Integrating Health Informatics into Pre-Registration Nursing Education: Insights from a Participatory Workshop.

The implementation of health informatics in pre-registration health professional degrees faces persistent challenges, including curriculum overload, educator workforce capability gaps, and financial constraints. Despite these barriers, reports of successful implementation of health informatics pre-registration nursing programs exist. A virtual workshop was held during thein 15th International Nursing Informatics Conference in 2021 with the aim to explore successful implementation strategies for incorporating health informatics into the nursing curriculum to meet the accreditation standards. This paper reports recommendations from the workshop emphasising the importance academic-clinical partnerships to develop innovative approaches to enhance theof capacity of academic teams and access to contemporary point of care digital technologies that reflect applications of health informatics in interdisciplinary clinical settings.

Perspectives on the implementation of health informatics curricula frameworks.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the necessity of equipping health professionals with knowledge and skills to effectively use digital technology for healthcare delivery. However, questions persist about the best approach to effectively educate future health professionals for this. A workshop at the 15th Nursing Informatics International Congress explored this issue. OBJECTIVE: To report findings from an international participatory workshop exploring pre-registration informatics implementation experiences. METHODS: A virtual workshop was held using whole and small group interactive methods aiming to 1) showcase international examples of incorporating health informatics into pre-registration education; 2) highlight essential elements and considerations for integrating health informatics into curricula; 3) identify integration models of health informatics; 4) identify core learning objectives, resources, and faculty capabilities for teaching informatics; and 5) propose curriculum evaluation strategies. The facilitators' recorded data and written notes were content analysed. RESULTS: Fourteen participants represented seven countries and a range of educational experiences. Four themes emerged: 1) Design: scaffolding digital health and technology capabilities; 2) Development: interprofessional experience of and engagement with digital health technology capabilities; 3) implementation strategies; and 4) Evaluation: multifaceted, multi-stakeholder evaluation of curricula. These themes were used to propose an implementation framework. DISCUSSION: Workshop findings emphasise global challenges in integrating health informatics into curricula. While course development approaches may appear linear, the learner-centred implementation framework based on workshop findings, advocates for a more cyclical approach. Iterative evaluation involving stakeholders, such as health services, will ensure that health professional education is progressive and innovative. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed implementation framework serves as a roadmap for successful health informatics implementation into health professional curricula. Prioritising engagement with health services and digital health industry is essential to ensure the relevance of implemented informatics curricula for the future workforce, acknowledging the variability in placement experiences and their influence on informatics exposure, experience, and learning.

Disruptive Technology, Leadership and the Future of Nursing.

Nurses need to take a strategic leadership role in managing disruptive health technologies that can be adopted to improve health and care within the population. While innovative technology developments continue to advance quickly, systematic changes to the health and care systems are not always geared to take advantage of these advances at the same rate. This panel will look at how disruptive technology will impact nursing practice and strategic leadership factors that shape acceptance/resistance to new technologies.

Methodology for the Development of the Australian National Nursing and Midwifery Digital Health Capability Framework.

Internationally healthcare organisations and governments are grappling with the issue of upskilling healthcare workforces in relation to digital health. Significant research has been undertaken in relation to documenting essential digital health capability requirements for the workforce. In 2019 the Australian Digital Health Agency funded work by the Australasian Institute of Digital Health to develop a National Nursing and Midwifery Digital Health Capability Framework. This paper describes the methodological approach used in the development of the Framework.

A Systematic Approach to Supporting Faculty Knowledge Development in Nursing and Health Informatics.

Using a systematic communication strategy the knowledge of nursing/health informatics amongst Faculty members has been developed resulting in the inclusion of informatics across the curriculum as part of the essential role of nurses and other healthcare practitioners in all areas of practice.

Undergraduate Nurses' Attitude Change to Health Technology Implementation.

The poster will report upon a longitudinal study exploring the attitudes towards the implementation of health technology into clinical and community nursing practice from the perspective of third year undergraduate students studying adult, child, mental health and learning disability nursing.

Building Nursing Knowledge to Meet the Needs of Disruptive Technology Healthcare Re-Design.

This paper provides a discourse based upon the key development of nursing in response to the emerging 4Ds of health technology re-design. Building informatics capability among health professionals is a workforce issue necessitated through the increasing prevalence of information technology and digitization of healthcare affecting the entire health workforce, specifically front-line nurses. The key concepts will be explored of Digitization, Distribution, Disruption and Diversity, a framework recognising the tsunami of technology such as Big Data analytics, comprehensive decision support systems for nursing, nanobots, robotics, and pharmacogenomics and the impact these have upon the nursing workforce.

Understanding and Accommodating Patient and Staff Choice When Implementing Video Consultations in Mental Health Services.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, some mental healthcare in the United Kingdom has moved online, with more likely to follow. The current evidence base for video consultations is modest; hence, this study seeks to aid decision-makers by reporting on one large National Health Service mental health trust's video-consultation pilot project. Patients' choices/preferences were gathered via online forms; and staff's views, through a focus group. The typical patient was female, 26 years old, living in a deprived locality. Consultations typically lasted 37 minutes, saving patients 0-30 minutes of travel and £0-£3.00. Satisfaction was high, and the software was intuitive. Audio quality varied, but patients felt able to disclose "as if in person," were willing to use video consultation again, and found them more preferable than home visits and clinic attendance. Staff could foresee benefits but were concerned for their therapeutic relationships and were avoidant without familiarization, training, clinical coaching, and managerial reassurances especially regarding high-risk patients/situations. They argued video consultation would not suit all patients and should be used according to individual need. We found COVID-19 is necessitating staff to adopt video consultation and that patients are satisfied. However, unless staff's concerns are resolved, enabling them to use their full repertoire of interpersonal skills, therapeutic relationships will trump efficiency and video consultations may not remain their treatment modality of choice.

If There's Something Strange in Your Neighbourhood, Who You Gonna Call? Perceived Mental Health Service User Suitability for Video Consultations.

COVID-19 has placed additional challenges on mental health services. Video consultations (VCs) have provided a short-term solution to lockdown restrictions but could also increase long-term capacity to meet the anticipated rising demand. A total of 7752 VCs were conducted over six weeks. Thematic analysis of 474 online survey responses identified twenty patient attributes that influenced staffs' decisions to offer VCs. Their opinions were diverse, at times contradictory, and not always evidence based. There was reasonable consensus (and published evidence to support) of the probable suitability of VC for patients who: are IT savvy and suitably equipped; are teenagers; live in remote/rural locations; have caring responsibilities; have anxiety disorders or express a preference. No consensus was reached regarding eight attributes and there was a corresponding paucity of evidence, indicating the need for further research. Conversely, old age; paranoia, sensory impairment/communication difficulties; high risk and trauma/PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorder) were generally seen as contraindicated by staff, despite published evidence of success elsewhere. It may be possible to overcome staff's reticence to offer these groups VCs. As staff are effectively the gatekeepers to VC interventions, it is important to understand and support them to overcome reservations that are contrary to the empirical evidence base. This will ensure that their initial anxieties do not become unnecessary barriers to services for those most in need. As with all mental healthcare, such decisions should be made collaboratively, and on an individual basis.

Towards the TIGER International Framework for Recommendations of Core Competencies in Health Informatics 2.0: Extending the Scope and the Roles.

This paper describes the methodology and developments towards the TIGER International Recommendation Framework of Core Competencies in Health Informatics 2.0. This Framework is meant to augment the scope from nursing towards a series of six other professional roles, i.e. direct patient care, health information management, executives, chief information officers, engineers and health IT specialists and researchers and educators. Health informatics core competency areas were compiled from various sources that had integrated the literature and were grouped into consistent clusters. The relevance of these core competency areas was rated in a survey by 718 professional experts from 51 countries. Furthermore, 22 local case studies illustrated the competencies and gave insight into examples of local educational practice. The Framework contributes to the overall discourse on how to shape health informatics education to improve quality and safety of care by enabling useful and successful health information systems.

Nursing, Professional Curiosity and Big Data CoCreating eHealth.

This paper describes work that has taken place over the past three years in the form of an annual deep dive study track within a national conference setting. The work explores the changing influence that big data, and in particular population and social determinants of health data, makes upon the generation of co-created eHealth within a nursing domain. Working with delegates, many of whom returned year after year, the paper reports the discussion themes and ideas that evolved over time. The paper is presented as an example of connected reasoning and personal development by all those involved and is offered as a distributed think tank for further discussion and debate.

Ubiquitous Adoption of Innovative and Supportive Information and Communications Technology Across Health and Social Care Needs Education for Clinicians.

The paper presents the development, use and evaluation of an on-line undergraduate module delivering an academic-led programme of eHealth learning within nursing, midwifery, allied health professional and social work courses. The health information technology competency frameworks are explored along with an overview of the resulting module. The need for an academically led module will be made along with a description of the management required to maintain validity of content materials. A review of student evaluations will be presented. In conclusion the positive change in attitude and understanding of academic staff members towards health information technology through the inclusion of the module across all of the undergraduate courses will be explored.

The Shifting Sands of Nursing Informatics Education: From Content to Connectivity.

This chapter considers the development of nurse education over the past 50 years and ventures a view towards 2020. A link will be made to the introduction of informatics to nursing curricula. It is clear when looking over the recent history of nurse education that it has moved from a medical model and content driven apprentice mode to that of a reflective agile professional mode where autonomous practice allows for collaboration in care and connectivity between health professionals. Parallel to these pedagogical changes are the introduction of informatics across healthcare, starting with computer skills and moving through information management to decision support. The chapter will conclude with some thoughts around the next possible steps forward for nursing informatics education.

Nursing Informatics Competencies for Entry to Practice: The Perspective of Six Countries.

Internationally, countries are challenged to prepare nurses for a future that has ever increasing use of technology and where information management is a central part of professional nursing practice. There has been a growing trend to move nursing to competency-based education, especially for those students undertaking their first nursing qualification. This first nursing qualification may be linked to pre-registration, pre-licensure or undergraduate education; the term used depending on the country. The authors are drawn from the International Medical Informatics Association special interest group, Nursing Informatics (IMIA-NI) Education Working Group and represent New Zealand, the United States of America, England, Australia, Finland and Canada.

Dementia and Robotics: People with Advancing Dementia and Their Carers Driving an Exploration into an Engineering Solution to Maintaining Safe Exercise Regimes.

The merging of the human world and the information technology world is advancing at a pace, even for those with dementia there are many useful smart 'phone applications including reminders, family pictures display, GPS functions and video communications. This paper will report upon initial collaborative work developing a robotic solution to engaging individuals with advancing dementia in safe exercise regimes. The research team has been driven by the needs of people with advancing dementia and their carers through a focus group methodology, the format, discussions and outcomes of these groups will be reported. The plans for the next stage of the research will be outlined including the continuing collaboration with advancing dementia and their carers.

Nursing and eHealth: Are We Preparing Our Future Nurses as Automatons or Informaticians?

The Education Working Group of IMIA NI present this thought provoking panel where the changing and challenging role of nursing will be explored within the information intensive eHealth arena. The session will be of interest to any nurse as the discussion will be driven by the objective of trying to understand how best to prepare nurses to be actively engaged in information and communication technology (ICT) developments that enhance care assessment, delivery, evaluation and audit. As a balance, the discussion will consider the increasing emergence of 'nursing by numbers' where risk assessment tools are used in an automatic way leaving little room for individual evidenced based care.

Social Media and Population Health Virtual Exchange for Senior Nursing Students: An International Collaboration.

The authors have all engaged in using social media with students as a means for collaboration across national and international boundaries for various educational purposes. Following the explosion of big data in health the authors are now moving this concept forward within undergraduate and postgraduate nursing curricula for the development of population health virtual exchanges. Nursing has a global presence and yet it appears as though students have little knowledge of the health and social care needs and provision outside their local environment. This development will allow for explorative exchange amongst students in three countries, enhancing their understanding of their own and the selected international population health needs and solutions through asking and responding to questions amongst the learning community involved. The connection of the students will be recorded for their use in reflection; of particular interest will be the use of information included by the students to answer questions about their locality.

Exploring Community Planning Thinking as a Model for Use Case Development.

There are many vetted technical and semantic standards promulgated within the United States and the United Kingdom to operationalize eHealth interoperability in order to improve care outcomes, manage population health, and provide efficient information exchange between providers, services, patients and consumers. However, consideration must be given to the complex real world use cases in which the data and information will be exchanged between a wide variety of interested parties, including the consumer or patient. In many instances, community based use cases need development in order to serve as the model. These use cases can only be accurately described and created by using a wide lens viewpoint such as community-planning engages, which requires that all interested parties be actively involved. This poster will introduce models of community planning that can be developed and led by the Nurse Informatician.

Encouraging nurses to take the lead on the information agenda.

This is the final in a series of four articles that discuss issues relating to the UK's growing reliance on health information technology. It is becoming increasingly clear that information and communication technologies are increasing the availability of health care, and improving the management, sharing and understanding of health care at a local and national level. This article explores the role of senior nurses in the management, delivery and support of care.

Encouraging nurses to develop effective electronic documentation.

This article is the first in a series that explores the growth in the use of, and reliance on, information management systems in health and social care. Its aim is to help nurses understand how effective information management systems can improve their practice. Problems faced by nurses in the past, when they have been required to use these systems to record, store and retrieve information, tended to be generated by poor or inappropriate systems. The series offers examples of how the vital role that nurses play in increasingly information-intensive healthcare environments can be developed. This first article sets the scene and considers the health and social care information agenda in light of the Department of Health (2012) information strategy.