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Innovator Level Competencies

An "Innovator" level of competency indicates nurses who demonstrate advanced and specialized nursing informatics competencies. This level includes practicing nurses, nursing administration, nurse researchers and educators who have mastered expert skills and use technology in design, plan and coordinate the use of technologies and informatics theory in nursing.

TECHNICAL COMPETENCIES

Innovator level technical competencies include:

1. participates in the design and development of information systems for nursing practice
2. develops inventive ways to access data and interact with information systems
3. participates in the design and develop design and development of new applications for nursing practice
4. participates in developing new methods for data and information organization
5. collaborates with information technology consultants and other members of information system development team
6. collaborates, negotiates with and directs information technology vendors
7. proficiency in diverse computer application programs
8. manipulates and enhances nursing data sets
9. organizes and directs applications of shared data sets
10. develops data gathering tools and processes for literature search access for nurses
11. develop charting and documentation templates for use in nursing practice
12. design and development of evidenced based practice documentation and processing within practice area

UTILITY COMPETENCIES

Innovator level utility competencies include:

1. participates in needs assessment, system selection, implementation and maintenance of information systems for practice
2. ensures inclusion of nursing data and information in design of planned information systems
3. recognizes factors and issues related to human - computer interface interactions
4. independently seeks learning initiatives to stay abreast of technological developments
5. synthesizes data and information for knowledge generation within practice
6. understands and helps to determine data structures used to organize patient information

LEADERSHIP COMPETENCIES

Innovator level leadership competencies include:

1. develops and participates in quality assurance programs using information systems
2. participates in patient instructional program development
3. participates in ergonomic design of work stations, bed side access stations and portable appartus equipment
4. awareness of societal and technological trends, issues and new developments and applies these to nursing
5. demonstrates proficient awareness of legal and ethical issues related to client data, information, confidentiality
6. design and implement project management initiatives related to information technology for practice

Technical Competencies--->

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REFERENCES

Grobe, S. (1998). Nursing Informatics 1997 post-conference on patient guidelines and clinical practice guidelines: the state of our knowledge and a vision. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 5 (3); 315-316.

Grobe, SJ. (1989). Nursing informatics competencies. Methods of Information in Medicine, 28 (4); 267-9.

Grobe, SJ. (1988). Nursing informatics competencies for nurse educators and researchers. In H. Peterson & U. Gerdin-Jelger (Eds.) Preparing Nurses for Using Information Systems: Recommended Informatics Competencies, New York: National League for Nursing. 25-40; 117-138.

Hebert, M. (1999). National Nursing Informatics Project Discussion Paper. http://www.cna-nurses.ca/pages/resources/nni/nni_discussion_paper.doc