NR 512 Discussion Week 1, Integration of Nursing Informatics Skills & Competencies (Two Versions)

Week 1: Integration of Nursing Informatics Skills and Competencies Reflect on your own practice. Discuss how informatics is used in your practice. What is your primary area where you would use informatics? From completing the Pre-TANIC TIGER assessment for this week, what do you plan to achieve in this course? How did you feel your competency level was compared to the assessment? With the fast moving pace of today’s healthcare, informatics continues to grow towards a more relevant aspect of patient care. The electronic documentation method has turned to efficiently provide plan of care and effective communication between clinicians, patients, and processes that involve direct patient care. In light of this view, it is imperative that advance practice nursing clinicians be equipped with technology proficiency while maintaining optimum quality level of care. According to Swenty and Titzer (2014), informatics competencies have been deemed as an importanct communication tool for Advanced Practice Nurses (APNs) as identified within the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN). The use of informatics in nursing have been linked with patients’ safety and quality outcomes. Information and technology is highly useful to nursing professionals as a whole. Along with the above stated benefits, it has also been the reason why more organization is seen in office settings. It has replaced unnecessary stacks of papers. According to McGonigle, Hunter, Sipes and Hebda (2014), nursing informatics enhances the pathway that turns data into knowledge in order to improve nursing care. It is useful in nursing education as it supports virtual learning. It enhances clinical and administrative nursing as well. In this day and time, with the large amounts of health information, the competencies of nursing informatics are key to safe and efficient nursing practices (McGoningle, Hunter, Sipes, & Hebda, 2014). The Pre-Tanic TIGER assessment was an eye opener for me. While performing the self assessment, I realized two things. First of all, I found out that in my everyday life, I am involved with infomatics and technology sometimes without realization. Secondly, it dawned upon me that I am about to learn more than I imagined as I could not understand the meaning of some of the words that were used in the assessment. I am expecting to open up my mind and get ready to be empowered with the competency of informatics that is needed to survive in todays dynamic healthcare. References McGonigle, D., Hunter, K., Sipes, C., & Hebda, T. (2014). Why nurses need to understand nursing informatics. AORN Journal, 100(3), 324-327. Swenty, C. L., & Titzer, J. L. (2014). By faculty for faculty: A sense of urgency: Integrating technology and informatics in advance practice nursing education. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 10(10), e57-e67. Doi:10.1016/a.2014.07.034