Robotics in Nursing: Protocol for a Scoping Review.

BACKGROUND: Globally, health care systems are challenged with the shortage of health care professionals, particularly nurses. The decline in the nursing workforce is primarily attributed to an aging population, increased demand for health care services, and a shortage of qualified nurses. Stressful working conditions have also increased the physical and emotional demands and perceptions of burnout, leading to attrition among nurses. Robotics has the potential to alleviate some of the workforce challenges by augmenting and supporting nurses in their roles; however, the impact of robotics on nurses is an understudied topic, and limited literature exists. OBJECTIVE: We aim to understand the extent and type of evidence in relation to robotics integration in nursing practice. METHODS: The Joanna Briggs Institute methodology and the PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews) checklist will guide the scoping review. The MEDLINE (Ovid), Embase (Ovid), CINAHL Plus with Full Text (EBSCOhost), Scopus, Cochrane Library, and IEEE Xplore electronic bibliographic databases will be searched to retrieve papers. In addition, gray literature sources, including Google Scholar, dissertations, theses, registries, blogs, and relevant organizational websites will be searched. Furthermore, the reference lists of included studies retrieved from the databases and the gray literature will be hand-searched to ensure relevant papers are not missed. In total, 2 reviewers will independently screen retrieve papers at each stage of the screening process and independently extract data from the included studies. A third reviewer will be consulted to help decision-making if conflicts arise. Data analysis will be completed using both descriptive statistics and content analysis. The results will be presented using tabular and narrative formats. RESULTS: The review is expected to describe the current evidence on the integration and impact of robots and robotics into nursing clinical practice, provide insights into the current state and knowledge gaps, identify a direction for future research, and inform policy and practice. The authors expect to begin the data searches in late January 2024. CONCLUSIONS: The robotics industry is evolving rapidly, providing different solutions that promise to revamp health care delivery with possible improvements to nursing practice. This review protocol outlines the steps proposed to systematically investigate this topic and provides an opportunity for more insights from scholars and researchers working in the field. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): PRR1-10.2196/50626.

Revolutionizing nursing education through Ai integration: A reflection on the disruptive impact of ChatGPT.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is driving global change. An AI language model like ChatGPT could revolutionize the delivery of nursing education in the future. ChatGPT is an AI-enabled text generator that has garnered significant attention due to its ability to engage in conversations and answer questions. Nurse educators play a crucial role in preparing nursing students for a technology-integrated healthcare system, and the emergence of ChatGPT presents both opportunities and challenges. While the technology has limitations and potential biases, it also has the potential to benefit students by facilitating learning, improving digital literacy, and encouraging critical thinking about AI integration in healthcare. Nurse educators can incorporate ChatGPT into their curriculum through formative or summative assessments and should prioritize faculty development to understand and use AI technologies effectively. Collaboration between educational institutions, regulatory bodies, and educators is crucial to establish provincial and national competencies and frameworks that reflect the increasing importance of AI in nursing education and practice. It is paramount that nurses and nurse educators be open to AI-enabled innovations as well as continue to critically think about their potential value to advance the profession so nurses are better prepared to lead the digital future.

Digital health education and training for undergraduate and graduate nursing students: a scoping review protocol.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this review is to collate and analyze literature reporting on digital health education and training courses, or other pedagogical interventions, for nursing students at the undergraduate and graduate level to identify gaps and inform the development of future educational interventions. INTRODUCTION: In this era of technology-driven health care, upskilling and/or reskilling the nursing workforce is urgently needed for nurses to lead the digital health future and improve patient care. While informatics competency frameworks serve to inform nursing education and practice, they do not address the entire digital health spectrum. INCLUSION CRITERIA: This review will include research studies, theoretical/discussion papers, and reports, as well as gray literature from relevant sources published in the last 10 years. Opinion pieces, editorials, conference proceedings, and papers published in languages other than English will be excluded. METHODS: The JBI methodology for scoping reviews will be followed. Searches will be conducted in Embase, CINAHL, ERIC, MEDLINE, Scopus, and Education Research Complete to retrieve potentially relevant studies. Hand searches of reference lists of included studies will be conducted. Two reviewers will independently screen records against predefined eligibility criteria and consult a third reviewer if conflicts arise. Decisions will be documented using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) flow diagram. Quantitative data will be analyzed using descriptive statistics. Content analysis will be applied to qualitative data to identify categories and themes. Findings will be synthesized and reported in tables and narrative format. REVIEW REGISTRATION NUMBER: Open Science Framework osf.io/42eug.

The Use and Structure of Emergency Nurses' Triage Narrative Data: Scoping Review.

BACKGROUND: Emergency departments use triage to ensure that patients with the highest level of acuity receive care quickly and safely. Triage is typically a nursing process that is documented as structured and unstructured (free text) data. Free-text triage narratives have been studied for specific conditions but never reviewed in a comprehensive manner. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this paper was to identify and map the academic literature that examines triage narratives. The paper described the types of research conducted, identified gaps in the research, and determined where additional review may be warranted. METHODS: We conducted a scoping review of unstructured triage narratives. We mapped the literature, described the use of triage narrative data, examined the information available on the form and structure of narratives, highlighted similarities among publications, and identified opportunities for future research. RESULTS: We screened 18,074 studies published between 1990 and 2022 in CINAHL, MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane, and ProQuest Central. We identified 0.53% (96/18,074) of studies that directly examined the use of triage nurses' narratives. More than 12 million visits were made to 2438 emergency departments included in the review. In total, 82% (79/96) of these studies were conducted in the United States (43/96, 45%), Australia (31/96, 32%), or Canada (5/96, 5%). Triage narratives were used for research and case identification, as input variables for predictive modeling, and for quality improvement. Overall, 31% (30/96) of the studies offered a description of the triage narrative, including a list of the keywords used (27/96, 28%) or more fulsome descriptions (such as word counts, character counts, abbreviation, etc; 7/96, 7%). We found limited use of reporting guidelines (8/96, 8%). CONCLUSIONS: The breadth of the identified studies suggests that there is widespread routine collection and research use of triage narrative data. Despite the use of triage narratives as a source of data in studies, the narratives and nurses who generate them are poorly described in the literature, and data reporting is inconsistent. Additional research is needed to describe the structure of triage narratives, determine the best use of triage narratives, and improve the consistent use of triage-specific data reporting guidelines. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): RR2-10.1136/bmjopen-2021-055132.

The Psychometric Properties of Version 2 of the Canadian Nurse Informatics Competency Assessment Scale.

In 2020, we conducted a mixed methods study comprised of a cross-sectional survey in which we applied a modified version of the 21-item Canadian Nurse Informatics Competency Assessment Scale and one-on-one interviews to explore self-perceived nursing informatics competency and readiness for future digital health practice. A total of 221 senior-level students in BScN programs in western Canada participated. This article reports on results related to the factor structure and internal consistency reliability of the 26-item (version 2) of the Canadian Nurse Informatics Competency Assessment Scale. Exploratory principal component analysis with the varimax rotation revealed a four-component structure, explaining 55.10% of the variance. All items on the Canadian Nurse Informatics Competency Assessment Scale 2 had good loadings, except item 7, which did not load to any domain but was retained based on an evaluation of the α value and item relevance to nursing practice. A few items shifted to different domains. The overall reliability of the Canadian Nurse Informatics Competency Assessment Scale 2 was ( α = .916) and its subscales: information and knowledge management ( α = .814), professional and regulatory accountability ( α = .741), and use of information and communication technology ( α = .895). This study provided preliminary evidence for the factor structure and reliability of the Canadian Nurse Informatics Competency Assessment Scale 2 among nursing students. Further testing is recommended.

Social Media Use for Research Participant Recruitment: Integrative Literature Review.

BACKGROUND: Social media tools have provided health researchers with the opportunity to engage with communities and groups in a nonconventional manner to recruit participants for health research. Using social media to advertise research opportunities and recruit participants facilitates accessibility to participants from broad geographical areas and diverse populations. However, little guidance is provided by ethics review boards for researchers to effectively use this recruitment method in their research. OBJECTIVE: This study sought to explore the literature on the use of social media for participant recruitment for research studies and identify the best practices for recruiting participants using this method. METHODS: An integrative review approach was used to synthesize the literature. A total of 5 health sciences databases, namely, EMBASE (Ovid), MEDLINE (Ovid and EBSCOhost), PsycINFO (Ovid), Scopus (Elsevier), and CINAHL Plus with Full Text (EBSCOhost), were searched using predefined keywords and inclusion and exclusion criteria. The initial search was conducted in October 2020 and was updated in February 2022. Descriptive and content analyses were applied to synthesize the results, and the findings are presented in a narrative and tabular format. RESULTS: A total of 96 records were included in this review, 83 (86%) from the initial search and 13 (14%) from the updated search. The publication year ranged between 2011 and 2022, with most publications (63/96, 66%) being from the United States. Regarding recruitment strategy, 45% (43/96) of the studies exclusively used social media, whereas 51% (49/96) used social media in conjunction with other strategies. The remaining 4% (4/96) provided guidelines and recommendations for social media recruitment. Notably, 38% (36/96) of these studies involved hard-to-reach populations. The findings also revealed that the use of social media is a cost-effective and efficient strategy for recruiting research participants. Despite the expanded use across different populations, there is limited participation of older adults in social media recruitment. CONCLUSIONS: This review provides important insights into the current use of social media for health research participant recruitment. Ethics boards and research support services in academic institutions are encouraged to explicitly provide researchers with guidelines on the use of social media for health research participant recruitment. A preliminary guideline prepared based on the findings of this review is proposed to spark further development in this area.

Developing nursing students' informatics competencies - A Canadian faculty perspective.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to explore nursing faculty experiences in integrating digital tools to support undergraduate students' learning and development of nursing informatics competencies. METHODS: This focused ethnography study used a combination of semi-structured interviews, document reviews, and field visits. Convenience and snowball sampling were applied to recruit participants. Data were analyzed concurrently with data collection, using thematic analysis. RESULTS: Twenty-one faculty members from nine undergraduate nursing programs in Western Canada participated. Themes discussed include: 1) meaning of the term nursing informatics, 2) faculty perceived nursing informatics competence, 3) developing students' nursing informatics competencies, 4) facilitators, and 5) challenges. CONCLUSIONS: Nursing faculty are relatively engaged in developing students' informatics competencies. However, challenges must be addressed and faculty need more support to improve their own informatics capacity. Implications for Practice and Research: This study has implications for faculty, nursing program administrators, and nursing organizations.

Emergency nurses' triage narrative data, their uses and structure: a scoping review protocol.

INTRODUCTION: The first clinical interaction most patients have in the emergency department occurs during triage. An unstructured narrative is generated during triage and is the first source of in-hospital documentation. These narratives capture the patient's reported reason for the visit and the initial assessment and offer significantly more nuanced descriptions of the patient's complaints than fixed field data. Previous research demonstrated these data are useful for predicting important clinical outcomes. Previous reviews examined these narratives in combination or isolation with other free-text sources, but used restricted searches and are becoming outdated. Furthermore, there are no reviews focused solely on nurses' (the primary collectors of these data) narratives. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: Using the Arksey and O'Malley scoping review framework and PRISMA-ScR reporting guidelines, we will perform structured searches of CINAHL, Ovid MEDLINE, ProQuest Central, Ovid Embase and Cochrane Library (via Wiley). Additionally, we will forward citation searches of all included studies. No geographical or study design exclusion criteria will be used. Studies examining disaster triage, published before 1990, and non-English language literature will be excluded. Data will be managed using online management tools; extracted data will be independently confirmed by a separate reviewer using prepiloted extraction forms. Cohen's kappa will be used to examine inter-rater agreement on pilot and final screening. Quantitative data will be expressed using measures of range and central tendency, counts, proportions and percentages, as appropriate. Qualitative data will be narrative summaries of the authors' primary findings. PATIENT AND PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT: No patients involved. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: No ethics approval is required. Findings will be submitted to peer-reviewed conferences and journals. Results will be disseminated using individual and institutional social media platforms.

Are Future Nurses Ready for Digital Health?: Informatics Competency Baseline Assessment.

BACKGROUND: Research continues to show significant gaps in nursing graduates' preparedness in digital health. PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to explore nursing students' self-perceived nursing informatics competency and preparedness in digital health, describe learning opportunities available, and identify perceived learning barriers and facilitators to developing informatics competency. METHODS: A sequential mixed-methods design, using a cross-sectional survey and interviews, was used. Senior undergraduate students (n = 221) in BScN programs in a Western Canadian Province participated. RESULTS: Participants self-reported being somewhat competent in nursing informatics. Three themes were identified: struggling to make sense of informatics nursing practice; learning experiences; and preparedness for future practice. CONCLUSION: Addressing inconsistencies in informatics education is an urgent priority so that nursing graduates are competent upon joining the workforce. Implications for nursing education, practice, and policy are discussed.

Compassionate nursing care and the use of digital health technologies: A scoping review.

BACKGROUND: Compassion is an essential component of quality patient-centered care and a core value in nursing practice. Although much work has been done to enhance nurses' informatics competency, there is limited understanding of how nurses can use, express, and preserve compassion when they use digital health technologies in the provision of patient care. PURPOSE: This study aimed to explore the nursing literature on how nurses provide compassionate care when they use digital health technologies. A secondary aim was to identify best practices that could be used to guide nursing education and practice toward enhancing compassionate care in digital environment. METHOD: A scoping review was conducted to address the following research question: What is known about compassionate care in relation to the use of digital health technologies within the nursing literature? A comprehensive search strategy was applied to CINAHL Plus with full text, Ovid Medline, Ovid HealthStar, Embase, APAPsychINFO, Scopus, and ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. In addition, a search of selected organizational websites and a hand search of reference lists of included studies were conducted. The eligibility of articles was determined by two reviewers independently. Descriptive and content analyses were applied. Findings were presented narratively and in a tabular format. RESULTS: Twenty-eight articles were included in this review. Most of this research was published between 2004 and 2020, using mostly qualitative methods. Narrative results were organized into three themes: 1) evolving understanding of compassionate nursing care in relation to use of digital health technology, 2) compassionate nursing care in relation to the type of digital health technology, and 3) strategies and interventions to improve education and competence relevant to digital health and compassionate nursing care. CONCLUSION: The use of technology influences how nurses do their work and interact with patients. As advances in digital health continue to evolve, future research should aim to expand understanding of compassion relevant to digital health by articulating its characteristics and associated competencies for nurses to further enhance their ability to provide compassionate care when digital health technologies and services are used to support care delivery. TWEETABLE ABSTRACT: A scoping review that identified how nurses can provide compassionate nursing care in technologically rich practice environments.

Transition of Mental Health Service Delivery to Telepsychiatry in Response to COVID-19: A Literature Review.

Due to COVID-19, face-to-face mental health service delivery has been interrupted by social distancing and stay-at-home orders. To abridge physical distance between patients and healthcare providers, while limiting exposure to COVID-19, telepsychiatry has been widely adopted to provide services to patients with pre-existing mental health disorders. Though telepsychiatry has become more mainstream in delivering mental health services during COVID-19, evaluation studies of the rapid conversion of care delivery from face-to-face to telepsychiatry have been limited. The aim of this study was to review the literature on the transition of mental health service delivery to telepsychiatry during COVID-19. The findings of the current review showed that a majority of patients and healthcare providers were satisfied with telepsychiatry services, and suggest that telepsychiatry is feasible and appropriate for supporting patients and healthcare providers during COVID-19.

Academic Electronic Health Records in Undergraduate Nursing Education: Mixed Methods Pilot Study.

BACKGROUND: Teaching students about electronic health records presents challenges for most nursing programs, primarily because of the limited training opportunities within clinical practice settings. A simulated electronic health record is an experiential, learner-centered strategy that enables students to acquire and apply the informatics knowledge needed for working with electronic records in a safe learning environment before the students have encounters with real patients. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to provide a preliminary evaluation of the Lippincott DocuCare simulated electronic health record and determine the feasibility issues associated with its implementation. METHODS: We used one-group pretest-posttest, surveys, and focus group interviews with students and instructors to pilot the DocuCare simulated electronic health record within an undergraduate nursing program in Western Canada. Volunteering students worked through 4 case scenarios during a 1-month pilot. Self-reported informatics knowledge and attitudes toward the electronic health record, accuracy of computerized documentation, satisfaction, and students' and educators' experiences were examined. Demographic and general information regarding informatics learning was also collected. RESULTS: Although 23 students participated in this study, only 13 completed surveys were included in the analysis. Almost two-thirds of the students indicated their overall understanding of nursing informatics as being fair or inadequate. The two-tailed paired samples t test used to evaluate the impact of DocuCare on students' self-reported informatics knowledge and attitudes toward the electronic health record revealed a statistically significant difference in the mean score of knowledge before and after using DocuCare (before: mean 2.95, SD 0.58; after: mean 3.83, SD 0.39; t 12=5.80, two-tailed; P<.001). There was no statistically significant difference in the mean scores of attitudes toward the electronic health record before and after using DocuCare (before: mean 3.75, SD 0.40; after: mean 3.70, SD 0.34; t 12=0.39, two-tailed; P=.70). Students' documentation scores varied from somewhat accurate to completely accurate; however, performance improved for the majority of students as they progressed from case scenarios 1 to 4. Both the faculty and students were highly satisfied with DocuCare and highly recommended its integration. Focus groups with 7 students and 3 educators revealed multiple themes. The participants shared suggestions regarding the DocuCare product customization and strategies for potential integration in undergraduate nursing programs. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated the feasibility and suitability of the DocuCare program as a tool to enhance students' learning about informatics and computerized documentation in electronic health records. Recommendations will be made to academic leadership in undergraduate programs on the basis of this study. Furthermore, a controlled evaluation study will be conducted in the future.

Digital and informatics competencies: Requirements for nursing leaders in Canada.

The use of health information technologies continues to grow, especially with the increase in virtual care in response to COVID-19. As the largest health professional group in Canada, nurses are key stakeholders and their active engagement is essential for the meaningful adoption and use of digital health technologies to support patient care. Nurse leaders in particular are uniquely positioned to inform key technology decisions; therefore, enhancing their informatics capacity is paramount to the success of digital health initiatives and investments. The purpose of this commentary is to reflect on current projects relevant to the development of informatics competencies for nurse leaders in the Canadian context and offer our perspectives on ways to enhance current and future nurse leaders' readiness for participation in digital health initiatives. Addressing the digital health knowledge and abilities of nurse leaders will improve their capacity to champion and lead transformative health system changes through digital innovation.

Interprofessional simulation to promote teamwork and communication between nursing and respiratory therapy students: A mixed-method research study.

BACKGROUND: Collaboration and teamwork are vitally important for safe patient care. Experiential learning through interprofessional simulation helps prepare students for the expansive requirements of today's complex healthcare environment. PURPOSE: To develop and evaluate an interprofessional simulation educational activity to promote teamwork and communication between respiratory therapy and nursing students. DESIGN: A mixed method design employing surveys, observation, and focus groups with educators and students was used. Thirty-six students from two institutions in Western Canada participated in this study. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and content analysis. RESULTS: Baseline assessment revealed students were most familiar and comfortable with team functioning and communication interprofessional competencies, familiar but uncomfortable with collaborative leadership, conflict resolution, patient-centered care, and role clarification competencies. Correlation between communication and teamwork and collaborative leadership suggests these competencies play an important role in students' ability to enact more complex skills, such as conflict resolution competency. Overall, participants were highly satisfied and shared invaluable insights for improving this simulation experience in the future. CONCLUSION: This evaluation study demonstrated feasibility of interprofessional simulation and its potential to enhance acquisition of interprofessional competencies. A future study will incorporate additional disciplines, such as medicine and pharmacy, applying a controlled evaluation design.

Approaches for defining and assessing nursing informatics competencies: a scoping review.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this scoping review was to examine and map the literature on defining and assessing nursing informatics competencies for nurses and nursing students. INTRODUCTION: Over the past three decades, nursing informatics competency research has evolved markedly within countries and nursing roles. It is important to examine the available literature on defining and assessing nursing informatics competencies to inform education, clinical practice, policy, and future research. INCLUSION CRITERIA: We considered literature that defined or assessed the concept of nursing informatics competency as a combination of knowledge, skills, and attitudes. This included nursing informatics competencies of nurses and nursing students in a variety of health care or academic settings. METHODS: An extensive search was conducted in Ovid MEDLINE, CINAHL Plus with Full Text via EBSCO, Ovid Embase, Ovid PsycINFO, ProQuest ERIC, Health and Psychosocial Instruments, ProQuest Australian Education Index, ProQuest Education Databases, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global, OCLC PapersFirst, Scopus, Web of Science Core Collection, Wiley Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and the JBI Database of Systematic Reviews and Implementation Reports. The initial search was conducted in May 2017 and updated several times. Nursing informatics websites were searched for gray literature, including unpublished research and organizational documents. Additional papers were identified based on a search of reference lists of all the included papers. Neither language nor date restrictions were applied. Two reviewers assessed each of the included papers independently. Data extraction was undertaken using an extraction tool developed specifically for the scoping review objectives. RESULTS: Fifty-two papers were included. Thirty-four papers identified nursing informatics competencies, grouped into four categories: i) nursing informatics competencies for students, entry-level nurses, or generalist nurses; ii) nursing informatics competencies for a specific nursing role; iii) recommendations for consensus on defining core nursing informatics competencies at the international level; and iv) forecasting future nursing informatics competencies as per evolving nursing roles. Eighteen papers reported on nursing informatics competency assessment tools. Results were discussed in a narrative format supported by tables. CONCLUSIONS: This review provided insights to the state of the science on defining and assessing nursing informatics competencies for nurses and nursing students. Several nursing informatics competency lists are available, and despite some variations in domains of nursing informatics competency and indicator statements, they mostly share common themes. This literature demonstrates a heightened awareness of the importance of nursing informatics competency; however, the availability of many lists may be challenging for frontline nursing staff, nursing educators, administrators, researchers, and students to assimilate. Further research is needed to reach a consensus on core domains of nursing informatics competency and associated indicators, preferably per nursing roles, with international involvement and consensus. Additionally, while many nursing informatics competency assessment tools exist, further research is needed to examine psychometric properties of some of these tools.

Approaches for defining and assessing nursing informatics competencies: a scoping review protocol.

REVIEW QUESTION: How are nursing informatics competencies defined or assessed in the literature?

Psychometric Properties of the Canadian Nurse Informatics Competency Assessment Scale.

Assessment of nursing informatics competencies has gained momentum in the scholarly literature in response to the increased need for resources available to support informatics capacity in nursing. The purpose of this study was to examine the factor structure and internal consistency reliability of the Canadian Nurse Informatics Competency Assessment Scale, a newly developed 21-item measure based on published entry-to-practice informatics competencies for RNs. For this study, 2844 nurses completed the Canadian Nurse Informatics Competency Assessment Scale through a cross-sectional survey. Exploratory principal component analysis with oblique promax rotation revealed a four-component/factor structure for the 21-item Canadian Nurse Informatics Competency Assessment Scale, explaining 61.04% of the variance. Item loading per each component reflected the original Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing grouping of nursing informatics competency indicators, as per three key domains of competency: information and knowledge management (α = .85); professional and regulatory accountability (α = .81); and use of information and communication technology in the delivery of patient care (α = .87) with the exception of one item (Indicator 3), which loaded into the category of foundational information and communication technology skills (α = .81). This study provided preliminary evidence for the construct validity of the entry-to-practice competency domains and the factor structure and reliability of the Canadian Nurse Informatics Competency Assessment Scale among practicing nurses. Further testing among nurses in other settings and among nursing students is recommended.

Development of the Canadian Nurse Informatics Competency Assessment Scale and Evaluation of Alberta's Registered Nurses' Self-perceived Informatics Competencies.

In today's digitally enabled healthcare environment, it is vitally important to assess Canadian nurses' competency in informatics. The researchers developed the Canadian Nurse Informatics Competency Assessment Scale, a 21-item comprehensive measure based on entry-to-practice informatics competencies for registered nurses, to facilitate assessment of informatics competencies and consequent, planning of formal and continuing education in informatics. The Canadian Nurse Informatics Competency Assessment Scale was used in a cross-sectional survey to determine self-perceived informatics competencies for Alberta's practicing nurses. Results from 2844 completed surveys showed that these nurses perceived their overall informatics competency as slightly above the mark of competent. Perceptions of competency were highest on foundational information and communication technology skills, slightly lower on competencies related to professional regulatory accountability and the use of information and communication technologies in the delivery of patient care, and lowest on information and knowledge management competencies. This study shed some light on priority areas for informatics education among practicing nurses in Alberta. Implications for nursing practice and research are discussed.

Factors Associated With Canadian Nurses' Informatics Competency.

As digital innovations continue to transform health systems in Canada, it is important to examine registered nurses' preparedness in informatics, and factors associated with informatics competency. An exploratory, descriptive, cross-sectional survey was used to determine self-perceived informatics competencies, and factors associated with competency, among practicing nurses in Alberta. Results from 2844 completed surveys showed that nurses' self-perceived informatics competency was slightly above the mark of competent. Perceptions of competency were highest on foundational computer literacy skills and lowest on information and knowledge management competencies. However, overall informatics competency mean scores varied significantly in relation to age, educational qualification, years of experience, and work setting. The quality of informatics training and support offered by employers contributed the most to variance in mean scores of total and subdomains of informatics competency. Other factors, such as age, educational qualification, work setting, previous informatics education, access to the Internet, use of health technology, access to supporting resources, informatics training, an informatics role, and continuing education in informatics, also contributed to mean scores variance in differing degrees. Findings from this study provide a basis for actionable policies to address informatics educational needs and support requirements among nurses practicing now and in the future.

Information and Communication Technology: Design, Delivery, and Outcomes from a Nursing Informatics Boot Camp

Information and communication technology (ICT) is integral in today's healthcare as a critical piece of support to both track and improve patient and organizational outcomes. Facilitating nurses' informatics competency development through continuing education is paramount to enhance their readiness to practice safely and accurately in technologically enabled work environments. In this article, we briefly describe progress in nursing informatics (NI) and share a project exemplar that describes our experience in the design, implementation, and evaluation of a NI educational event, a one-day boot camp format that was used to provide foundational knowledge in NI targeted primarily at frontline nurses in Alberta, Canada. We also discuss the project outcomes, including lessons learned and future implications. Overall, the boot camp was successful to raise nurses' awareness about the importance of informatics in nursing practice.