Far Eastern University

INSTITUTE OF NURSING
N. Reyes St., Sampaloc Manila 1008

Nursing Informatics
Concept I– Introduction to Nursing Informatics

I. MODULE INTRODUCTION

We are in the digital age. What does this mean to us as nurses? The convergence of
the telecommunications and computer industry has seen a pervasive increase in how we
communicate and process information. Integrated systems support evidence-based nursing
practice, facilitate nurses‘ participation in the health care team, and document nurses‘
contribution to patient care outcomes. Nurses are major stakeholders in health care and based
on their knowledge, they translate data to information, information to knowledge and
knowledge to wisdom. For greater achievement in nursing practice, nurses need to desire and
adopt innovative means to make their contribution to the patient care process and patient
outcome visible. Hence, Nursing informatics (NI) will brings nursing contributions to health
outcomes visible

II. PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES

At the end of this module, you should be able to:

1. Define and describe nursing informatics, information science, and

information system
2. Discuss the historical antecedents of nursing informatics.

III. INFORMATION SCIENCE

Information science is the science and practice dealing with the effective
collection, storage, retrieval, and use of information. It is concerned with
recordable information and knowledge, and the technologies and related services
that facilitate their management and use. Information Science is a
multidisciplinary science that involves aspect from computer science, cognitive
science, social science, communication science, and library science to deal with
obtaining, gathering, organizing, manipulating, managing, storing, retrieving,
recapturing, disposing of, distributing, or broadcasting information. Information
Science studies everything that deals with information and can be defined as the
study of information systems. This science originated as a sub-discipline of
computer science, in an attempt to understand and rationalize the management
of technology within organizations. It has matured into a major field of
management that is increasingly being emphasized as an important area of
research in management studies and has expanded to examine the human-
computer interaction, interfacing, and interaction of people, information
systems, and corporation. It is taught at all major universities and business
schools around the world. Organizations have become intensely aware of the
fact that information and knowledge are potent resources that must be cultivated
and honed to meet their needs.

In the mid-1980‘s Blum (1986) introduced the concepts of data, information and
knowledge as a framework for understanding clinical information systems and
their impact on health care. He did this by classifying the then-current clinical
information systems by the three types of objects that these systems processed.
These were data, information and knowledge.
Source: [Link] Source: [Link]

Thus, information science is the study of information systems, the application and usage of
knowledge focuses on why and how technology can be put to best use to serve the
information flow within the organisation.

3.0 Nursing Informatics

The term ―nursing informatics‖ was initially seen in literature in the 1980s, including a
definition of combining nursing, information, and computer sciences for managing and
processing data into knowledge for using in nursing practice (Murphy, 2010). In 1994, The
American Nurses Association (ANA) began developing a statement to describe and define the
scope of nursing informatics (Baker, 2012). The meaning of nursing informatics has evolved
and been refined, with the American Nurses Association (2008) definition stated as ―a
specialty that integrates nursing science, computer science, and information science to
manage and communicate data, information, knowledge, and wisdom in nursing practice‖ (p.
65). Another definition of nursing informatics comes from the American Medical Informatics
Association (AMIA), which states ―Nursing Informatics science and practice integrates
nursing, its information and knowledge and their management, with information and
communication technologies to promote the health of people, families and communities
worldwide‖ (2009, para. 1).
Nursing informatics (NI) has also been defined as a specialty that integrates nursing science,
computer science, and information science to manage and communicate data, information,
knowledge, and wisdom in nursing practice. NI supports consumers, patients, nurses, and
other providers in their decision making in all roles and settings. This support is
accomplished using information structures, information processes, and information
technology.

Sources: [Link]

Staggers and Thompson (2002) believed that there were too many definitions for NI, which
was causing the specialty to grow without a solid foundation. They believed that without this
foundation it was difficult to build a solid informatics practice or the needed educational base
for this specialty practice. Staggers and Thompson performed a critical analysis of the
definitions, which resulted in a new definition. The new definition is as follows:

The goal of NI is to improve the health of populations, communities, families, and individuals
by optimizing information management and communication. These activities include the
design and use of informatics solutions and/or technology to support all areas of nursing,
including, but not limited to, the direct provision of care, establishing effective administrative
systems, designing useful decision support systems, managing and delivering educational
experiences, enhancing supporting life- long learning, and supporting nursing research. The
term individuals refer to patients, healthcare consumers and any other recipient of nursing
care or informatics solutions. The term patient refers to consumers in both a wellness and
illness model.
 Source [Link]

The definition and goal of NI is based upon work by Staggers and Thompson (2002) and
evolved in this version to include the concept of wisdom. Otherwise, the NI definition is
essentially synonymous with the 2001 Scope and Standards document.

NI is one example of a discipline-specific informatics practice within the broader category of

health informatics. NI has become well established within nursing since its recognition as a
specialty for registered nurses by the American Nurses Association (ANA) in 1992. It focuses
on the representation of nursing data, information, knowledge (Graves and Corcoran, 1989)
and wisdom (Nelson, 1989; Nelson, 2002) as well as the management and communication of
nursing information within the broader context of health informatics.
3.1 Why nursing informatics?
(1) provides a nursing perspective

(2) illuminates nursing values and beliefs

(3) denotes a practice base for nurses in health informatics

(4) produces unique knowledge

(5) distinguishes groups of practitioners,

(6) focuses on the phenomena of interest for nursing, and

(7) provides needed nursing language and word context (Brennan, 2003) to health
informatics.

6.0 Online discussion and assignment

Discuss the three concepts of clinical information system as espoused by Blum?

6.0 Online discussion and assignment

Discuss the three concepts of clinical information system as espoused by Blum?

7.0 References/further reading

American Nurses Association (ANA). (2008). Nursing informatics: Scope and standards
of practice. Silver Spring, MD: [Link].
Baker, J. (2012). Nursing informatics. Perioperative Nursing Clinics, 7, 151-160.
Kaminski, J. (Fall, 2010). Theory applied to informatics – Novice to Expert. CJNI:
Canadian Journal of Nursing Informatics, 5 (4), Editorial.
[Link]
McGonigle D., & Mastrian K (2009). Nursing Informatics and the foundation of
knowledge USA: Delma Publishers.