Nursing informatics is among the nursing specialties characterized by remarkable growth. As health care providers continue to use electronic health records and information systems, the relevance and application of nursing informatics will be more dominant. The purpose of this presentation is to explore nursing informatics from multiple dimensions to understand its importance and influence. Focus areas include defining nursing informatics, history, and its effects on critical areas such as nursing education, leadership, and clinical practice. It further explores the effects of government regulation on organizational policy on health information systems, nurse-led innovation, and an example of the nurse’s role in transforming health care data into knowledge.
Nursing informatics is among the increasingly growing nursing specialties as the nursing field evolves. According to the American Nurses Association, nursing informatics is a specialty that combines nursing with information and analytical sciences to develop and maintain medical data and systems that support the nursing practice (Hussey & Kennedy, 2021). Blending nursing, computer, and analytical sciences is critical to improving patient outcomes. Different technologies have evolved as a result of nursing informatics. The most dominant is electronic health records (EHRs) that contain digitized patients’ data that can be shared across health care settings. The other technology is computerized provider order entry (CPOE) which primarily involves entering and sending treatment instructions using computer applications.
Understanding the roles of nurse informaticists can help to explore further what nursing informatics involves. As health systems continue accessing and using data, nurse informaticists continue to be more pivotal in health care transformation as they serve three primary responsibilities. The first responsibility is communicating the reasons behind new processes. Generally, nursing informatics is associated with process changes that the nursing workforce needs to understand. For instance, data must be collected accurately without estimations. Nurse informaticists ensure that such process changes are understood in detail. Nurse informaticists are also centrally involved in implementing new technologies and processes. Data validation includes promoting data-driven decision-making through effective data adoption. The roles demonstrate how nursing informatics is associated with significant transformations as health care processes become more data-centered.
Nursing informatics has a rich history as the specialty evolves from one phase to another. Conceptually, nursing informatics dates back to Florence Nightingale as she complied and processed data to improve medical protocols. As a field centered on information technology, specific engagement with technologies in nursing can be traced to the 1960s, before the first conference on nursing and computers (Frenn & Whitehead, 2020). Other crucial dates in the history of nursing informatics include defining nursing informatics as a specialty in 1992 and outlining practice’s scope and standards in 1994-1995. As Frenn and Whitehead (2020) further explained, the first set of competencies was introduced in 2001 before revision in 2015. More transformation is expected as technology evolves.
Nursing informatics has evolved gradually, and the evolution can be grouped into distinct phases with unique features. The first phase is introducing the concept into the health care arena in the 1960s and 1970s (Frenn & Whitehead, 2020). The introduction laid the foundation of data application and computer use in health care before advancing into a more complex and independent field. The second phase is data collection through machines as data started becoming an essential component of health care delivery. Such machines include mechanical ventilators that collect patients’ vitals in intensive care units. Later, nursing informatics advanced to be primarily about applying computer-based information systems [computers playing a major role in health care delivery] before becoming an independent specialty.
The influence of nursing informatics on nursing leadership cannot be underestimated. Through informatics, nurse leaders can communicate more effectively with other health care personnel. To benefit from such opportunities, nurse leaders must be more tech-savvy and increasingly committed to adopting new health care technologies and systems. Due to its increased relevance in health care delivery, nursing informatics also changes the role landscape of nurse leaders. It makes nursing leadership acquire new roles, including adopting health care processes that promote evidence-based practice, interprofessional collaboration through health care technologies, and leveraging health information technology in health
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