HIT is pivotal to transforming healthcare by enabling the analysis of trends, outcomes, and interventions to improve patient safety, access, and outcomes. However, realizing this potential requires nurses and other healthcare leaders to understand nursing informatics and develop informatics competencies. Informatics applies concepts from computer science, cognitive science, and information science to manage and communicate clinical data to create knowledge and wisdom. While technology is an important tool, informatics provides the knowledge and skills to effectively harness technologies to improve healthcare.

1. (HIT) is pivotal to the transformation of healthcare Essay
(HIT) is pivotal to the transformation of healthcare Essay(HIT) is pivotal to the
transformation of healthcare EssayHealth information technology (HIT) is pivotal to the
transformation of healthcare but in order for that potential to be realized, healthcare
leaders at all levels—national, regional, and local—must first understand what nursing
informatics is in order to understand (McGonigle, Hunter, Sipes, & Hebda, 2014) strategies
to create the necessary framework. As future leaders, you share a responsibility for this
transformation. Some of the groundwork has been laid—the identification of needed
knowledge and skills, standardized terminologies, and key HIT legislation, but more work
lies ahead Strategies to transform healthcare with HIT also call for coordination and
simultaneous changes in healthcare delivery processes to accomplish specific results, such
as increased patient safety, cost reduction, increased access to care, integration of evidence-
based care practices, improved coordination of care, better patient tracking, ongoing quality
improvements, and improved patient outcomes (Mendelson & Johnson, 2011;Totten &
Paloski, 2012). HIT is more than electronic health record (EHR) systems. EHRs provide
much useful individual and aggregate data, but real-time data and information supplied by
clinical decision (CDS) tools outside of EHRs and analytics are needed to predict changes
and informed decisions across all sectors of healthcare and nursing. And that doesn’t even
begin to look at applications such as telehealth, monitoring technologies, and many smart
technologies! Most current systems do not have the real-time data and CDS tools to see “the
big picture,” but the healthcare industry is moving to embrace these tools (Emerging
models, 2013; Hogan, 2012; Johnson et al., 2012). Healthcare also needs to “leverage the
potential of the Internet” and patient portals to access records, patient-provider
communication and education, and facilitate selfmanagement of care (Mendelson &
Johnson, 2011). (HIT) is pivotal to the transformation of healthcare EssayORDER NOW FOR
CUSTOMIZED, PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPERSWhat is analytics? If you have signed up for
special discounts with a retail store and have a special card or key fob that you use to get
store discounts, data is collected about your shopping habits and to tailor ads to you. For
example, are you a pet “parent?” Do you buy the expensive brands of cat or dog food? This
collection and use of data is one example of analytics which is the discovery and
communication of meaningful patterns in data which can then be used to improve
marketing, or in healthcare services for the demographics served. Other terms to describe
analytics include data mining and knowledge discovery in databases. HIT has the very
useful capability to examine relationships among trends, interventions, and outcomes,

2. which can aid planning or be used to stem unwanted events (Mendelson & Johnson, 2011).
“2016 will be a year of firsts for players within healthcare as the industry adapts to the main
forces driving the new health economy: The rise of consumerism, the focus on value,
downward pressure on costs, technological innovation and the impact of new entrant,”
(PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2015).Realizing this potential requires a knowledgeable,
prepared nurse leader and nursing workforce. Technology Versus Informatics The presence
of technology does not mean that it will be used or used well. Technology is only a tool that
is useless if you don’t know what it can do or how to use it to advantage. You wouldn’t use a
syringe to check a blood pressure! That is where the importance of informatics comes into
play. Informatics provides the knowledge, skills, and understanding that allow us to harness
the tools at hand and to use them well to enact improvement. So what is informatics? What
Is Informatics? The term informatics comes from the French word informatique, which
refers to the use of computers and statistical methods to manage information (Hebda &
Czar, 2013). Informatics has since gained recognition as a specialty area that applies
concepts from computer, cognitive, and information sciences, as well as other emerging
areas, to manage and communicate data, information, knowledge, and wisdom. For the sake
of clarity, let’s discuss these foundational sciences briefly. Computer science studies the
theory underpinning information and computation and their implementation in computer
systems. Facets include hardware, software, and communications as well as solutions to
related problems. Cognitive science looks at how the human mind works from an
information processing perspective. Information science deals with the retrieval and
management of information as well as human-computer interaction. Informatics can be
applied to many different domains or disciplines. In healthcare, the terms healthcare
informatics or medical informatics are widely used and are often used as “umbrella terms”
to include each of the healthcare disciplines and consumers. While this approach has some
merit, it does not consider the needs of individual disciplines such as nursing, pharmacists,
or dieticians—shrouding them in a cloak of invisibility. What is nursing informatics?
Nursing informatics is all about ing both the work that nurses do and the decision-making
process for healthcare consumers and other providers to enable optimal outcomes. (HIT) is
pivotal to the transformation of healthcare EssayWe will discuss nursing informatics as a
specialization next week, but now our focus is why nurses need informatics knowledge and
skills. Nurses have a long history of collecting data, turning it into information, creating
knowledge, and ultimately wisdom. This process is known as knowledge work and nurses
are knowledge workers. Technology can aid knowledge work by helping nurses to collect
data, see trends, process information, and create knowledge that can be used to create
wisdom, but nurses need to understand the processes that allow this to happen as well as
the tools that HIT offers them. Today’s nurse needs a solid knowledge base, clinical
competency, and skill sets that include informatics competencies in order to provide safe,
effective, efficient, patientcentered care. This is particularly true at a time when the
achievement of a birth-todeath electronic health record (EHR) for every American is a
national goal and HIT has been proposed as a means to address the problems seen in the
healthcare delivery system. The Quality and Safety Education in Nursing (QSEN) project
identified informatics as one of the six key skill areas that nurses need to achieve optimal

3. patient care. More specifically, QSEN identified the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that
nurses need in the following six areas to achieve this level of care (American Association of
Colleges of Nursing QSEN Consortium, 2012). • • • • • • Quality: The ability to use data for
quality improvement purposes Safety: The ability to minimize risk of harm to both patients
and providers Teamwork and Collaboration:(HIT) is pivotal to the transformation of
healthcare EssayThe ability to work collaboratively and as a member of a team Patient-
Centered Care: Recognition of the patient as the locus of control and partner in his or her
own care Evidence-Based Practice Informatics: The use of information and technology to
communicate, manage knowledge, minimize error, and decisions The QSEN project
initially concentrated on prelicensure students, but has since identified graduate-level
competencies in collaboration with the American Association of Colleges of Nursing to
prepare future leaders in all areas of nursing practice in accordance with the
recommendations of the Institute of Medicine (2011) in its Future of Nursing report. The
demands of the healthcare delivery system and ensuring that all nurses are adequately
prepared with essential skills have implications for master’s-prepared nurses. First, there is
a need to understand what informatics—particularly nursing informatics—is and its
potential benefits. Second, there is a need to develop informatics competencies expected of
graduate-level nurses. And third, and as future leaders in practice, administration,
education, and research (Future of Nursing, 2011; AACN QSEN Educational Consortium,
2012), nurses prepared at the master’s level need to ensure that all nurses develop and
demonstrate informatics competencies appropriate to their levels of preparation and
practice. If there are any doubts about what these competencies might be, The Technology
Informatics Guiding Education Reform (TIGER) Initiative (2009), compiled and posted a list
of competencies on its website that every nurse should display. TIGER first came into being
with an invitation-only summit, Evidence and Informatics Transforming Nursing, in 2006,
which invited leaders from nursing, government, informatics and technology organizations,
and other stakeholders to come together to create a vision to transform nursing to bridge
the quality chasm through the use of technology (TIGER, 2013a). TIGER continues its focus
on the use of informatics and technology ‘to make healthcare safer, more effective, efficient,
patientcentered, timely and equitable by interweaving evidence and technology seamlessly
into practice, education and research fostering a learning healthcare system’ and is a useful
resource(HIT) is pivotal to the transformation of healthcare Essay(The TIGER Initiative,
2013b). The American Association of Colleges of Nursing has also identified informatics
competencies expected for each program graduate in their Essentials documents as well as
a cross walk document that provides a quick comparison by program level (American
Association of Colleges of Nursing, n.d.). Reflection Consider one example of a nursing
informatics skill or competency that is routinely seen in nursing practice. What is it? Would
most practicing nurses consider it a nursing skill or a nursing informatics skill? What is your
rationale for this reply? Reflection Consider one example of a nursing informatics skill or
competency that you feel you do well. Did you always consider it a nursing skill or a nursing
informatics skill? What is your rationale for your response? Summary Informatics
competencies are essential in a healthcare delivery system that is not only heavily
dependent upon HIT, but attempting to use it as a means to transform healthcare delivery.

4. All nurses need informatics competencies. The master’s-prepared nurse, as a leader in
nursing practice, needs to demonstrate a higher level of competencies than nurses prepared
at lower levels. Informatics provides the ability to nursing, healthcare consumers, and
other professions through the use of information, information structures, processes, and
technology. References American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN). (n.d.).
Crosswalk of the master’s essentials with the baccalaureate and DNP essentials. Retrieved
from http://www.aacn.nche.edu/faculty/faculty-tool-kits/masters-essentials/Crosswalk-
ofMasters.pdf American Association of Colleges of Nursing QSEN Consortium. (2012).
Graduate-level QSEN competencies: Knowledge, skills and attitudes. Retrieved from
http://www.aacn.nche.edu/faculty/qsen/competencies.pdf American Nurses Association.
(2015). Nursing informatics: Scope and standards of practice. Silver Spring, MD:
Nursebooks.org. Clarke, S., & French, S. (2013). Healthcare reform in 2013: Enduring and
universal challenges. Nursing Management, 44(3), 45–47.
doi:10.1097/01.NUMA.0000427185.42306.14 Emerging models of care take direct aim at
the changing needs of the industry. (2013). Managed Care Outlook, 26(6), 2–6. (HIT) is
pivotal to the transformation of healthcare EssayHealth IT hits federal and industry
agendas. (2013). hfm (Healthcare Financial Management), 67(4), 12–13. Hebda , T. & Czar,
P. (2013). Handbook of informatics for nurses & healthcare professionals (5th ed.). Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Institute of Medicine. (2011). The future of nursing: Leading
change, advancing health. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. Johnson, J. E.,
Veneziano, T., Malast, T., Mastro, K., Moran, A., Mulligan, L., & Smith, A. L. (2012). Nursing’s
future: What’s the message? Nursing Management, 43(7), 36–41.
doi:10.1097/01.NUMA.0000415493.20578.f2 McGonigle, D., Hunter, K., Sipes, C., & Hebda,
T. (2014). Why nurses need to understand nursing informatics. AORN Journal, 100(3), 324-
327 doi:10.1016/j.aorn.2014.06.012 PricewaterhouseCooprers, (2015). Merger mania, drug
pricing and new tech: PwCs Research Institute of Top Health Industry Trends for 2016. link
to article (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. The TIGER Initiative. (2013a).
TIGER Summit October 30–November 1, 2006. Retrieved from
http://www.thetigerinitiative.org/phase1.aspx The TIGER Initiative. (2013b). About TIGER:
TIGER vision statement. Retrieved from http://www.thetigerinitiative.org/about.aspx
Totten, M. K., & Paloski, D. (2012). Transforming healthcare: The board’s role. Healthcare
Executive, 27(1), 74–77. McGonigle, D. & Mastrian, K. (2018). Nursing informatics and the
foundation of knowledge (4th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett. • • • • • Section I:
Building blocks of NI Chapter 1: Nursing Science and the Foundation of Knowledge pp. 7-19
Chapter 2: Introduction to Information, Information Science, and Information Systems
pp.21-33 Chapter 3: Computer Science and the Foundation of Knowledge Model pp.33-62
Chapter 4: Introduction to Cognitive Science and Cognitive Informatics pp.65-74 McGonigle,
D., Hunter, K., Sipes, C., & Hebda, T. (2014). Why nurses need to understand nursing
informatics. AORN Journal, 100(3), 324-327 doi:10.1016/j.aorn.2014.06.012 Matney, S. A.,
Avant, K., & Staggers, N. (2016). Toward an understanding of wisdom in nursing. Online
Journal Of Issues In Nursing, 21(1), 7 doi:10.3912/OJIN.Vol21No01PPT02 Quality and
Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN). (2017). Graduate QSEN competencies. Retrieved from
http://qsen.org/competencies/graduate-ksas/. Link (Links to an external site.)Links to an

5. external site. Optional reading: American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) (2017).
AACN essentials.(HIT) is pivotal to the transformation of healthcare Essay