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Some Nursing Informatics Defintions |
Last Updated: November 18, 2006
The terms are ordered chronologically in this documen, while the list below is alphabetical.
Links to off site defintions
Acccoring to Sackett and Erdley (2002), a Russian Scientist in 1966 coined the term informatika" and defined it as "The discipline of science which investigates the structures and properties (not specific content) of scientific information..." (Collen as cited in Sackett & Erdley).
A Frenchman, in the 1970's, Francois Gremy is credited with coining the term informatique medical, translated to medical informatics (Hannah, Ball & Edwards, 1999). It was defined as the informational technologies which are concerned with patient care and the medical decision making process. Another definition stated that medical informatics is the complex data processing by the computer to create new information.
As with many health care enterprises, there was debate about whether medical referred only to informatics focusing on physician concerns, or if it refers to all health care disciplines. Increasingly, it is seen that other disciplines have a body of knowledge separate from medicine, but part of health care and the term health-care informatics has become more commonly used.
The term "nursing informatics," was probably first used and defined by Scholes and Barber in 1980 in their address to the MEDINFO conference that year in Tokyo.
Health-care Informatics, however, is truly interdisciplinary. In its truest form it focuses on the care of the patient, not a specific discipline (Hannah, Ball & Edwards, 1999). Thus, although there are specific bodies of knowledge for each health care profession, nursing, dentistry, dietetics, pharmacy, medicine, etc., they interface at the patient.
As you read these various definitions of nursing informatics you will find some consistencies, and some differences. The definitions by the same individuals at different times (Saba & McCormick and Hannah) reflect a growth in their perspective. What is happening is a movement away from a focus on computers themselves to a focus on gathering and processing information to create knowledge.
Collen, M. (1995). A history of medical informatics in the United States, 1950 to 1990. Indianapolis, IN: American Medical Informatics Association.
Hannah, K. J. & Ball, M. J. & Edwards, K. J. (1999). Introduction to Nursing Informatics (2nd edition). New York: Springer-Verlag.
Sackett, K. M. & Erdley, W. S. (2002). The history of health care informatics. In S. Englebardt, & R. Nelson (Eds.). ,Health Care Informatics: An Interdisciplinary Approach (pp 453-477). St. Louis: Mosby.
...the application of computer technology to all fields of nursing--nursing services, nurse education, and nursing research. (p 73)
Scholes, M. & Barber, B. (1980). Towards nursing informatics. In D. A. D. Lindberg & S. Kaihara (Eds.) MEDINFO: 1980. Amsterdam, Netherlands: North-Holland, 7-73.
"The use of information technology in relation to any of the functions which are within the purview of nursing and which are carried out by nurses. Hence, any use of information technology by nurses in relation to the care of patients, or the educational preparation of individuals to practice in the discipline is considered nursing informatics." (P. 181)
Hannah, K. (1985). Current trends in nursing informatics: Implications for curriculum planning. In K. J. Hannah, E. J. Guillemin & D. K. Conklin (Eds.). Nursing uses of computers and information science: Proceedings of the IFIP=IMIA international symposium on nursing uses of computers and information science, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, May 1-3, 1985. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier Science Publishing, Inc. 181 - 187.
This definition was also adopted by Peterson and Gerdin-Jelger in the 1988 publication Preparing nurses for using information systems" Recommended informatic competencies. (Published by NLN Pub No. 14-2234). They gave examples which included using artificial intelligence or decision making systems, computerized scheduling, computer-assisted learning for patients or nursing education, a hospital information systems of research.
"A combination of computer science, information science, and nursing science designed to assist in the managements and processing of nursing data, information, and knowledge to support the practice of nursing and the delivery of nursing care." (p. 227)
Graves, J. R., & Corcoran, S. (1989). The study of nursing informatics. Image: The Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 21 (4), 227 - 231.
"The synthesis of nursing science, information management science, and computer science to enhance the input, retrieval, manipulation and/or distribution of nursing data." (p. 194).
McGonigle, E. & Eggers, R. (1991). Establishing a nursing informatics program. Computers in Nursing 9(5), 174-179.
"...a specialty that integrates nursing science, computer science, and information science in identifying, collecting, processing, and managing data and information to support nursing practice, administration, education, and research; and to expand nursing knowledge. The purpose of nursing informatics is to: analyze information requirements; design, implement and evaluate information systems and data structures that support nursing; and identify and apply computer technologies for nursing."
American Nurses Association Council on Computers in Nursing. (1995). Report on the designation of nursing informatics as a specialty. Congress of Nursing Practice unpublished report. In Saba, V., McCormick, K. Essentials of Computers for Nursing. (2nd ed). New York: McGraw-Hill.
"... use of information technologies in relation to those functions within the purview of nursing, and that are carried out by nurses when performing their duties. Therefore, any use of information technologies by nurses in relation to the care of their patients, the administration of health care facilities, or the educational preparation of individuals to practice the discipline is considered nursing informatics. For example, nursing informatics would include, but not be limited to, the use of artificial intelligence or decision-making systems to support the use of the nursing process; the use of a computer-based scheduling package to allocate staff in a hospital or health care organization; the use of computers for patient education; the use of computer-assisted learning in nursing education; nursing use of a hospital information system; or research related to information nurses use in making patient care decisions and how those decisions are made." (p 5)
Hannah, K. J., Ball, M. J., & Edwards, M. J. A. (1994). Introduction to Nursing Informatics. New York: Springer Verlag.
"Nursing informatics is the specialty that integrates nursing science, computer science, and information science in identifying, collecting, processing, and managing data and information to support nursing practice, administration, education, research and the expansion of nursing knowledge." (p. 3)
American Nurses Association. (1994). The scope of practice for nursing informatics. Washington, DC: American Nurses Publishing, NP-90 7.5M 5/94.
"It [nursing informatics] is concerned with the legitimate access to and use of data, information, and knowledge to standardize documentation, improve communication, and support decision-making process." (p. 222)
"The use of technology and/or a computer system to collect, store, process, display, retrieve, and communicate timely data and information in and across health care facilities that:
Saba, V. K. & McCormick, K. A. (1995). Essentials of computers for nurses (2nd ed). New York: McGraw Hill.
"The use of technology and/or a computer system to collect, store, process, display, retrieve, and communicate timely data and information in and across health care facilities designed to:
Saba, V. & McCormick, K. (1997). Summer Institute at U of MD - July 21st, 1997
The following is a result of a Delphi study with 44 International experts, from the US, UK, Netherlands and the rest of Europe. The consensus on it was very high.
"Nursing informatics is the multi-disciplinary scientific endeavor of analyzing, formalizing and modeling how nurses collect and manage data, process data into information and knowledge, make knowledge-based decisions and inferences for patient care, and use this empirical and experiential knowledge in order to broaden the scope and enhance the quality of their professional practice. The scientific methods central to nursing informatics are focused on:
A distinction is made between communicative, analytical, engineering and managerial methods. For the development of nursing information systems, the use of several different methods, both qualitative and quantitative will be necessary. Some of the most important methods are:
Goossen W. T. F. (1996). Nursing information management and processing: a framework and definition for systems analysis, design and evaluation. International Journal of Biomedical Computing, 40, 187-195.
Nursing Informatics is the integration of nursing, its information, and information management with information processing and communication technology, to support the health of people world-wide.
International Medical Informatics Association - Nursing Informatics (IMIA-NI), 1998
Nursing informatics is the discipline that is concerned with the development, use, and evaluation of nursing information systems. (p. 25)
Goossen, W. T. F. (2000). Towards Strategic use of Nursing Information in the Netherlands. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Gegevens Koninklijke Bibliltheek Den Haag
Nursing informatics is a specialty that integrates nursing science, computer science, and information science to manage and communicate data, information, and knowledge in nursing practice. Nursing informatics facilitates the integration of data, information, and knowledge to support patients, nurses, and other providers in their decision-making in all roles and settings. This support is accomplished through the use of information structures, information processes, and information technology. (p. 17)
American Nurses Association. (2001). Scope and Standards of Nursing Informatics Practice. Washington, DC: American Nurses Publishing.
Nursing Informatics (NI) is the application of computer science and information science to nursing. NI promotes the generation, management and processing of relevant data in order to use information and develop knowledge that supports nursing in all practice domains. (See http://www.cnia.ca/education.htm)
Nursing Informatics (NI): integrates nursing science, computer science, and information science to manage and communicate data, information, and knowledge in nursing practice. Nursing informatics facilitates the integration of data, information, and knowledge to support clients, nurses, and other providers in their decision-making in all roles and settings. This support is accomplished through the use of information structures, information processes, and information technology. The goal of nursing informatics is to improve the health of populations, communities, families, and individuals by optimizing information management and communication. This includes the use of information and technology in the direct provision of care, in establishing effective administrative systems, in managing and delivering educational experiences, in supporting lifelong learning, and in supporting nursing research. (See http://www.cnia.ca/education.htm)
Nursing informatics is using technology, research, and professional experience to manage nursing data, information, and knowledge to improve practice and deliver better health care.
Simpson, Roy (2006). In H. A. Park, P. Murray,& C. Delaney, C. (Eds.). Consumer-Centered Computer-Supported Care for Healthy People. Amsterdam, Netherlands: IOS Press, p 5
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