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JONA Volume 49, Number 11, pp 543-548 Copyright © 2019 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved. THE JOURNAL OF NURSING ADMINISTRATION A Systems-Level Method for Developing Nursing Informatics Solutions The Role of Executive Leadership Sammie Mosier, DHA, MA, BSN, NE-BC, CMSRN, BC Wm. Dan Roberts, PhD, RN, ACNP Jane Englebright, PhD, RN, CENP, FAAN Nursing leadership can play an essential role in the development of nursing informatics solutions by virtue of their broad understanding and oversight of nursing care. We describe a systems-level method for creating nursing informatics solutions with clearly defined structure and leadership from nursing executives. Based on the guiding principles of clear lines of responsibility, respect for expertise, and commitment to project aims, this allows nursing executive leadership to organize, set up, and own the development of nursing informatics solutions. Data about nursing care have become a critical component of operational and patient care decisions. These data can potentially affect the productivity, efficiency, performance, effectiveness, cost, and value of nursing care when properly collected and used. The management and processing of data into knowledge for use in nursing practice have become an important specialty within the last decade.1 Nurse executives are dependent on data for effective decision making. The American Organization of Nurse Leaders has identified essential competencies in informatics that are necessary for effective leadership of this technology and data-informed environment.2 In the age of big data, nurse executives are responsible for creation of the framework that allows for nurses and other experts to apply their knowledge, Author Affiliations: Vice President and Assistant Chief Nurse Executive (Dr Mosier), Vice President of Care Delivery and Performance (Dr Roberts), and Senior Vice President and Chief Nurse Executive (Dr Englebright), HCA Healthcare, Nashville Tennessee. The authors declare no conflicts of interest. Correspondence: Dr Englebright, HCA Healthcare, One Park Plaza, Nashville, TN 37203 (Jane.Englebright@hcahealthcare.com). DOI: 10.1097/NNA.0000000000000815 such as through the creation of a data culture, the development of data competencies, and the establishment of data infrastructure.3 Together, nurse executives and nurse informaticists are forging new solutions to improve nursing processes and patient care. The challenge is in determining how best to coordinate the efforts of subject matter experts from nursing, informatics, and information technology to design, develop, and deploy solutions to very complex problems. Nursing leadership is well poised to influence these processes by virtue of their broad understanding and oversight of nursing care. While not usually engaged in the development of nursing informatics solutions, we propose that executive leadership is necessary to this process. Here we discuss our development of a systems-level method, with clearly defined structure and leadership from nursing executives, to create nursing informatics solutions that enhance patient care. This article will describe the method and provide case examples of 2 successful applications. Nursing Improving Patient Outcomes & Patient Care Efficiencies Project Proposal
Methods This project was conducted within a large network of hospitals with affiliated facilities across the United States and United Kingdom. The goal was to develop a method for aligning leadership, clinical experts, informaticists, and information technology experts to design, develop, and deploy nursing informatics solutions. The chief nurse executive (CNE) developed the framework to harmonize the work efforts of disparate groups of clinical and informatics experts that were necessary to design, develop, and deploy nursing informatics solutions. The framework was based on 3 guiding principles: clear lines of responsibility and JONA Vol. 49, No. 11 November 2019 Copyright © 2019 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved. 543 authority, respect for each type of expertise necessary to the project, and clear commitment to the aims of the project. Figure 1 depicts the structure. Clear lines of responsibility consisted of dedicated leadership for each component of the process, starting with executive sponsorship and guidance. A steering committee of nursing executives set the vision, objectives, scope, and guiding principles. The steering committee served as a resource for the other teams and an arbitrator of disputes between conflicting priorities. Teams of content experts and end-users were tasked with defining good practice and ideal workflow to generate technology requirements. Technical experts were charged with designing the technology solutions that could meet requirements, support the workflow, present content optimally, and incorporate decision support when possible. The clinical and technical teams work iteratively to develop and test aspects of the proposed solution. Subject matter experts provided critical input on regulatory requirements, answering questions and providing audit and review services. Project management resources ensured the appropriate flow of decisions and work products among the teams in the appropriate sequence and ensured that any issues were escalated to the steering committee expeditiously. Respect for different types of expertise ensured that each of the above responsible parties was able to operate fully within their area of expertise. Technical experts deferred to clinicians on content and workflow. Clinical experts deferred to informatics experts on the best way to design input and output and the use of decision support. Regulatory experts deferred to clinical experts on content and workflow while providing guidance on regulatory requirements, including evaluation of the final product. Commitment to the vision and guiding principles established by the steering committee was a requirement for all colleagues participating in the project. A clearly articulated set of guiding principles was used in each work session to guide team members as they designed, developed, and deployed the new solution. Final success was measured on how well the solution adhered to these guiding principles. This framework was used to develop 2 distinct nursing informatics solutions within a large hospital system: Evidence-Based Clinical Documentation (EBCD) and the Nursing Data Portal (NDP). Nursing Improving Patient Outcomes & Patient Care Efficiencies Project Proposal
These informatics solutions were designed to meet the operational goals of: 1) minimizing nursing documentation into an evidence-based story of the patient; 2) creating a more useful and usable patient-centric record that guides and informs the provision of safe, effective, and efficient care by the interdisciplinary team; and 3) rendering standardized and normalized data for the purpose of performance visibility and evaluation of nursing care of individuals and population at both the process and outcome levels. Through adherence to the framework, the resulting informatics solutions constructed to contribute to the healthcare learning environment through the continuous generation of knowledge and feedback to clinical practice. Figure 1. Structure. 544 JONA Vol. 49, No. 11 November 2019 Copyright © 2019 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved. Results Evidence-Based Clinical Documentation In the development of EBCD, clear lines of responsibility began with the chief nursing officer (CNO) Council (Figure 2). The CNO Council served as the steering committee for EBCD, overseeing the progress of the project teams. This group served as a champion of the organization’s nursing agenda and provided guidance and input into decisions related to patient care, including operational issues and prioritization of clinical projects. The CNO Council defined the guiding principles for the process and product, ensured adherence to the overall vision, and acted as an arbitrator of conflicting viewpoints. The Content Team was led by clinical leaders and included ad hoc committees of clinical experts organized by specialty. Each ad hoc committee focused on the specific tasks and questions relevant to their area of expertise. Clinical experts with current patient care experience were able to define the data flow needed to support the previously developed ideal workflows,4 use evidence reviews to develop content, and identify the desired decision support. Development of the decision support, creation of a style guide, and review of existing screen designs were the responsibility of technical experts. Regulatory subject matter experts addressed questions about regulatory compliance, billing compliance, and risk management and performed on-site assessment for regulatory compliance. Throughout the entire process, the project management team managed to timeline, maintained communication, designed implementation and education strategies, and assisted the collaboration between teams to resolve issues. With the clear lines of responsibility defined and respect for expertise established, the development of EBCD progressed in alignment with the vision for this project. The overall vision for this project was to create a patient-centric record that guides and informs the provision of safe, effective, and efficient care by the interdisciplinary team and produces data to valuate care of individual and population of care (Figure 3). Nursing Improving Patient Outcomes & Patient Care Efficiencies Project Proposal
To achieve this vision, guiding principles were developed in regard to design and content. The guiding principles of EBCD design were established to ensure that the final product enhanced and supported the process of patient care documentation, such as strict adherence to the style guide for consistency and alignment with the previously defined ideal workflows.4 The guiding principles of EBCD content ensured that documentation entered through this system would be meaningful to patient care or necessary for regulatory or billing requirements and that the resulting documentation would support the ethical and competent clinician. Nursing Data Portal In the development of the NDP, the steering committee consisted of the CNO Council with representation from CNEs and unit directors, the 2 primary endusers for the product. Responsibility for content was Figure 2. Evidence-based practice clinical documentation project team. JONA Vol. 49, No. 11 November 2019 Copyright © 2019 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved. 545 Figure 3. Flow of information for patient centric record. designated to corporate clinical leaders and data owners. Technical responsibility was shared between the nursing analytics, data science, and information technology teams. Other defined responsibilities were assigned to subject matter expert teams, including patient experience, human resources, and financial and executive leaders. Strong project management processes facilitated the iterative flow of decisions and tool development (Figure 4). The focused expertise of these teams was key to the success of this project. The steering committee identified 4 domains of performance (clinical outcomes, patient experience, efficiency, and nursing engagement) and provided final approval of the indicators that would be used in the completed product. Technical experts were the backbone of all the data needs for the final project. They created the data visualization plan, transformed data to usable scoring methods, harmonized time frames from disparate data sources, and aligned the data to other reports with the same metrics. The various subject matter experts suggested common metrics that were to be included in the final product. These teams also validated all data posttransformation prior to the creation of data visualizations. In essence, the subject matter experts verified the work of the technical experts before any data were released for viewing. Project management team members designed the implementation and education strategies for this project and also managed communication and issue resolution among the teams to meet the project timeline goals. With the clear lines of responsibility established and experts assembled for the various project components, the development of the NDP progressed toward its singular unifying vision: one common platform for sharing nursing performance data (Figure 5). Nursing Improving Patient Outcomes & Patient Care Efficiencies Project Proposal
Through the careful design of source system screens and data pathways and requirements, nursing performance Figure 4. Nursing data portal project team. 546 JONA Vol. 49, No. 11 November 2019 Copyright © 2019 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved. Figure 5. Platform to share nursing performance data. metrics from multiple systems could be concisely displayed on 1 page for maximum accessibility. The vision of the NDP was achieved through adherence to the guiding principle of easily understood data and visualizations. Discussion Through the creation of a systems-level framework that clearly defined responsibility, roles, and vision, we successfully designed and implemented 2 largescale nursing informatics solutions. These informatics solutions were different from each other—1 clinically focused and 1 focused on leadership—but were built upon the same systems-level framework. In this method, there was a clearly defined role and responsibility for nursing executive leadership from the beginning of the project to the end. Multiple contemporaneous articles have demonstrated the supportive role of nursing leadership and informatics.5,6 Specific leadership roles, such as chief nursing informatics officers and nursing informatics executives, have emerged as central to the support of transformation and the use of appropriate technology solutions in clinical practice.7,8 Outside these specific roles, there is a need for nurse leaders, including CNEs, to have knowledge about informatics and its role in patient care.9 Nurse leaders should be allowed opportunities to both gain these competencies and apply their knowledge to decision making regarding informatics system and nursing care.9-11 Our systems-level method demonstrates the role of specific leadership in guiding the ideation, design, development, data mapping and visualization, and application of the products developed during the informatics and technology life cycle. Each of these components is integral to the functionality, adoption, and use of the final solution. Nursing executive leadership must not only develop a clear structure, timeline, and goals for the entire process but also provide valuable insight into product development. This leadership contributed to the effectiveness of these solutions as part of the continuous feedback loop within a learning healthcare environment. The knowledge and understanding of clinical practice gained through these solutions can be applied to subsequent applications and efforts to refine and innovate within nursing care. Furthermore, our method maximizes the expertise of those most knowledgeable about individual components. The clarity of roles ensured that critical input was provided by the appropriate team members. For instance, technical experts and informatics professionals focused on the best way to design input and output and the use of decision support while clinicians were responsible for content and workflow. Nursing Improving Patient Outcomes & Patient Care Efficiencies Project Proposal
An added benefit of this method is improved adoption of the resulting solutions. Leadership engagement is a key component of implementation processes.12-14 In our method, leadership are engaged early and often in the design process, ensuring that the solutions also met the needs of leaders. Leadership engagement allowed for local needs and workflow considerations to be incorporated into the design, improving end-user uptake. In summary, we have developed a systems-level method that allows nursing executive leadership to organize, set up, and own processes related to the development nursing informatics solutions. Our organization has used this structure for several projects with positive results. Use and adaptation of the strategies of this method may offer a way for nursing leadership to guide and influence future solutions. References 1. Murphy J. Nursing informatics: the intersection of nursing, computer, and information sciences. Nurs Econ. 2010;28(3):204-207. 2. American Organization of Nurse Executives. AONE Nurse Executive Competencies. Chicago, IL: AONE; 2015. https:// www.aonl.org/sites/default/files/aone/nurse-executivecompetencies.pdf. Accessed July 25, 2019. 3. Englebright J, Caspers B. The role of the chief nurse executive in the big data revolution. Nurse Lead. 2016;14(4):280-284. JONA Vol. 49, No. 11 November 2019 Copyright © 2019 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved. 547 4. Mosier S, Englebright J. The first step toward reducing documentation: defining ideal workflows. Comput Inform Nurs. 2019;37(2):57-59. 5. Remus S. The big data revolution: opportunities for chief nurse executives. Nurs Leadersh. 2016;28(4):18-28. 6. Liebe JD, Hüsers J, Hübner U. Investigating the roots of successful IT adoption processes—an empirical study exploring the shared awareness-knowledge of directors of nursing and chief information officers. BMC Med Inform Decis Mak. 2016;16:10. 7. Institute of Medicine. The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press; 2010. 8. Hussey PA, Kennedy MA. Instantiating informatics in nursing practice for integrated patient centred holistic models of care: a discussion paper. J Adv Nurs. 2016;72(5):1030-1041. 9. Simpson RL. Chief nurse executives need contemporary informatics competencies. Nurs Econ. 2013;31(6):277-287; quiz 2887. 10. Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS). Transforming Nursing Practice Through Technology 11. 12. 13. 14. and Informatics: A Position Statement. Chicago, IL: HIMSS; 2011. https://www.himss.org/position-statement-transformingnursing-through-technology-and-informatics. Accessed July 25, 2019. Oakes M, Frisch N, Potter P, Borycki E. Readiness of nurse executives and leaders to advocate for health information systems supporting nursing. Nursing Improving Patient Outcomes & Patient Care Efficiencies Project Proposal
Stud Health Technol Inform. 2015;208: 296-301. Sandström B, Borglin G, Nilsson R, Willman A. Promoting the implementation of evidence-based practice: a literature review focusing on the role of nursing leadership. Worldviews Evid Based Nurs. 2011;8(4):212-223. Aarons GA, Sommerfeld DH. Leadership, innovation climate, and attitudes toward evidence-based practice during a statewide implementation. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2012;51:423-431. Gifford WA, Davies B, Edwards N, Graham ID. Leadership strategies to influence the use of clinical practice guidelines. Nurs Leadersh. 2006;19:72-88. The Journal of Nursing Administration Instructions for Authors Instructions for Authors can be found online at the address below. To ensure that your manuscript is in compliance with new submission procedures, you should read this document carefully before manuscript preparation. All manuscripts must be submitted electronically through this system. Please visit http://JONA.EdMgr.com. 548 JONA Vol. 49, No. 11 November 2019 Copyright © 2019 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved. 252 Nursing Informatics 2016 W. Sermeus et al. (Eds.) © 2016 IMIA and IOS Press. This article is published online with Open Access by IOS Press and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License. doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-658-3-252 Project Management: Essential Skill of Nurse Informaticists 1 Carolyn SIPES Chamberlain College of Nursing, NI Research Team National Management Offices, 3005 Highland Parkway, Downers Grove, IL 60515 Abstract: With the evolution of nursing informatics (NI), the list of skills has advanced from the original definition that included 21 competencies to 168 basic competencies identified in the TIGER-based Assessment of Nursing Informatics Competencies (TANIC) and 178 advanced skills in the Nursing Informatics Competency Assessment (NICA) L3/L4 developed by Chamberlain College of Nursing, Nursing Informatics Research Team (NIRT). Of these competencies, project management is one of the most important essentials identified since it impacts all areas of NI skills and provides an organizing framework for processes and projects including skills such as design, planning, implementation, follow-up and evaluation. Examples of job roles that specifically require project management skills as an essential part of the NI functions include management, administration, leadership, faculty, graduate level master’s and doctorate practicum courses. But first, better understanding of the NI essential skills is vital before adequate education and training programs can be developed. Keywords: nursing informatics, project management, education, essentials, TANIC, TIGER, NICA-L3/L4 1. Introduction: History and Definitions In today’s high-tech world, expectations of the healthcare industry is that nurses will have informatics competencies including project management skills which are critical for improved quality outcomes and safety for patients. Nursing Improving Patient Outcomes & Patient Care Efficiencies Project Proposal
This is not only true for nurses in graduate courses, clinical practice management roles but administrative and other leadership roles as well. The expectation is that all of these roles as well as others described below will bring well-developed skills to the job. Nursing Informatics (NI) has evolved beyond the definition of data management defined early on by Staggers, Gassert, and Curran [1] but is still considered by many as the primary and only skill of a nursing informaticist. Today, the American Nurses Association’s (ANA) expanded definition of NI suggests that, “Nursing Informatics (NI) is the specialty that integrates nursing science with information and analytical sciences to identify, define, manage and communicate data, information, knowledge and wisdom in nursing practice. NI supports nurses, consumers, patients, the interprofessional healthcare team, and other stakeholders in their decision- making in all roles and settings to achieve desired outcomes.” (p. 1-2) [2]. 1 Corresponding author: Dr. Carolyn Sipes, PhD, CNS, APN, PMP, RN-BC; Chamberlain College of Nursing, Downers Grove IL. National Management Offices, 3005 Highland Parkway, Downers Grove, IL 60515; email: csipes@chamberlain.edu C. Sipes / Project Management: Essential Skill of Nurse Informaticists 253 In order to meet the Institute of Medicine (IOM) mandate of developing the nursing workforce of 2020, we must provide a mechanism to first assess and understand competencies/skills needed by the workforce [3]. While project management as NI skills are more the expectation of healthcare providers and nursing leadership, there remains a lack of understanding of what these are and how they are an essential competency of NI. McGonigle, Hunter, Sipes, and Hebda, suggest that even today “there is a lack of understanding of exactly what nursing informatics is in the way of skills needed or how they can and should be applied to practice” [4]. Presently, NI has a much broader definition, evolved from the 21 essential competencies defined by Staggers, et al., to 167 basic skills defined in the TIGER-based Nursing Informatics Competencies (TANIC) developed by Hunter, McGonigle, and Hebda, and the 178 advanced items in the Nursing Informatics Competency Assessment (NICA) – L3/L4 self-assessment tools developed by McGonigle, Hunter,, Hebda, and Hill [1,6,7,10]. Chamberlain College of Nursing, Nursing Informatics Research Team (NIRT) (Hunter, et.al, 2014) developed expertise designing competency skill-assessment instruments as well as conducting research studies on competency utilization, and as such, has implemented the tools for students to self-assess skills in the NI courses [7]. The ANA (2015) Nursing Informatics Scope and Standards outlined above clearly defines specialty of NI as the skill to integrate sciences into nursing practice using skills to “identify, define, manage and communicate data, information, knowledge … (p.1-2).” Nursing Improving Patient Outcomes & Patient Care Efficiencies Project Proposal
The standards further suggest that NI supports judgments in all positions, functions and settings; the support is achieved through the use of information constructs and information methods and practices – attributes of a NI. [2] Although the skills are now attributed to NI, historically these were originally defined as concepts of project management defined by the engineering community in the 1950s. Sipes references the history of project management through an article by Cleland and Gareis, who relate that “…in the 1950s, project management was formally recognized as a distinct contribution arising from the management discipline” (pp. 1–4) [8, 9]. Sipes further discusses how engineering, at the forefront of project management, has become a “key management strategy in large corporations, such as IBM, and more recently, in healthcare, where there is a need to put formalized structure and management to organizational tasks” (p.12). Sipes adds that nurses “….use a structured approach when providing care to patients such as the nursing process. Patient care management requires an organizational framework—processes similar to those used in project management are used to manage patient care” (p.12) [8]. The three larger categories, defined in the tools, TANIC and NICA-L3/4, discussed above, are computer, informatics knowledge, and informatics skills. The skill sets have been extended to include major subcategories as systems integration, selection and maintenance, quality improvement, data terminologies, impact analysis, privacy/security, systems input/output, usability, data mining and structures and project management. Project management is one of the largest but least understood essentials of the NI knowledge and skill set. It includes five major steps: Design/Initiation, Plan, Implementation, Monitor/Control and Evaluation/Lessons Learned In the discussion below, methods of how the tools, TANIC and NICA – L3/L4, are applied in Chamberlain’s graduate courses to self-assess the NI students current skills on four levels including the project management skills. As more information is shared, such as in American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) webinars presented by Chamberlain NIRT, the competency self-assessment tools are being requested by 254 C. Sipes / Project Management: Essential Skill of Nurse Informaticists healthcare leadership to integrate into job roles and requirements. More detail of project management attributes applicable in job roles and requirements is presented below. Many of the same project management attributes are also required for graduate students as they develop and implement practicum projects as the master’s and doctoral levels. 2. Method The methods to self-assess NI skills were implemented by Chamberlain in the graduate NI specialty track in order for the faculty to better understand student skill needs, As faculty analyze students’ results, they can determine gaps/needs in skill sets. Nursing Improving Patient Outcomes & Patient Care Efficiencies Project Proposal
Then based on analysis of the information, curricula are developed to mitigate gaps in skill levels needed by students and most importantly, as they enter the 2020 workforce. The model used in graduate courses is discussed below. Employing this process further enhances the practicum experiences as it provides an organizational framework in which to work. 2.1 Utilization of information from analysis The NI competency self-assessment tools add clarity and specificity to better understand exactly what skills are required as awareness of project management (PM) skills become more evident. To determine NI skill levels in graduate student population at Chamberlain, the TANIC and NICA – L3/L4 tools are integrated into master’s level core courses. Students self-assess skills beginning the program and then again at the end of their master’s graduate practicums. The application of project management skills are fully implemented in the two Chamberlain graduate NI specialty practicums – I and II. Students are required to apply skills as they develop and plan a project in Practicum I, then implement and evaluate projects at a clinical site in Practicum II, thus utilizing PM skills developed during practicums. These same skills are required in most job roles in healthcare. They learn to apply skills which are needed to be successful in both the practicums and their “real-world” projects. 3. Results Feedback from students at the end of their practicums emphasizes the success of this model as students realize the value of the skills they just implemented at a healthcare site on an actual project. Now, they say they would not only use these skills in their job roles but see how they can use them when managing everyday tasks. Today, project management skills are more recognized as a need. The organizing framework of project management is applicable in graduate level practicums, clinical practice, healthcare administration and leadership. Below are examples of some of the roles that require project management skills today. 3.1 Project Management as an essential skill of NI National organizations discussed above deliberate how nursing leaders must have computer and informatics knowledge and skills in order to be effective in their roles. C. Sipes / Project Management: Essential Skill of Nurse Informaticists 255 The skills discussed are project management competencies as well as others in informatics. Yet, according to McGonigle, Hill, Hunter, Sipes, and Hebda, “trying to reach the goals set forth by these organizations has been hindered by a lack of procedures and assessments available for determining nurses’ informatics competencies- what they actually require in order to be competent in their job roles” [4, pp. 104-112]. Nursing Improving Patient Outcomes & Patient Care Efficiencies Project Proposal
The project management skills of NI can be applied universally in many settings and job roles. Students developing projects for their practicums or research studies and everyday tasks would benefit from a more formalized structure and organization. According to Sipes the partial list of project management skills and competencies includes such tasks as: development/implementation of work plans, design/development of systems, function as lead/project manager in all phases of the systems life cycle, and development and implementation of all organizational documents required as a project manager to successfully manage a project [8, pp.143158]. Examples of specific project management skills listed above are seen in advertised job descriptions as well as graduate level courses, including those for the role of nurse administrators, such as nurse executives (NE), nurse managers, nurse practitioners (NP), clinical nurse specialists (CNS), informatics nurse specialist (INS), chief nurse informatics officer (CNIO), chief nursing officer (CNO), and doctor of nursing practice (DNP) student in the final practicum before graduation. The project management skills needed by the NP and CNS are important in order to set up and manage clinics and for a DNP graduate project. An INS would need the skills above to support an electronic medical record (EMR) implementation and informatics skills to perform system/workflow analysis for a new computer system. 4. Discussion National organizations such as those previously discussed – the IOM, ANA and others – identified a need to develop knowledge and skills including more advanced education of the nursing workforce of 2020. Yet skill sets needed to provide better, safer patient care and outcomes are sorely lacking. For example, some think that having the skill to develop a slide presentation is the only “real” skill needed that qualifies as both an informatics and PM skill. Or that data collection and analysis fulfills the job descriptions for project management and informatics. We must assess and understand current competencies/skills, then address gaps in education by developing more relevant curricula that will meet needs of the workforce for 2020. To that point, McGonigle, Hunter, Sipes, and Hebda, suggest that even today “there is a lack of understanding of exactly what nursing informatics is in the way of skills needed or how they can and should be applied to practice” [4]. 256 C. Sipes / Project Management: Essential Skill of Nurse Informaticists 4.1 Need to inform and empower Today, to be a NI no longer requires just the skills to manage data and databases as previously discussed. It requires much more and has evolved to nearly 200 advanced skills – now more than ever expected by healthcare provider and organizational leadership as well as masters and doctoral level students and faculty. Nursing Improving Patient Outcomes & Patient Care Efficiencies Project Proposal
One of the most essential skills is project management. Education programs must be established that meet the needs of nurses to develop these skills, as well as empower them to enhance their practices. 5. Acknowledgements A special thank you to Chamberlain College of Nursing faculty support from Drs. Toni Hebda, Dee McGonigle, Kathleen Hunter, Taryn Hill, and colleague Jean Lamblin. References [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] N. Staggers, C. Gassert, & C. Curran, Informatics competencies for nurses at four levels of practice. Journal of Nursing Education, 40 (7) (2001) 303-16. American Nurses Association Nursing informatics: Scope and standards of practice; p.1-2 (2nd Ed.). (2015). Silver Spring, MD: Author. Institute of Medicine (IOM): The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health. Committee on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation initiative on the future of nursing, at the institute of medicine. (2010), Retrieved from http:wwwthefutureofnursing.org. p.140. D. McGonigle, K. Hunter, C. Sipes, & T. Hebda, Why nurses need to understand nursing informatics, AORN Journal, September, (2014).100 (3). K. Hunter, D. McGonigle, & T. Hebda The integration of informatics content in baccalaureate and graduate nursing education: A status report. Nurse Educator, 38(3):(2013).110 -113.doi: 10.1097/NNE.0b013e31828dc292 D. McGonigle, K. Hunter, T. Hebda, & T. Hill, Self-Assessment of Level 3 and Level 4 NI Competencies Tool Development. (2014) Retrieved from http://himss.files.cmsplus.com/FileDownloads/Self- Assessment.pdf. Hunter, K., McGonigle, D., T. Hill, T. Hebda, & C. Sipes Self-Reported Assessment of Basic and Informatics Specialist/Innovator Nursing Informatics Competencies: TANIC© and NICA L3/L4©. Nursing Informatics Today, 29 (2), (2014). 4-6. C. Sipes, Project Management for the Advance Practice Nurse, Springer, New, York, September; (2016) (p.12, 113). D. Cleland & R. Gareis, R. Global project management handbook; (2006) (pp.1-4). New York, NY; McGraw- Hill Professional. T. Hill, D. McGonigle, K. Hunter, C. Sipes, & T. Hebda An instrument for assessing advanced nursing informatics competencies. Journal of Nursing Education and Practice, 4 (7), (2014) 104. Copyright of Studies in Health Technology & Informatics is the property of IOS Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder’s express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
