Authors

  1. Procter, Paula M. RN, MSc, FBCS, CITP
  2. Stonham, Gill RN, BA, MBA

Article Content

Background and Significance:

The development of national nursing reference files for implementation forced us to consider nursing within a digital fluency framework where there is growth in thinking from data processing toward wisdom and compassion in information use. We were aware of a degree of indifference demonstrated by the nursing profession toward information and communications technology (ICT) and wanted to use this new development to judge whether there was any progression across the nursing community toward a state of wisdom with ICT.

 

Specific Aims:

The aim was to understand and manage nursing processes within a digital fluency framework.

 

Methods:

Methods used were discussion groups and academic intervention.

 

Outcomes:

Initial outcomes are confirming our understanding that mechanization has occurred rather than computerization in terms of nurse's use of information technology. Our plan-which we shall report at the conference-is to assist with moving nursing forward toward becoming digitally fluent where wisdom is associated with patient care information.

 

Lessons Learned:

Our considerations are built upon a taxonomy developed over the last 40 years in the use of computer technology. In the early days of computing, the highest value was given to processing data with tools that satisfied management's need to collect and list data about activity. As our competence increased, the era of information management arrived, where we could look at patterns of data and develop systems around the emerging information. More recently, we have added to the taxonomy knowledge management, knowledge topology, and wisdom. Our work, to date, suggests that most nurses have yet to attain these upper levels.

 

Section Description

We are pleased to share the paper presentation abstracts from the Summer Institute in Nursing Informatics, Informatics at the Point of Care: A Barrier or a Bridge?, held at the University of Maryland School of Nursing, July 22 to 25, 2009. The program, chaired by Dr Judy Ozbolt, was a great success. Each of the following abstracts was selected for presentation by a peer-review committee.