In response to survey data showing that the next generation of nurses may not be prepared to work in a technology-rich informatics environment, the National League for Nursing (NLN) has issued a position statement calling on faculty, deans, administrators, and the NLN itself to advocate that all students graduate with up-to-date knowledge and skills in computer literacy, information literacy, and informatics.
The genesis of the NLN position statement, Preparing the Next Generation of Nurses to Practice in a Technology-rich Environment: An Informatics Agenda, was a recent survey of faculty and nursing education administrators conducted by the NLN’s Informatics Competencies Task Group of the Educational Technology and Information Management Advisory Council. Results revealed that approximately 60 percent of programs had a computer literacy requirement and 40 percent had an information literacy requirement. Only 50 percent to 60 percent of respondents said that informatics was integrated into the curriculum and that clinical experience with information systems was provided during clinical experiences. The critical conclusion is that while most schools of nursing focused on computer and information literacy, there was considerable confusion as to what nursing informatics entails and what constitutes the necessary knowledge to practice in an informatics-rich environment. Read the position statement.
