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.

Ubiquitous Adoption of Innovative and Supportive Information and Communications Technology Across Health and Social Care Needs Education for Clinicians

The paper presents the development, use and evaluation of an on-line undergraduate module delivering an academic-led programme of eHealth learning within nursing, midwifery, allied health professional and social work courses. The health information technology competency frameworks are explored along with an overview of the resulting module. The need for an academically led module will be made along with a description of the management required to maintain validity of content materials. A review of student evaluations will be presented. In conclusion the positive change in attitude and understanding of academic staff members towards health information technology through the inclusion of the module across all of the undergraduate courses will be explored.