Page 369 - Encyclopedia of Nursing Research

336 n NuRSING INFORMATION SySTeMS

nursing. It conducts annual surveys of fac- the national conversations regarding nurs-
ulty salaries, faculty workload, and similar ing education are accelerating. The Robert
N topics of primary interest to deans and direc- Wood Johnson Foundation in concert with
tors of programs. the AACN is moving quickly to advance the
The American Nurses Association pro- recommendations and vision outlined in the
vides a voluntary credentialing mechanism report.
that recognizes both RNs who are involved
in advanced practice and those who are gen- Jeanne Marie Novotny
eralists practicing in a specialty area.
e. Smith (1979) defined continuing edu-
cation as postregistered learning activity
designed to increase knowledge or skill or NursiNg iNformatioN
to challenge attitudes. Several states now
require varying amounts of additional systems
education for relicensure. Moreover, some
states (including Michigan, Idaho, utah,
and Minnesota) require competency-based Saba and McCormick (2005) described nurs-
continuing education. ing information systems (NIS) as the use of
Research on topics related to nursing technology and computer systems to collect,
education has been very comprehensive and store, process, display, retrieve, and commu-
has examined many different areas, including nicate timely data and information in and
quality of education, care planning, clinical across health care facilities that
judgment, clinical decision making, clinical
teaching, learning styles, performance on 1. administer nursing services and
licensing examination, faculty productivity, resources,
simulation based instruction, socialization 2. manage the delivery of patient and nurs-
processes, teaching learning processes, com- ing care,
petencies, and many others. 3. link research resources and findings to
In January 2010, Dr. Patricia Benner nursing practice, and
issued a landmark report for the Carnegie 4. apply educational resources to nursing
Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching education.
titled Educating Nurses: A Call for Radical
Transformation. As a result, the Tri-Council Today, there is a growing recognition of
for Nursing issued a policy statement on the the value of integrated clinical information
Education Advancement of Registered Nurses, systems (CIS), where NIS exist as modules or
which underscored the connection between applications within larger integrated systems
quality care and education. The Tri-Council to facilitate data entry, retrieval, and decision
organizations reached the following consen- making by nurses and other interdisciplin-
sus: “a more highly educated nursing pro- ary health care team members (Hasna, 2009).
fession is no longer a preferred future; it is a NIS are used to support nursing education,
necessary future in order to meet the nursing practice, and research. An NIS module is an
needs of the nation and to deliver effective and application that supports the use and docu-
effective care.” Taken together, these reports mentation of nursing processes and provides
signal that the time is right for the profession tools for managing the delivery of nursing
to seek solutions for preparing more nurses in care (Hebda, Czar, & Mascara, 2009).
baccalaureate and higher degree programs. early information systems were often
With the recent release of the Institute information silos, focused on financial
of Medicine’s report on the Future of Nursing, transactions models, and were designed