Background/Objective: The aim of this research was to develop a reliable, valid instrument for self-assessment of perceived nursing informatics (NI) competencies. This article describes the development and validity assessment of the instrument.Informatics competencies are deemed a necessity in today's technologically-rich healthcare delivery system. Work to identify essential informatics skills commenced shortly after the introduction of information technology into healthcare. In subsequent years, professional organizations and individual experts have established NI competencies needed at various levels of nursing practice, from entry level through advanced practice. The Technology Informatics Guiding Educational Reform (TIGER) Initiative represents one such effort.The TIGER Initiative emerged in 2006 as a grassroots effort dedicated to the preparation of a clinical workforce capable of using information technology and informatics to improve the delivery of healthcare. TIGER quickly organized into several different collaborative groups, including one that identified a set of recommended informatics competencies for nurses in 2009. The TIGER effort listed NI competencies in three areas: basic computer skills, information literacy, and clinical information management but did not operationalize these competencies into an instrument that could be used for assessment purposes.Methods: Three rounds of reviews were conducted. In the first review, the researchers examined TIGER competencies, removing duplicative terms and combining items with similar content. The second and third rounds of reviews were each done by two separate sets of three experts in nursing informatics. During the second round, the list from round one was examined for items to retain or add. Resulting items were reworded to reflect measurable behaviors and then subjected to a third round of reviews to establish content validity, using the content validity index (CVI) methodology.Results: CVIs demonstrated moderate validity for the instrument, and items not deemed relevant to the objective of the instrument were deleted, reducing the number of the items on the instrument. The instrument was piloted by posting the invitation on the online discussion forum of a nursing informatics organization. An additional invitation was extended to a group completing a weekend-long NI course. There were 184 respondents. Most respondents ranked themselves as expert on the majority of items, although a lesser degree of confidence was seen with items related to information literacy Conclusions: TIGER competencies provided a useful foundation for the creation of a feasible online instrument for self-assessment of levels of competency. Fewer respondents identified themselves as expert in information literacy www.sciedu.ca/jnep
Many experts, professional organizations, landmark reports, and nurse executives have called for a nursing workforce that demonstrates informatics competencies. However, surprisingly, gaps in the integration of informatics into nursing curriculum and development of informatics competencies among nurses remain. To obtain a clearer picture of the current status of the integration of informatics content into baccalaureate and graduate nursing education, the authors discuss their assessment of a 2012 published list of the top online schools of nursing in the United States.
Background/Objective: Researchers set out to develop reliable, valid instruments for nurses to self-assess nursing informatics (NI) competencies at the basic and advanced levels. The focus of the research presented in this article is measurement of competencies at the advanced level, which includes Level 3, the informatics specialist and Level 4, the informatics innovator. Informatics competencies are critical in the technology-rich healthcare delivery system. Nurse leaders experienced in informatics need to be prepared to consistently mentor nurses to use health information technology (HIT) in ways that foster continual growth in nursing informatics competencies. This article addresses the research problem, the concept of competency, previous work on NI assessment, instrument development, and pilot results. Methods: Resulting items from round one and two were reworded to reflect measurable behaviors then subjected to a third round of reviews to establish content validity, using the content validity index (CVI). The Nursing Informatics Competency Assessment L3/L4 (NICA-L3/L4) © instrument development began with a synthesis of seminal and current literature. Participants were asked to rate themselves in one of the categories for each item: beginner or N/A, comfortable, proficient or expert. The NICA-L3/L4© instrument was piloted following Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval using a purposeful, convenience sample from the NI community. Results: For NICA-L3/L4©, the CVIs demonstrated strong content validity and the Chronbach's alpha showed high internal consistency. The initial data from both the Delphi and pilot studies indicated the need for self-assessment of NI competencies. Conclusion: Results of this study indicate that continued education in NI is necessary to reach the level of nurse innovator, a Level 4 competency. As the healthcare system continues to rely on electronic means of gathering, storing, and retrieving data, self-assessment of informatics competencies is key to providing a benchmark for the identification of skills that require further development.
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