Informatics Experience Can Help Predict Doctor of Nursing Practice Student Mastery of Informatics Competencies

A Practical Approach to Integrating a Telehealth Course and Health Informatics Skills Into a Curriculum for Advanced-Level Nursing Students

BACKGROUND

Telemedicine and health informatics are a common aspect of patient care delivery in the United States. Graduate-level nursing students must be knowledgeable of telehealth and health informatics prior to entering the workforce as an advanced practice nurse. Nursing educators must provide educational opportunities within the curriculum that focus on telehealth and health informatics concepts that align with competencies. The Essentials: Core Competencies for Professional Nursing Education includes a new Domain #8 called, "Informatics and Healthcare Technologies," where five key subdomains of this competency are defined.

METHOD

This article describes the college's approach to incorporating telehealth and health informatics into the graduate-level curriculum and the associated alignment to the 2022 Essentials.

RESULTS

Faculty professional development and course revision strategies improved the infrastructure for teaching telehealth and health informatics.

CONCLUSION

The new Domain, #8, Informatics and Healthcare Technologies, can be successfully infused into the DNP curriculum with student engagement. [J Nurs Educ. 2024;63(X):XXX-XXX.].

Informatics Competencies of Students in a Doctor of Nursing Practice Program: A Descriptive Study

OBJECTIVES

Health systems that apply artificial intelligence (AI) are transforming the roles of healthcare providers, including those of Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) providers. These professionals are required to utilize informatics knowledge and skills to deliver quality care, necessitating a high level of informatics competencies, which should be developed through well-structured courses. The purpose of this study is to assess the informatics competency scale scores of DNP students and to provide recommendations for enhancing the informatics curriculum.

METHODS

An online informatics course was offered to students enrolled in a Bachelor of Science in Nursing to DNP program, and their informatics competency, which includes three subscales, was evaluated. Online survey data were collected from Fall 2021 to Fall 2022 using the "Self-Assessment of Informatics Competency Scale for Health Professionals."

RESULTS

An analysis of 127 student responses revealed that students demonstrated competence in overall informatics competency and in one subscale: "applied computer skills (clinical informatics)." They showed proficiency in the "basic computer skills" and the "role" subscales. However, they reported lower competency in managing data and integrating standard terminology into their practice.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings offer detailed insights into the current informatics competencies of DNP students and can inform informatics educators on how to enhance their courses. As healthcare institutions increasingly depend on AI applications, it is imperative for informatics educators to include AI-related content in their curricula.

Creating Case Studies for Digital Health and Technology Competency in Nursing

BACKGROUND

Nursing programs and their faculty must ensure that graduates have the informatics, digital health, and health care technologies competencies needed by health systems.

PROBLEM

A gap exists in nursing faculty knowledge, skills, and abilities for incorporating informatics, digital health, and technologies across curricula because of low focus on this area in faculty development initiatives and rapid adoption and evolution of technologies in health care systems.

APPROACH

The Nursing Knowledge Big Data Science initiative Education Subgroup used a process to create case studies for including informatics, digital health, and the concomitant clinical reasoning/critical thinking competencies across curricula.

OUTCOMES

Three case study examples were created using the process.

CONCLUSIONS

The process for creating case studies that incorporate required informatics, digital health, and health care technologies can be used by nursing educators for teaching across their curricula and to assess student competency.

Developing nursing students' informatics competencies - A Canadian faculty perspective

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this study was to explore nursing faculty experiences in integrating digital tools to support undergraduate students' learning and development of nursing informatics competencies.

METHODS

This focused ethnography study used a combination of semi-structured interviews, document reviews, and field visits. Convenience and snowball sampling were applied to recruit participants. Data were analyzed concurrently with data collection, using thematic analysis.

RESULTS

Twenty-one faculty members from nine undergraduate nursing programs in Western Canada participated. Themes discussed include: 1) meaning of the term nursing informatics, 2) faculty perceived nursing informatics competence, 3) developing students' nursing informatics competencies, 4) facilitators, and 5) challenges.

CONCLUSIONS

Nursing faculty are relatively engaged in developing students' informatics competencies. However, challenges must be addressed and faculty need more support to improve their own informatics capacity. Implications for Practice and Research: This study has implications for faculty, nursing program administrators, and nursing organizations.