Select one informatics theory from the areas of Communication Theories, Change Theories, or Human Factors. Discuss how the application of the theory you select can guide the use of technology in advanced practice. What strengths does the theory possess that would make it useful to the DNP-prepared nurse? What weaknesses does the theory present that might prevent its use?
Nursing informatics is an established and growing area of specialization in nursing. All nurses employ information technologies in their practice. Informatics nurses are key persons in the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of these technologies and in the development of the specialty’s body of knowledge.
Lifelong learning is based on the recognition of patterns and variances, builds on previous experiences and knowledge, and involves the use of analogies. Recognition of such learning principles proves invaluable for those exploring or already engaged in nursing informatics practice because the nurse in this specialty role is always learning and always teaching. Students often reflect significant diversity and may include information systems department staff, fellow nursing colleagues, other healthcare professionals, organizational leaders, students enrolled in healthcare professions educational programs, patients, community members, and others. Theories, models, frameworks, clearly stated definitions, and foundational documents can guide the nursing informatics learning activities for both students and faculty. By incorporating analogies based on clinical and other experiences, and by referencing previously learned foundational content and processes, the informatics nurse can assist the learner in understanding the relationships of data and information, computers and information system technologies, and communications and software application to their work setting or personal life.
Informatics is a science that combines a domain science, computer science, information science, and cognitive science. Thus, it is a multidisciplinary science drawing from varied theories and knowledge applications. Healthcare informatics may be defined as the integration science, and cognitive science to assist in the management of healthcare information. Healthcare informatics is a subdiscipline of informatics. Imagine a large umbrella named informatics and imagine many persons under this umbrella. Each person represents a different domain science, one of which is healthcare informatics. Healthcare informatics addresses the study and management of healthcare information.
Nursing Informatics as a Specialty
The scope of nursing informatics practice includes activities such as developing and evaluating applications, tools, processes, and strategies that assist registered nurses in managing data to support decision-making. This decision-making can encompass any and all of the following areas of nursing practice; client care, research, education, and administration. Information handling—the process involved in managing data, information, and knowledge—includes naming, organizing, grouping, collecting, processing, analyzing, storing, retrieving, transforming, communicating data and information.
The core phenomenon of nursing are the nurse, patient, health, and environment. Nursing informatics is interested in these core phenomena, decision-making, data, information, and knowledge, as well as information structures and technologies. It is this special focus on the information of nursing that distinguishes nursing informatics form other nursing specialties. Nursing informatics intersects with other domains and disciplines concerned with the management of data, information, and knowledge. The boundaries and intersections are flexible and allow for the inevitable changes and growth that evolve over time.
Models for Nursing Informatics
Models are representation of some aspect of the real world. Models show particular perspectives of a selected aspect and may illustrate relationships. Models evolve as knowledge about the selected aspect changes and are dependent on the “world view” of those developing the model. It is important to remember that different models reflect different viewpoints and are not necessarily competitive; that is, there is no one “right” model.
Different scholars in nursing informatics have proposed different models. Some of these models are presented here to provide further perspectives on nursing informatics, to demonstrate how differently scholars and practitioners may view what seems to be the same thing, and to show that nursing informatics is an evolutionary, theoretical, and practical science. Again, remember that there is no one right model nor are any of the models presented here exhaustive of the possible perspectives of nursing informatics.
