Technology and informatics competencies
Health care information technology has the potential to achieve clinical transformation. Nursing students and faculty must be able to use these tools effectively to use data and knowledge in their practice, and currently graduating nursing students are unprepared to use technology in the technology-rich environments they are entering. This article describes informatics competencies for four levels of nurses (beginning nurses, experienced nurses, informatics specialists, and informatics innovators). Three examples of health care information technologies, not information systems, used in acute care settings are presented (infrared tracking, a nurse-call system, and wireless telephone system; card-coding technology system; voice recognition software system). Recent activities to include informatics competencies in program outcomes are also described in relation to the clinical nurse leader, doctorate of nursing practice, and baccalaureate essentials documents. Nursing educators need to embrace existing competencies and include activities that will prepare our graduates to use health care information technologies that will result in clinical transformation.