TIGER-based measurement of nursing informatics competencies: The development and implementation of an online tool for self-assessment

Abstract

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

Measuring Nursing Informatics Competencies of Practicing Nurses in Korea

“…18 Nursing ICs, the competencies necessary for nursing informatics practice, can therefore be defined as the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to integrate nursing science, computer, and information science to Identify, collect, process, manage, communicate, and expand data, information, knowledge, and wisdom in nursing practice. 29 However, across the myriad efforts, the majority of past private and public organizations concentrated on developing and evaluating ICs for entry-level undergraduate nurses [30][31][32][33][34][35] or graduate nurses' education. 13,23,28 Public organizations including the American Nurses Association, the American Medical Informatics Association, Healthcare Information Management and Systems Society (HIMSS), the National League for Nursing, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, and the Technology Informatics Guiding Educational Reform (TIGER) Initiative have put efforts to identify core ICs for nurses.…”

A Quantitative Study of Nursing Faculty’s Personal and Professional Use of Technology

“…Hunter, McGonigle, and Hebda conducted a study to gain a clearer understanding of the integration of informatics content into BSN and graduate nursing education by accessing a published list of nursing schools in 2012 throughout the United States and identified as the top online schools by the U.S. News & World Report [19]. Twenty-four schools were identified and reviewed.…”

An instrument for assessing advanced nursing informatics competencies

“…McKee [9] noted that competency is the "ability to integrate knowledge and skill to perform a task under the varied circumstances of the real world" (slide 5). Lastly, Hunter, McGonigle, and Hebda [5] concluded that Competency, then, is a concept applicable to multiple situations. At its most basic, competency denotes having the knowledge, skills, and ability to perform or do a specific task, act, or job.…”

“…Many nurses are not fully prepared to adequately use health information technology (HIT) as it is intended to support patient care. A recent study by Hunter, McGonigle, and Hebda [5] of nursing-school course offerings showed an absence of clear delineation of nursing informatics content across graduate curricula. As the demand for informatics competencies in nursing increases, nurse educators must be able to prepare not only nurses as basic users of HIT but also informatics nurse specialists (INSs) as innovators and leaders in the evolution of NI.…”