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.

Competences in Social Media Use in the Area of Health and Healthcare.

In today's life, social media offer new working ways. People are increasingly expanding interactions from face-to-face meetings to online ways of communication, networking, searching, creating and sharing information, and furthermore taking care of patients/citizens via tweeting care, Facebook care, blogging care, vlogging care, infotainment care, gamification-care, infographic care, for instance. This chapter discusses the utilisation of social media in the healthcare domain including nursing education, practice and research. When in the current healthcare era, social media is used effectively and purposefully, it can give all of us a greater choice in how we live, how we take care of our health and how we learn and build both our professional competences and produce evidence-based, qualified data. Nurses need continuous education and proper tools to take the most of the benefits of social media, not forgetting privacy and ethical issues. This use of social media in professional nursing generates the need for new competences.

The Development Process of eHealth Strategy for Nurses in Finland.

Growing use of information and communication technology (ICT) demands have caused a need for nursing to strengthen the knowledge, skills and competences related to ICT in health (eHealth) and define its versatile roles. The Finnish Nurses Association (FNA) named a group of eHealth experts from various professional fields that are closely connected to nursing e.g. nursing practice, higher education, nursing research and administration. The main purpose was to describe nurses' contribution to the national strategy concerning eHealth development and implementation in health and social care. The group searched for answers, discussed strategic issues, wrote drafts, and sent texts for open commentary circles. The chosen themes of the eHealth strategies deal with the role of the client, nursing practice, ethical aspects education and eHealth competences, nursing leadership, knowledge management and research and development. The article describes the strategic work and the structure of eHealth strategy of nurses in Finland.

No turning back - prospects and challenges of eHealth.

eHealth is a term referring to tools and services using information and communication technologies (ICTs) that can improve healthcare in many ways, such as prevention, diagnosis, treatment, monitoring and management. The small 'e' in front of the eHealth (original abbreviation for "electronic health") has been given several meaning: 'e' also refers to efficiency, empowerment of patients, evidence-based health care, enabled cross-border communication, and equity access to services, for instance. Furthermore eHealth includes the attitude and commitment to networking and global way of thinking. The purpose of the article is to describe the many-sided eHealth, prospects and challenges, changes in roles of health care staff and patients, and to encourage discussion.

The essential elements of caring when building innovative service in South-African township.

When developing digital health care services there is a need for close cooperation between native and non-native developers. Via educating local people it is possible to find out health needs of families and develop an appropriate e-services.

Online discussions mirroring family life during pregnancy.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to find out what aspects of their parenthood parents revealed, and how they expressed their thoughts concerning maternity care services on an online communication forum. BACKGROUND: The 'Information Society' offers a growing variety of health services as part of public primary health care via the internet. Little is known about the contents produced online by pregnant families, and how they reflect on both family life and maternity care services. METHODS: The data for this study were obtained from online discussions between families (n=21) in Net Clinic, an internet-based service designed for public maternity care. The data included experiences of family life during pregnancy, childbirth and parenting, and was analysed by inductive content analysis. RESULTS: While maturing into parenthood, both women and men recognised the uniqueness of their new role and wanted to prepare for safe childbirth. Online communication in the home environment nourished new social networks among families who were expecting their first, second or third child. In addition, families reflected on maternity care services on the Net Clinic's communication forum. This provided realistic feedback to maternity care professionals. CONCLUSIONS: Today, the relationship between clients and professionals is inevitably changing. More online services and advocacy are needed if families are to have access to online health services. The role of professionals is diversifying from being authorities to supporting and facilitating clients' individual self-care. Based on direct client feedback, the quality of maternity care can be improved.

Pregnant families' discussions on the Net--from virtual connections toward real-life community.

The aim of this research was to analyze conversations between expectant families (N = 21) in Net Clinic, an Internet-based service designed for patients using public maternity care. The online conversations, shared opinions about experiences of pregnancy, and family life constituted the data for content analysis. The families developed a sense of virtual community, which gradually evolved into a real-life community, by discovering the similarity of their life situations and by giving parent-to-parent support for everyday life events. As a view of daily family life, Net Clinic offers maternity care professionals a deeper understanding of how to enhance safer pregnancy, birth, and growth of the family.

Commitment of project participants to developing health care services based on the internet technology.

BACKGROUND: When developing Information and Communication Technology (ICT), such as services for the decision-making process, skilled health care professionals with their comprehensive knowledge of patients/clients are essential contributors to the project. Careful evaluation is needed to assess the effectiveness of project management as well as to analyze the commitment of the personnel to goal attainment. OBJECTIVE: In the course of the development of integrated maternity care services, the commitment of project participants (n=48) was evaluated. What factors enhanced or impaired their commitment to the project work? METHODS: Questionnaire (n=80, response rate 60%) with quantitative analysis as well as open-ended questions with qualitative content analysis. RESULTS: Positive commitment was related to a confidential and open atmosphere during the project. The utilization of personal skills and experience was appreciated. Differences in the working principles and cultures between the participating organizations complicated fluent collaboration. To encourage commitment, a lot of attention should be paid to internal communication as well as the effective realization of project tasks. CONCLUSION: The strength of the project was the highly innovative and confidential atmosphere. The well-established project goals, the highly inspired project team, and the effective co-operation between the project manager and the core group helped to deepen overall commitment in the project.

'Maternity clinic on the net service' and its introduction into practice: experiences of maternity-care professionals.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the experiences of maternity-care professionals using an Internet-based network service, called Net Clinic, and the opportunities and obstacles they encountered in Net Clinic while organising their work and developing their know-how. DESIGN: Qualitative information gathered from semi-structured thematic interviews. SETTING: Four maternity care units in Eastern Finland (one antenatal ward in a university hospital, one antenatal ward in a central hospital, two maternity clinics in the community). PARTICIPANTS: Five midwives, two public health nurses and three doctors. FINDINGS: All participants considered adequate privacy protection a prerequisite for development. They anticipated that because of their computer skills, young people would be able to use information and communication technology (ICT) as part of maternity-care services naturally. Managerial support, such as allocation of time and equipment, was extremely important during the introductory phase. The participants were divided into three groups based on their experiences of implementing Net Clinic: (1) 'doubters' did not believe in their own ICT competence and were afraid of using Net Clinic. They also showed resistance to Net Clinic. Doubters wanted versatile and personal guidance in ICT skills; (2) 'accepters' agreed that progress in ICT would inevitably affect their work. Development was considered difficult without awareness of the benefits of ICT, and Net Clinic was expected to increase their workload. Accepters preferred to have one-to-one ICT training; (3) 'future confidents' saw ICT as a useful tool for developing maternity care. They recognised the opportunities implicit in network collaboration and wanted versatile user training in ICT. They wanted successful network service models and were eager to develop them. IMPLICATIONS FOR THE FUTURE: Families will increase their knowledge levels, as those who will be future parents are learning to use public network services at school. The increasing diversity of family structure will be a challenge to maternity care. Changes in maternity services can be accomplished with new e-Working models developed through diversified co-operation and with managerial support. The crucial question will be the attitude of maternity-care professionals towards Internet-based network service in their work.