Nursing informatics is a distinct specialty that applies computer science and information science to nursing. It promotes using relevant data to develop knowledge that supports nursing across all practice domains. Nursing informatics assists nurses through all aspects of patient care from admission to discharge by drastically altering how nurses diagnose, treat, administer care, and manage patients. The integration of information technology into nursing enables appropriate data flow, improves access to patient information, and enhances abilities to measure and audit quality of care. Nursing informatics combines nursing, technology, and innovation to lead to improved patient outcomes and higher quality of patient care.

1. Nursing Informatics – A Distinct Specialty<br />As nursing informatics began to evolve in the second half of the 20th century, nurses are developing and applying informatics methods and tools to discover knowledge and improve health from the molecular to the global level and are seeking the collective wisdom of interdisciplinary and interorganizational collaboration to effect the necessary changes. Realizing the potential of nurses to transform and improve health care and outcomes through informatics that will require fundamental changes in the individuals, organizations, and systems. 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<br />Assisting in all aspects of a patient’s nursing care from admission to discharge, technology is drastically altering the ways nurses diagnose, treat, administer care for, and manage their patients. The integration of information technology into nursing enables the appropriate flow of data collected by nurses, improving access to patient information at the point of care, and enhancing nursing abilities to benchmark, monitor, and audit quality measures. With nursing informatics, the passion for nursing, technology, and innovation leads to improved patient outcomes and higher quality patient.<br />