHR is being introduced but following the implementation as well. The digital/technical requirements for understanding how to maneuver through new EHRs has been addressed by several professional organizations including Technology Informatics Guiding Education Reform Initiative (TIGER), the American Nursing Informatics Association (ANIA), Healthcare Research and Quality (ARHQ), the Institute of Medicine (IOM), and Healthcare Level 7 (HL7). Quality measures and standards of practice used in EHRs created by these organizations are discussed below.

Faculty and organizational characteristics associated with informatics/health information technology adoption in DNP programs.

Nursing informatics/health information technology are key components of graduate nursing education and an accreditation requirement, yet little is known about the extent to which doctor of nursing practice (DNP) curricula include these content domains. The purpose of this descriptive study was to elicit perceptions of DNP program directors relative to (a) whether and how the American Association of Colleges of Nursing's (AACN's) Essential IV standard has been met in their DNP programs; (b) whether the Technology Informatics Guiding Educational Reform Initiative Foundation's Phase II competencies have been integrated in their programs; and (c) the faculty and organizational characteristics associated with the adoption of the AACN's Essential IV. In 2011, an electronic survey was sent to all 138 DNP program directors identified on the AACN Web site with an 81.2% response rate. Findings include variation in whether and how programs have integrated informatics/health information technology content, a lack of informatics-certified and/or master's-prepared faculty, and a perceived lack of faculty awareness of informatics curricular guidelines. DNP program director and dean awareness and support of faculty informatics education, use of informatics competency guidelines, and national policy and stimulus funding support are recommended to promote curricular inclusion and the engagement of nurses in strong informatics practices.

Back to School: TIGER and the VLE. Why Faculty Need to Access This Site

world of health care is becoming more dependent on health information technology (HIT) tools. Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) of 2009 was designed to promote and expand the adoption of health information technologies. One component focused on ensuring that all health care entities adopt interoperable electronic health care records (EHRs), and criteria were established to ensure that all health care providers would become meaningful users of EHRs and other HIT tools. These meaningful use criteria are tied to national patient safety and quality initiatives and progress across three stages. At each stage, the hospital, clinic, or private physician office must demonstrate how criteria were met by generating and sending reports, exchanging data electronically, or by attestation. With each stage, additional criteria are required to maximize the use of EHRs for the provision of efficient, effective, safe, and quality care. criteria also focus on the engagement of patients and consumers in their health care. As meaningful use progresses through each stage, the goal is for more patients to have the ability to access and read their EHRs while also adding data they generate, such as daily glucose readings. In tandem with federal initiatives, the competencies expected for nursing students at all levels now include information management and informatics outcomes. QSEN initiative (Cronenwett, Sherwood, & Gelmon, 2009), the American Association of Colleges of Nursing Essentials (2008), and the National League for Nursing's outcomes and competencies framework (2010) emphasize the importance of the integration of informatics competencies. But do we have a cadre of nurse faculty who are knowledgeable about informatics who can begin to integrate content into the nursing curriculum to meet these outcome competencies? My sense, from talking with faculty across the United States, is that many schools of nursing are struggling. Many do not have resources to help faculty integrate informatics into the curriculum. In my view, informatics must be woven into the curriculum. Having a separate course will not foster the concept of informatics as an integral and essential component of the health care system and the entire health care experience. What options do schools of nursing have? One new option is now available from the TIGER (Technology Informatics Guiding Educational Reform) initiative. As many of you know, TIGER was a grassroots movement started in 2004 when the secretary of health and human services established the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. first phase of TIGER culminated in an invitational summit in which leaders from specialty organizations came together to chart a short- and long-term vision of how we would prepare nurses to work in a consumer-centric information-technology-intensive health care environment. second phase focused on creating action plans. third phase of TIGER saw the creation of the TIGER Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), a web-based learning platform designed by an interprofessional health care team to provide access to knowledge about informatics and allow for interactions with the informatics community. As noted on the VLE webpage, The internet-based format provides convenience, flexibility, dynamic content and real-time accessibility to relevant information through webinars by industry experts, in-depth education sessions, demonstrations, smart rooms, simulations, white papers, and other communications. target audience is clinicians working in health care, faculty and students, administrators, and any health care professional who wants to learn and develop knowledge, skills, and awareness of technology and informatics. By increasing one's knowledge of HIT and informatics, a clinician can contribute to creating a safer, more effective, efficient, timely, patient-centered, and equitable health care system. …

TIGER-based measurement of nursing informatics competencies: The development and implementation of an online tool for self-assessment

Background/Objective: The aim of this research was to develop a reliable, valid instrument for self-assessment of perceived nursing informatics (NI) competencies. This article describes the development and validity assessment of the instrument. Informatics competencies are deemed a necessity in today’s technologically-rich healthcare delivery system. Work to identify essential informatics skills commenced shortly after the introduction of information technology into healthcare. In subsequent years, professional organizations and individual experts have established NI competencies needed at various levels of nursing practice, from entry level through advanced practice. The Technology Informatics Guiding Educational Reform (TIGER) Initiative represents one such effort. The TIGER Initiative emerged in 2006 as a grassroots effort dedicated to the preparation of a clinical workforce capable of using information technology and informatics to improve the delivery of healthcare. TIGER quickly organized into several different collaborative groups, including one that identified a set of recommended informatics competencies for nurses in 2009. The TIGER effort listed NI competencies in three areas: basic computer skills, information literacy, and clinical information management but did not operationalize these competencies into an instrument that could be used for assessment purposes. Methods: Three rounds of reviews were conducted. In the first review, the researchers examined TIGER competencies, removing duplicative terms and combining items with similar content. The second and third rounds of reviews were each done by two separate sets of three experts in nursing informatics. During the second round, the list from round one was examined for items to retain or add. Resulting items were reworded to reflect measurable behaviors and then subjected to a third round of reviews to establish content validity, using the content validity index (CVI) methodology. Results: CVIs demonstrated moderate validity for the instrument, and items not deemed relevant to the objective of the instrument were deleted, reducing the number of the items on the instrument. The instrument was piloted by posting the invitation on the online discussion forum of a nursing informatics organization. An additional invitation was extended to a group completing a weekend-long NI course. There were 184 respondents. Most respondents ranked themselves as expert on the majority of items, although a lesser degree of confidence was seen with items related to information literacy Conclusions: TIGER competencies provided a useful foundation for the creation of a feasible online instrument for self-assessment of levels of competency. Fewer respondents identified themselves as expert in information literacy competencies. The instrument developed for this research project could be useful in planning educational opportunities in NI.

Application of Nursing Informatics: Need to Transform into Reality

The current health care system is facing several challenges and one of which is informatics in nursing. It also explores the potential impact of integration in nursing education and practice. The article focuses on seven themes emerged by Canadian Nurses Association to build the philosophy of nursing informatics and they are: antithesis, artifact, agency, utility, technique, network and power. The article furthers with the necessity to transform the nursing informatics into reality by identifying barriers to success of nursing informatics and extended with recommendations drawn from the Technology Informatics Guiding Education Reform Initiative.

Improving Quality and Safety in Graduate Education Using an Electronic Student Tracking System

The Institute of Medicine report on the future of nursing, the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses initiative, and the Technology Informatics Guiding Education Reform movement are among the most prominent forces guiding change related to information technology and informatics in nursing to improve quality and safety in practice. Informatics competencies are essential for psychiatric nurses to leverage and integrate information technology into education, practice, and research. This article examines informatics and information technology from the perspective of educational preparation of the psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner. Literature related to informatics, information technology, and quality and safety in advanced practice psychiatric nursing. Strategies for integration of information technology in educating psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner students are described. Informatics competency will result in safer and higher quality care.

Informatics competencies for healthcare professionals: the Technology Informatics Guiding Education Reform (TIGER) Initiative model

A growing awareness exists that informatics competencies are essential skills for healthcare professionals today, yet the development of these competencies lags behind the need. The Technology Informatics Guiding Education Reform (TIGER) Initiative represents a comprehensive, interdisciplinary effort that is well suited to the integration of informatics into education, practice, administration, and research environments. This article briefly discusses the background and significance of the TIGER Initiative and why it may be used as a model to instill informatics among the healthcare professionals globally.

Communication and Collaboration Technologies

This is the third in a series of columns exploring health information technology (HIT) in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The first column provided background information on the implementation of information technology throughout the health care delivery system, as well as the requisite informatics competencies needed for nurses to fully engage in the digital era of health care. The second column focused on information and resources to master basic computer competencies described by the TIGER initiative (Technology Informatics Guiding Education Reform) as learning about computers, computer networks, and the transfer of data.1 This column will provide additional information related to basic computer competencies, focusing on communication and collaboration technologies. Computers and the Internet have transformed the way we communicate and collaborate. Electronic communication is the ability to exchange information through the use of computer equipment and software.2 Broadly defined, any technology that facilitates linking one or more individuals together is a collaborative tool. Collaboration using technology encompasses an extensive range of applications that enable groups of individuals to work together including e-mail, instant messaging (IM ), and several web applications collectively referred to as Web 2.0 technologies. The term Web 2.0 refers to web applications where users interact and collaborate with each other in a collective exchange of ideas generating content in a virtual community. Examples of Web 2.0 technologies include social networking sites, blogs, wikis, video sharing sites, and mashups. Many organizations are developing collaborative strategies and tools for employees to connect and interact using web-based social media technologies.3.

TIGER INITIATIVE-ROARING INTO 2011 WITH A NEW COMMUNICATION VEHICLE

Technology Informatics Guiding Education Reform (TIGER) is working to help the United States realize its 10-year goal of electronic health records for all its citizens. TIGER, which started as a grassroots initiative, now involves more than 100 professional nursing organizations, vendors, and governmental entities and thousands of volunteers. The TIGER Initiative is pleased to announce the creation of a new Web site, www.thetigerinitiative.org to advance the TIGER mission: Preparing nurses and health professionals to use technology and informatics to improve patient care. The new Web site was established to communicate the current activities of TIGER and to identify a permanent location for all of the TIGER Resources and Reports developed since its inception. There are five specific goals for the new Web site. These goals include being able to clearly communicate that TIGER is an ongoing activity, while differentiating the link between phases I, II, and III activities. We also have highlighted the current Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) opportunities for engagement with TIGER at all levels (organizational, strategic, and individual) and have published the collaborative reports that were developed during phase II. The driving force for this new Web site is to enable all TIGERs with access to the public resources to move the TIGER agenda forward at the grassroots and organizational levels. WEB SITE GOALS Clearly communicate that TIGER is a current activity. Differentiate between the multiple phases of TIGER. Provide an overview of the VLE. Publish all of the resources that were developed during phase II. Enable TIGER efforts with available resources to move the TIGER agenda forward. Through the launch of this Web site, these goals have been met, and TIGER leadership will continue to improve upon communication strategies for TIGER resources. The new Web site provides information on the following topic areas (including many tools that were developed by TIGER participants): alignment of ANCC Forces of Magnitude and TIGER Collaboratives American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 competencies consumer empowerment/PHRs education and faculty development human factors integrating informatics into the curriculum leveraging health information exchange to improve quality and efficiency Magnet© Informatics and Technology case studies meaningful use, certification criteria and standards, and HHS certification process national health IT agenda National League for Nursing position statement on education reform nurse executive IT educational needs nursing leadership Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology organizing framework for CIS-clinical knowledge as critical factor partnerships to teach nurses how to use electronic health records staff development and continuing education standards and interoperability the future of nursing: leading change, advancing health usability and clinical application design virtual learning Additionally, current VLE opportunities are highlighted. A new TIGER Sightings area has also been added to provide easy access to the many TIGER resources. Through this new media opportunity and several other partnerships, TIGER is now moving forward to advance its mission: Preparing nurses and health professionals to use technology and informatics to improve patient care. For more information please, visit the new TIGER Web site today: www.thetigerinitiative.org. Update! We are pleased to announce that the TIGER Initiative is pursuing legal status as a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation. The TIGER Initiative Foundation will operate for charitable, educational, and scientific purposes to advance the objectives of the grassroots initiative and its many committed volunteers and collaborators. Leaders from the TIGER Executive Committee, HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society) and collaborative partners are pleased to assist with the process for making this endeavor a reality.

Wanted: Informatics Resources and Learning Activities

EACH YEAR. members of the advisory committees of the Bureau of Health Professions (BHP), Health Resources and Services Administration, meet for an All-Advisory Committee meeting to discuss important interprofessional issues. This year, we examined interprofessional education with a focus on competencies. Several documents, including the Institute of Medicine's Health Professions Education: A Bridge to Quality (Greiner & Knebel, 2003) and Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) (Cronenwett et al., 2007), provided guidance for our work. As a member of the National Advisory Council on Nurse Education and Practice (NACNEP), I was on a working group focused on informatics competencies. As you can imagine, I was excited about the opportunity to dialogue with colleagues and learn about what other health care professions are doing in the area of informatics. While I was disappointed to learn that other health professions do not appear to be addressing informatics, I was proud that nursing is a leader in this area. Nursing has already recognized the importance of informatics and has begun the journey to identify informatics competencies. Several important initiatives catalyzed our work. Way back in 2006, the Technology Informatics Guiding Education Reform project (TIGER) brought together nursing leaders to define a vision and a three-year action plan related to informatics education for all nurses. And the QSEN project (http://qsen.org) has already defined the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed by prelicensure and graduate nurses. The NLN's position statement, Preparing the Next Generation of Nurses to Practice in a Technology-rich Environment: An Informatics Agenda (www.nln.org/aboutnIn/PositionStatements/index.htm), and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing's Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice (www.aacn.nche.edu/education/essentials.htm) also exemplify nursing's leadership. NACNEP's recently released Seventh Annual Report to the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the US Congress (2009), Challenges Facing the Nurse Workforce in a Changing Environment, reiterates the importance of preparing nurses to use health information technology in their practice.The report calls upon the federal government to provide funding for capacity building (faculty development) about health information and informatics and to encourage the development of health care informatics curriculum as it is essential to widespread adoption and effective use of health information technologies (p. 66) to improve patient care. There is no doubt: Nursing is committed to an informatics agenda. To this end, the NLN's Educational Technology and Information Management Advisory Council (ETIMAC) started work on an Informatics Toolkit for use by nurse educators. The toolkit, released this fall, is a work in progress. (See www.nln.org/facultydevelopment/ facultyresources/index.htm.) Initiated as a product of the Informatics Competencies Task Group (Skiba, 2008), the goal is to create a resource that faculty can access to develop their own informatics competencies and use for incorporating informatics into the nursing curriculum. The toolkit has a Getting Started section that provides useful advice. The toolkit identifies resources according to three categories: computer literacy or fluency, information literacy, and informatics. Both computer and information literacy are considered prerequisites for informatics competencies. A set of resources, including articles, websites, syllabi, and educational opportunities, is coded according to four curricular threads: use of health information technology, communication, issues, and nursing involvement. These threads were derived from an examination of the various competencies proposed by QSEN and the AACN. They are defined as follows: * Use of health information technology to augment/support the nursing care process Includes concepts such as safety, care improvement, decision assistance/support, outcome analysis, and data analysis. …

What Nurse Educators Need to Know About the TIGER Initiative

The Technology Informatics Guiding Education Reform (TIGER) Initiative is designed to address a set of skills that is needed by all nurses who will practice in the profession in the 21st century. The skill set includes informatics competencies that range from basic computer skills to advanced-level information technology and literacy competencies and expertise. Despite the significance of the TIGER Initiative, few nurse educators have operationalized TIGER or adopted its plan to transform nursing practice and education to better prepare nurses to practice in a technology rich healthcare environment. TIGER is currently in phase III: implementation. The authors outline the TIGER Initiative as well as actions that nurse educators can take to develop and integrate informatics competencies into the curriculum to prepare nurses for the high-touch, high-technology patient-centered care of the 21st century.

How Do Future Nursing Educators Perceive Informatics? Advancing the Nursing Informatics Agenda through Dialogue

Informatics is a popular topic in literature, in media, and in education. However, nursing professionals and even nursing faculty may not have a clear understanding of informatics. The authors conducted a small simulation study to examine how nursing students enrolled in a doctor of philosophy program-future nursing educators-perceived informatics and its core elements. Using an online collaboration tool, the students were asked to create a plan for integrating informatics into a simulated undergraduate nursing program. The results of the study provide lessons for nursing professionals and educators. Students identified only a handful of competencies believed important by informatics initiatives led by the American Nurses Association and the Technology Informatics Guiding Education Reform. Although most students believed an undergraduate curriculum should teach computer skills, only a few participants identified information literacy skills, such as privacy and security of health information, as important for beginning nurses. Although limited, findings articulate the need for a universally accepted definition of informatics and a shared understanding of an informatics core curriculum.

Integrating Information Literacy Across a BSN Curriculum

Although research regarding effective informatics teaching strategies is sparse and informatics competencies have not yet been finalized, nurse educators have been challenged to include informatics throughout the curriculum. Nurse educators are confronted with how best to incorporate informatics into an already burgeoning curriculum. This article offers a systematic approach to incorporating information literacy, a vital component of informatics, across a baccalaureate of science in nursing curriculum. Motivated by the Institute of Medicine report, guided by the initial Technology Informatics Guiding Education Reform competency framework, and using the specific Quality and Safety Education for Nurses informatics competencies, the proposed integrated approach emphasizes clinical applications. The five assignments are designed to incrementally increase students' abilities to recognize the need for information (i.e., knowledge); advance students' abilities to locate, evaluate, and use information (i.e., skills); and foster a positive appreciation for information literacy (i.e., attitudes) when planning safe, effective patient care.

A Database for Nurse Practitioner Clinical Education

This article presents the utility and lessons learned regarding subscription to a database service for tracking nurse practitioner clinical education at the Indiana University School of Nursing. Initiatives and activities, such as the one described in this article, support the implementation of the Technology Informatics Guiding Educational Reform strategic agenda related to the transformation of nursing education through evidence and informatics. Descriptive reports of clinical database management are useful to conceptualize the evaluation of teaching and learning experiences as well as document the significance to students, faculty, future employers, and administration. The use of a database system for documentation of clinical experiences allows the student to practice and master informatics capabilities. Through data analysis, faculty can coordinate and assess students in the clinical environment and tailor learning experiences based on aggregated sets of patient encounters. Examination of the nature of patient encounters and clinical activities experienced permits an evidenced informed approach to student progress, curriculum development, and formative and summative evaluations.