Nursing Informatics Certification Update

I took a few moments today to review the upcoming changes in the ANCC Informatics Nurse Certification exam. The test content outlines are online at the ANCC website. Notice that three of the categories were collapsed in the new test blueprint. Information Management and Knowledge Generation will comprise a little over 1/3 of the exam questions.  Professional Practice will be almost 27% of the questions, as compared with 10%. When comparing the two, the newer outline includes much more on accreditation guidelines, regulation, system design/development, nursing taxonomy, and education/staff development. The 4th edition of the Informatics and Nursing textbook will be an excellent resource for nurses who site for the newest informatics certification exam.  The 4th edition of the textbook contains all of the essential components for the current certification exam, as well. The table below shows a comparison of the two test blueprints (outlines).

Old ANCC Informatics Test Blueprint (Before 5/1/2012)  Category Domains of Practice No. of Questions Percent I System Life Cycle 41 27.00% II Human Factors 10 7.00% III Information Technology 30 20.00% IV Information Management and Knowledge Generation 27 18.00% V Professional Practice, Trends, and Issues 15 10.00% VI Models and Theories 12 8.00% VII Management and Leadership 15 10.00%

New ANCC Informatics Test Blueprint (Effective 5/7/2012)  Category Domains of Practice No. of Questions Percent I Information Management and Knowledge Generation 56 37.33% II Professional Practice 40 26.67% III System Life Cycle 33 22.00% IV Information Technology 21 14.00%

New Additions to Informatics and Nursing Website

Linda added two additions to Chapter 17 on the textbook website we maintain:

2011 HIMSS Nursing Informatics Workforce Survey
www.himss.org/ASP/ContentRedirector.asp?ContentID=76364

AONE's (American Organization of Nurse Executives) position paper on the Nursing Informatics Executive Leader.
http://www.aone.org/resources/leadership%20tools/PDFs/AONE_Technology_
Committee_CNIO_Position_Paper.pdf

The AONE position paper has some very important language and is recommended for reading!  The opening paragraph is quoted below:

"Technology is revolutionizing the manner in which health care is delivered. Clinicians and consumers are incorporating high-speed data networks, wireless solutions, handheld devices, automated exchanges between organizations/clinicians and patients and various forms of social media into their daily interactions. Adapting to these new environments requires a shift in expectations for how care is delivered and communicated. This shift necessitates a greater understanding of the constant evolution of new solutions into practice. Nurses are at the core of these changes and are the care providers with the greatest amount of direct patient contact; therefore the nursing informatics leadership roles provide a significant backdrop towards achieving organizational informatics goals and priorities."

Informatics and Nursing 4th Edition Website

Linda has posted the website to support the 4th edition of the textbook, Informatics and Nursing:  Opportunities and Challenges at http://dlthede.net/Informatics/Informatics.html .  User will find all of the links from the textbook plus additional resources to support each chapter. 

She has noted corrections for changed URLs and notations where the URLs no longer exist.  Users are encouraged to provide feedback about what is helpful and suggestions on how the site/textbook can be improved. We value your thoughts and ideas!

Informatics - Where is It?

Linda wrote a wonderful article, Informatics: Where is it? outlining the historical development over the last 30 years on the OJIN (Online Journal of Issues in nursing).  She discussed the dreams that we all had in those early years.  To quote her:

"One thing that we early dreamers failed to consider was the cultural changes that would be needed to reach our dreams. One of the biggest of these needs is a move from a silo mentality to a multidisciplinary perspective. Silo mentality creates a patient situation analogous to that of three blind men describing an elephant, with each man examining a different appendage and making decisions without considering the nature of the ‘whole’ elephant."

 Excellent statement! Yes, the cultural change and adoption of informatics have been very slow.  In defense of the slow timeline, none of us envisioned the complexity or possibilities that new developments in technology that we experience today.

Linda's article reminded me of my first informatics conference that was held in Bethesda, Maryland in 1983.  I remember the excitement that we all shared as we envisioned nursing harnessing the power of computer technology.  I am copying the poster for the 1983 conference below.  

 

Nursing Informatics Awareness Day

May 12^th is Nursing Informatics Awareness Day.  Learn more about nursing informatics at http://www.himss.org/handouts/NIAwareDayFlyer.pdf

Nursing Informatics Online Articles

Linda added a couple of new resources to the textbook website at http://dlthede.net/Informatics/Informatics.html

March 30, 2011 Canadian Journal of Nursing Informatics. Edited by June Kaminski, this is a peer-reviewed online quarterly journal started in 2006. (Added March 30, 2011)
http://cjni.net/journal/?p=1094

March 30, 2011 Kaminski, June. (2011). Theory applied to informatics – Lewin’s Change Theory. Canadian Journal of Nursing Informatics (6)1. (Chapter 18)
http://cjni.net/journal/?p=1210