The Study of Competencies for Informatics Nurse: Survey of Nursing Educators Perception

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1 The Study of Competencies for Informatics Nurse: Survey of Nursing Educators Perception 1 Mei-Hua Wang, *2 Yu-Wen Fang, 3 Ching-Hsiu Hsieh, 4 Pei-Ling Hsieh 1, Department of Nursing, Mackay Medical College, sarahw0987@gmial.com *2, Department of Nursing, Mackay Medical College, yvonnef1998@gmail.com 3, Department of Nursing, Chang Gung Institute of Technology, chinghsiuh@yahoo.com 4, Department of Nursing, Mackay Medical College, phsieh@mmc.edu.tw Abstract The study was conducted the competencies in college nursing educators in order to their perception of informatics nurse and design curriculums. In the same time, design questionnaire and survey the nursing college educators. Importantly, nurses and nursing teachers must be equipped with nursing information knowledge and skills to training nursing students that fulfill their numerous responsibilities in nursing environment. A qualitative study was carried out in 80 college teachers in whole Taiwan. This study was designed the framework contained qualitative survey to nursing teachers. And collect 10 categories of items for assessing lecture and 19 for assessing practical activities was developed as a teaching tool. The contents of questionnaire included three parts: background of faculty, perception of nursing informatics education, nursing informatics clinical manual. Health professions education strategies may be used to equip nursing educators with skills and experiences in technology and informatics with the goal of improving health care delivery. With reference to the certification of other roles in the nursing profession, the main institutes involved, apart from government agencies, were professional organizations within the specific field. The certification standards were formulated by a combined expert effort from industry, government, and academia. The study show that nursing educators attitudes and support in nursing informatics learning process, and more training courses in the clinical and lectures and practical activities is needed. 1. Introduction Keywords: Informatics Nurse 1, Competencies 2, Nursing Educator3, Perception4 The American Nurses Association's Scope and Standards of Nursing Informatics Practice provides a description of informatics competencies for nurses ranging from "beginning" to "specialist" (American Nurses Association, 2001) [1]. Beginning nursing informatics competency includes information management and computer literacy skills (e.g., using a word processor, database, or spreadsheet program). Experienced nursing informatics competency focuses on proficiency in information management and communication directly related to one's major area of practice. Specialist nursing informatics competency relates to standards of practice and professional performance [7]. The increasing use of computers and information technologies in healthcare filed has created new requirements in the training of nursing staffs. Nursing information systems (NIS) are computer systems that manage clinical data from a variety of healthcare environments, and made available in a timely and orderly fashion to aid nurses in improving patient care. There has been rapid growth and expectations of health care information systems and technology in health care settings. This paper of purpose is to survey the role and function of informatics nurse from nursing educators perception in Taiwan [3]. The major areas of NI: computer literacy, information literacy, nursing and health sciences implications already constitute separate parts of the Nursing Education curriculum, but an integrative minded, competency based education is just emerging within the confines of the curriculum reform of nursing higher education. The researcher wishes to contribute to the successful realization of this by aiming to summarize and analyze the publications of the international technical literature, which had significant effects on and achievements in the evolution and development of the NI curriculum for informatics nurses, as shown in Figure 1, 2. Journal of Communications and Information Sciences(JCIS) Volume3, Number3, Jul 2013 doi: /aiss.vol3.issue3.11

2 2. Literature review Nursing Informatics Defined Nursing informatics is the specialty that integrates nursing science, computer science, and information science in identifying, collecting, processing, and managing data and information to support nursing practice, administration, education, research, and expansion of nursing knowledge. A patient-centered health system has been defined during the past twenty years with many characteristics, among these: Care coordination, and Integrated and comprehensive team care. Care coordination hospitals and health systems would play a key role in ensuring excellent continuity and transitional care; coordination across the continuum of care; discharge planning; and medication reconciliation. Integrated and comprehensive team care hospitals and health systems would ensure promptly shared and coordinated information among all providers involved in the care of patients and utilize skills of all team members to their best advantage [7]. It supports the practice of all nursing specialties, in all sites and settings, whether at the basic or advanced level. The practice includes the development of applications, tools, processes, and structures that assist nurses with the management of data in taking care of patients or in supporting their practice of nursing [4]. A. The role of the informatics nurse is: To employ informatics theories, concepts, methods, and tools to analyze information and information system requirements; design, select, implement, and evaluate information systems, data structures, and decision-support mechanisms that support patients, nurses, and their human computer interactions within health care contexts; and to facilitate the creation of new nursing knowledge [6]. B. Informatics Nursing Certification Eligibility Criteria [2] Hold a current, active Registered Nurse license within a state or territory of the United States or the professional, legally recognized equivalent in another country. Have practiced the equivalent of two years full time as a registered nurse. Hold a baccalaureate or higher degree in nursing or a bachelor degree in a relevant field. Have completed 30 hours of continuing education in informatics within the last three years. Meet one of the following practice hour requirements: Have a practiced minimum of 2,000 hours in informatics nursing within the last three years Have practiced a minimum of 1,000 hours in informatics nursing in the last three years and completed a minimum of 12 semester hours of academic credit in informatics courses which are a part of a graduate level informatics nursing program Have completed a graduate program in nursing informatics containing a minimum of 200 hours of faculty supervised practicum in informatics 3. Research Methods A. Design and Methods A cross sectional qualitative study was used. There have been a number of surveys of nursing educators attitudes and perception. The study was designed the framework contained qualitative survey to nursing teachers. And collect 10 categories of items for assessing lecture and 19 for assessing practical activities was developed as a teaching direction and tool. The contents of questionnaire are included three parts: background of faculty, perception of nursing informatics education, nursing informatics clinical manual, as shown in Figure 1 [10]. A modified Web-based Delphi method was used for two expert groups in nursing, educators and administrators. Experts responded to five parts on the Nursing Informatics Competencies Questionnaire, modified from the initial work of Staggers, Gassert and Curran to include 67 additional items. Three Webbased Delphi rounds were conducted. Analysis included detailed item analysis. Competencies that met 60% or greater agreement of item importance and appropriate level of nursing practice were included [6]. Questionnaire was designed consisting of educators demographic characteristics, practical clinical training, educational training curriculum, role of informatics nurse [5]. To facilitate a higher response rate, the final version was limit to 70 questions with a two-page document. Ten questions focused on demographic information such as age, course work, learning experience, and experience in nursing informatics. The next section including 10 statements in which respondents

3 were asked for to rate on a five-point Likert scale (strongly agree, agree, uncertain, disagree, strongly disagree). A portion of these statement provided a general assessment of educators perception including nursing informatics skills, knowledge, and competencies of training program for informatics nurse [8] [9]. B. Sample The population was nursing educators of nursing college and universities in Taiwan. A total 80 nursing professional educators. The sample was randomly generated from the colleges and universities nursing educators by data managers not otherwise involved in the study. C. Research Ethics As a result of the limited number of interviewees researched, the participant anonymity was low. In addition, the interview contents mostly involved the interviewees personal work experiences. Therefore, before officially including the participants into the study, the researcher elucidated the contents, aims, and interview method of the research in detail. To respect and protect the privacy of the participants, this research adhered to the principle of anonymity and confidentiality, and exercise complete anonymity. Figure1 Information Literacy of Nursing Students

4 Figure2 Method of study workflow Category Concepts Due Care Policy and Procedure User Skills Clinical Information Management Competencies 1. Verbalize the importance of Health Information Systems to clinical practice. 2. Have knowledge of various types of Health Information Systems and their clinical and administrative uses are based. 1. Assure Confidentiality of protected patient health information when using Health Information Systems under his or her control. 2. Assure Access Control in the use of Health Information Systems under his or her control. 3. Assure the Security of Health Information Systems under his or her control. 1. Understand the Principles upon which organizational and professional Health. 2. Information System use by healthcare professionals and consumers. Have the User Skills as outlined in direct care component of the HRS model. Figure3 Clinical Nursing Information Management Competencies 4. Results Responses were coded and inputted to SPSS ad subjected to descriptive statistical analysis. The research instrument used in the study was the. The 80 subjects were nursing college s educators from one college located in northern Taiwan. 1. From the results obtained from recovered questionnaire, as shown in Table 3, the major training unit expected by clinical staff is the hospital in-service training. This is followed by the professional nursing

5 organizations (Nurses Association) and academic staffs believe that Master level professional training was the most relevant, followed by hospital in-service training, as shown in Table With reference to the certification of other roles in the nursing profession, the main institutes involved, apart from government agencies, were professional organizations within the specific field. The certification standards were formulated by a combined expert effort from industry, government, and academia, as shown in Table Health profession s education strategies may be used to equip nursing educators with skills and experiences in technology and informatics with the goal of improving health care delivery. 5. Suggestions and Recommendation The nursing students must be prepared for demands associated with the rapid advancement of nursing informatics knowledge and skills in health-care settings. To develop standards for nursing curriculum that integrated content and application of nursing informatics from graduation. In conclusion, recommended the integration of structured informatics learning activities throughout the progression of the nursing curriculum. Nursing educators have a responsibility to prepare students for their future role as a practicing nurse. 6. Conclusion 1. This is followed by the professional nursing organizations (Nurses Association) and academic staffs believe that Master level professional training was the most relevant, followed by hospital in-service training. 2. The certification standards were formulated by a combined expert effort from industry, government, and academia. 3. Health profession s education strategies may be used to equip nursing educators with skills, knowledge, experiences in technology and nursing informatics with the goal of improving health care delivery performance. Table 1 Nursing educators responses to questionnaire item (N=80) Item Mean S.D. Minimum Maximum Relationship between Nursing and informatics 1 IT skills can assist clinical and teaching work IT skills can increase clinical work effective IT skills can prevent negligence IT skills can provide clinical and teaching resources nurse can operate the IT properly informatics and nursing are irrelative What nurses need to learn in nursing education? 1software (ex. MS Office/statistics software networking/page design basic IT hardware/manipulation IT facilities and knowledge(ex./programming.etc) critical thinking literature searching reading communication speech/writing data base, SQL advanced nursing training Ps.: Strong agree 7; Strong disagree 1

6 Item Table 2 Nursing educators responses to role of informatics nurse specialist (N=80) Mean S.D. Minimu m 1 system design/ development system efficiency hardware/system selection system analysis/ workflow analysis system updating system evaluation user training/training design guidebook design knowledge/skills updating administration/management system management/quality control supervisor/controlling problem solving IT skills for nursing (care/training/education/management/research) software application (SQL/EMR/MS Office/database/report system) data analysis/processing/integrate communication/cooperation user supporting consultant Ps.: Strong agree 7; Strong disagree 1 Maximu m Table 3 Nursing educators responses to qualification and training of informatics nurse specialist (N=80) Item Qualification Number % Education level College degree Bachelor degree Master degree Missing experience 0~3 Years ~6 Years Years above Missing training method Hospital training course School BSN School MSN Nursing Committee No needed 1.5 Certificate Technology Health Care System Data Base Language MS Office Web-Design Knowledge and Skill Computer Basic Knowledge Advanced Training

7 7. References Education Training Health Care Management Health Care Financial Management Network Management [1] American Nurses Association. Scope and standards of nursing informatics practice. Washington, DC: Author; 2008 [2] American Nurses Credentialing Center. (n.d.). Informatics Nursing. Retrieved August 25, 2009, from [3] Brokel J. Creating sustainability of clinical information systems: The chief nurse officer and nurse informatics specialist roles. J. Nursing Administration.; 37(1): pp10-13, [4] Charette, R., Visualizing Electronic Health Records With "Google-Earth for the Body, IEEE Spectrum, Jan [5] E. Turban, R.K. Rainer, R.E. Poter: Introduction to Information Technology. 3 rd ed. John Wiley & Sonc, Inc , [6] Flávia Regina Souza Ramos, Denise Elvira Pires de Pires, Laura Cavalcanti de Farias Brehmer, Francine Lima Gelbcke, Soraia Dornelles Schmoeller, Jorge Lorenzetti, Nurse Education Today, 13, Jan., [7] Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (2007) HIMSS nursing informatics survey. Retrieved August 25, 2009, from [8] ICN: Participation of Nurses in Health Services Decision Making and Policy Development [9] Lilac A. E. Al-Safadi, Electronic Medical Record Ontology Mapper, International Journal of Advancements in Computing Technology Volume 1, Number 1, September. Pp 85-98, [10] Rush H. Schleyer, Colleen K. Burch, Mary T. Schoessler, Defining and Integrating Informatics Competencies Into a Hospital Nursing Department, CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing & Vol. 29, No. 3, , [11] S. Jenkins: Nurses' Responsibilities in Implementation of Information Systems. Computers in Health Care. Nursing Informatics: Where Caring and Technology Meet. Springer-Verlag New York Inc., pp , [12] Staggers N, Gassert CA, Curran C. A Delphi study to determine informatics competencies for nurses at four levels of practice. Nursing Research, 51 (6): pp , [13] TIGER Informatics Competencies Collaborative, Wiki. Accessed on November 20, 2009, from [14] The TIGER Initiative. (2006, June). Technology Informatics Guiding Educational Reform. Retrieved March 20, 2009, from [15] T. Hebda, P. Czar, C. Mascara: Handbook of Informatics for Nurses and Healthcare Professionals 3 rd ed., Pearson Prentice Hall, pp , 2005.