Biomaterial Database

Informatics competencies for nurse practitioners. 2003

Christine R Curran

Ohio State University, Columbus, 43210-1289, USA. Curran.68@osu.edu

Informatics knowledge and skills are essential if clinicians are to master the large volume of information generated in healthcare today. Thus, it is vital that informatics competencies be defined for nursing and incorporated into both curricula and practice. Staggers, Gassert, and Curran have defined informatics competencies for four general levels of nursing practice. However, informatics competencies by role (eg, those specific for advanced practice nursing) have not been defined and validated. This article presents an initial proposed list of informatics competencies essential for nurse practitioner education and practice. To this list, derived from the work of Staggers et al., 1 has been added informatics competencies related to evidence-based practice. Two nurse informaticists and six nurse practitioners, who are program directors, were involved in the development of the proposed competencies. The next step will be to validate these competencies via research.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D008490	Medical Informatics	The field of information science concerned with the analysis and dissemination of medical data through the application of computers to various aspects of health care and medicine.	Clinical Informatics,Medical Computer Science,Medical Information Science,Computer Science, Medical,Health Informatics,Health Information Technology,Informatics, Clinical,Informatics, Medical,Information Science, Medical,Health Information Technologies,Informatics, Health,Information Technology, Health,Medical Computer Sciences,Medical Information Sciences,Science, Medical Computer,Technology, Health Information
D009722	Nurse Practitioners	Nurses who are specially trained to assume an expanded role in providing medical care under the supervision of a physician.	Nurse Practitioner,Practitioner, Nurse,Practitioners, Nurse
D002983	Clinical Competence	The capability to perform acceptably those duties directly related to patient care.	Clinical Skills,Competence, Clinical,Clinical Competency,Clinical Skill,Competency, Clinical,Skill, Clinical,Skills, Clinical,Clinical Competencies,Competencies, Clinical
D003201	Computers	Programmable electronic devices designed to accept data, perform prescribed mathematical and logical operations at high speed, and display the results of these operations.	Calculators, Programmable,Computer Hardware,Computers, Digital,Hardware, Computer,Calculator, Programmable,Computer,Computer, Digital,Digital Computer,Digital Computers,Programmable Calculator,Programmable Calculators
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D019317	Evidence-Based Medicine	An approach of practicing medicine with the goal to improve and evaluate patient care. It requires the judicious integration of best research evidence with the patient's values to make decisions about medical care. This method is to help physicians make proper diagnosis, devise best testing plan, choose best treatment and methods of disease prevention, as well as develop guidelines for large groups of patients with the same disease. (from JAMA 296 (9), 2006)	Medicine, Evidence-Based,Evidence Based Medicine,Medicine, Evidence Based