Nursing Informatics Competencies

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.

The competencies required by nurses in the workplace are catergorized in a number of ways in the literature. Although different language is used to describe these competencies, the key concepts and categories are quite similar across taxonomies. All proposed frameworks include competencies that describe:

1. the use of information and communication technology (technical competencies),
2. the use of automated information in a professional context (utility competencies)
3. decision-making with respect to planning for and using both the technology and information (leadership competencies).

Innovator Level Technical Competencies

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
13. designs applications (apps) for mobile devices

Innovator Level Utility Competencies

1. participates in needs assessment, system selection, implementation and maintenance of information systems for practice
2. recognizes factors and issues related to human - computer interface interactions
3. ensures inclusion of nursing data and information in design of planned information systems
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

Innovator Level Leadership Competencies

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