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Overview

Informatics Competencies for Every Practicing Nurse:

Recommendations from the TIGER Collaborative

Overview

The TIGER Initiative, an acronym for T echnology I nformatics G uiding E ducation R eform, was formed in 2004 to bring together nursing stakeholders to develop a shared vision, strategies, and specific actions for improving nursing practice, education, and the delivery of patient care through the use of health information technology (IT). In 2006, the TIGER Initiative convened a summit of nursing stakeholders to develop, publish, and commit to carrying out the action steps defined within this plan. The Summary Report titled Evidence and Informatics Transforming Nursing: 3-Year Action Steps toward a 10-Year Vision is available on the website at www.tigersummit.com.

A COLLABORATIVE APPROACH

Since 2007, hundreds of volunteers have joined the TIGER Initiative to continue the action steps defined at the Summit. The TIGER Initiative is focused on using informatics tools, principles, theories and practices to enable nurses to make healthcare safer, more effective, efficient, patient-centered, timely and equitable. This goal can only be achieved if such technologies are integrated transparently into nursing practice and education. Recognizing the demands of an increasingly electronic healthcare environment, nursing education must be redesigned to keep up with the rapidly changing technology environment.

Collaborative teams were formed to accelerate the action plan within nine key topic areas. All teams worked on identifying best practices from both education and practice related to their topic, so that this knowledge can be shared with others interested in enhancing the use of information technology capabilities for nurses. Each collaborative team researched their subject with the perspective of “What does every practicing need to know about this topic?” The teams identified resources, references, gaps, and areas that need further development, and provide recommendations for the industry to accelerate the adoption of IT for nursing. The TIGER Initiative builds upon and recognizes the work of organizations, programs, research, and related initiatives in the academic, practice, and government working together towards a common goal.

COLLABORATIVE REPORT

This report provides the detailed findings and recommendations from the Informatics Competencies Collaborative Team. For a summary of the work of all nine TIGER Collaborative Teams, please review “ Collaborating to Integrate Evidence and Informatics into Nursing Practice and Education ” available on the website at www.tigersummit.com.

The TIGER Informatics Competencies Collaborative (TICC)Team was formed to develop informatics recommendations for all practicing nurses and graduating nursing students. TICC completed an extensive review of the literature as well as surveying nursing informatics education, research, and practice groups to obtain examples and identify gaps. This report describes the background, methodology, findings, and recommendations for future work in this area.

TABLE OF CONTENT

1. Overview (p. 2)

2. Executive Summary (p. 3)

3. Background (p. 4)

4. Methodology (p. 5)

5. Basic Computer Competencies (p. 7)

6. Information Literacy (p. 9)

7. Information Management (p. 11)

8. Implementation Strategies (p. 14 )

9. References (p. 15 )

10. Appendices (p. 18 )

11. Acknowledgements (p. 32 )

Background

Figure 1 - TIGER Collaborative Teams involved in Workforce Recommendations:

1. Informatics Competencies
2. Education and Faculty Development
3. Staff Development
4. Leadership Development
5. Virtual Demonstration Center

Nurses have always been at the forefront of patient care and focused on patient safety. The impetus for evaluating how prepared nurses are to use Electronic Health Records (EHRs) to improve patient care started in 2004. During President Bush's State of the Union Address that year, he mandated that all Americans will be using electronic health records by the year 2014. As reported in Building the Workforce for Health Information Transformation (AHIMA, 2006), “A work force capable of innovating, implementing, and using health communications and information technology (HIT) will be critical to healthcare’s success.” President Obama continued this momentum when he took office in 2009, proposing to “Let us be the generation that reshapes healthcare to compete in the digital age.” Less than 30 days after taking office, President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, earmarking $ billion to develop an electronic health information technology infrastructure that will improve the efficiency and access of healthcare to all Americans. In addition to the substantial investment in capital, technology and resources, the success of delivering an electronic healthcare platform will require an investment in people— to build an informatics-aware healthcare workforce.

This has accelerated the need to ensure that healthcare providers obtain competencies needed to work with electronic records, including basic computer skills, information literacy, and an understanding of informatics and information management capabilities. A comprehensive approach to education reform is necessary to reach the current workforce of nearly 3 million practicing nurses. The average age of a practicing nurse in the U.S. is 47 years. These individuals are “digital immigrants,” as they grew up without digital technology, had to adopt it later, and some may not have had the opportunity to be educated on its use or be comfortable with technology. This is opposed to “digital natives”: younger individuals that have grown up with digital technology such as

computers, the Internet, mobile phones, and MP3 (Prensky, 2001). There are a number of digital immigrants in the nursing workforce who have not mastered basic computer competencies, let alone information literacy and how to use HIT effectively and efficiently to enhance nursing practice.

The TIGER Summit, “Evidence and Informatics Transforming Nursing,” held in November of 2006, revealed an aggressive agenda that consisted of a 10-year vision and 3-year action plan for nurses to carry forward into the digital age. TIGER 's primary objective is to develop a U.S. nursing workforce capable of using electronic health records to improve the delivery of healthcare. For the TIGER Vision to be realized, the profession must master a minimum set of informatics competencies that allow nurses to use EHRs to deliver safer, more efficient, effective, timely and patient-centered care. This education will determine how well evidence and informatics is integrated into day- to-day practice. Since the TIGER Summit, five TIGER collaborative teams were formed to identify how to integrate informatics education into nurses competencies and nursing school developed recommendations focused on how to prepare nurses to practice in this digital era (see Figure 1). The TIGER Informatics Competencies Collaborative (TICC) team helped develop a minimum set of informatics competencies that all nurses need to have to practice today.

Methodology

The TIGER Informatics Competencies Collaborative was charged with the following goals:

Define the minimum set of informatics competencies that all nurses need to succeed in practice or education in today's digital era.

Fortunately, there was a significant amount of nursing research completed on informatics competencies, well ahead of most other healthcare professions. The TIGER Informatics Competency Collaborative (TICC) started by completing an extensive review of the literature for informatics competencies for practicing nurses and nursing students. TICC also collected informatics competencies for nurses from over 50 healthcare delivery organizations. The results of these efforts are available on the TICC Wiki at http://tigercompetencies.pbwiki.com. This resulted in over 1000 individual competency statements.

Much of the work involved synthesizing this extensive list of competencies into a list of competencies that was realistic for the nearly 3 million practicing nurses. This body of competencies was evaluated and condensed to create the three parts of the TIGER Nursing Informatics Competencies Model:

1. Basic Computer Competencies
2. Information Literacy
3. Information Management

Once the competency categories were established, each was aligned with an existing set of competencies maintained by standard development organizations or defacto standards. For example, excellent alignment was found with the existing standards of the European Computer Driving Licence Foundation for basic computer competencies; the Health Level 7’s EHR functional model clinical care components for information management competencies; and the American Library Association's information literacy standards. All of these sets of

competencies are standards maintained by existing industry organizations or standards development organizations. Leveraging existing competencies that are maintained by standards development organizations allow the TIGER Informatics Competency Collaborative (TICC) to recommend standards that are relevant to nurses and ones that will be sustainable as these bodies evolve the standards as necessary. Of equal or perhaps greater importance, these standard-setting bodies all have put tremendous thought, energy and expertise into there recommended competencies. When those competencies aligned with the informatics competency needs for nurses, we adopted theirs, thus adding strength, rigor, and validity to the TICC recommendations. Figure 2 illustrates the relationship between the competency category and the standard development organization.

As like all of the TIGER Collaborative teams, TICC completed their research with the use of conference calls and web meetings, electronic survey tools, and conducted interviews. Their conclusions are published in this report and were shared with colleagues through webinars that were held in 2008. In addition, numerous presentations on this topic were given at local, national and international conferences.

Basic Computer Competencies

A “digital native” has grown up with digital technology such as computers, the Internet, mobile phones, and MP3. A “digital immigrant” grew up without digital technology and adopted it later (Presnky, 2001). There are a substantial number of digital immigrants in the nursing workforce who have not mastered basic computer competencies. Many digital natives have gaps in their basic computer competency skill set.

Europeans realized this shortcoming in the workforce across many industries and acted on it. The European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) Foundation set basic computer competencies in the late 1990s and again in this decade. About seven million Europeans have now taken the ECDL exam and become certified in basic computer competencies. The ECDL syllabus is effectively a global standard in basic computer competencies (see list of modules below). ECDL has developed extensive training materials, including a certification exam.

RECOMMENDATIONS The TIGER Informatics Competency Collaborative (TICC) has adopted the ECDL competencies and is recommending them for all practicing nurses and graduating nursing students.

ECDL certification requires 30+ hours of study and costs more than some institutions may be able to afford. Therefore, we have ranked the relative importance of ECDL syllabus items and recommend the following as a first step to basic computer proficiency for all practicing nurses and graduating nursing students. These are feasible and affordable and will provide basic computer competencies for nurses and allow them to go on to obtain other TICC competencies (see Figure 2).

Module 1: Concepts of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Module 2: Using the Computer and Managing Files Module 3, Section 3.1: Word Processing: “Using the application” Module 7: Web Browsing and Communication

A detailed description of these three modules including the related competency statements can be found in Appendix A.

ECDL Modules

1. Concepts of Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
2. Using the Computer and Managing Files
3. Word Processing
4. Spreadsheets
5. Using Databases
6. Presentation
7. Web Browsing and Communication

Basic Computer Competencies

Figure 2 - Basic Computer Competencies Timeline

Recommendation Timeline for Adoption

All practicing nurses and graduating nursing students gain or demonstrate proficiency in ECDL modules 1, 2 and 7, as well as ECDL Category 3.

By January 2011

All practicing nurses and graduating nursing students become ECDL certified or hold a substantially equivalent certification

By January 2013

RESOURCES

European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) Foundation http://ecdl.com The ECDL syllabus is maintained and periodically updated by the not-for-profit ECDL Foundation. The ECDL Foundation makes arrangements with entities in various countries to localize the ECDL syllabus. Outside of Europe, ECDL is known as International Computer Driving Licence. ICDL is available in the United States through CSPlacement.

CSPlacement www.csplacement.com CSPlacement is the official distributor of ECDL within the United States. They offer CSP Basic , an e- learning course and a certification exam that is substantially equivalent to the TICC recommendation of a first and significant step towards basic computer competency for 2011. In addition, they also offer CSP , an e-learning course and a certification exam that is substantially equivalent to the entire ECDL syllabus that will meet the TICC recommendations for 2013.

Healthcare Information Management System Society (HIMSS) www.himss.org HIMSS has a new certificate called Health Informatics Training System (HITS). The HITS program of e-learning, testing, and certification contains content that is substantially equivalent to the TICC recommendation of a first and significant step towards basic computer competency, as well as other content.

Information Literacy Competencies

Figure 4 - Information Literacy Competencies Timeline

Recommendation Timeline for Adoption

All practicing nurses and graduating nursing students will have the ability to demonstrate Information Literacy steps 1 through 3

By January 2011

All practicing nurses and graduating nursing students will have the ability to demonstrate all 5 Information Literacy steps

By January 2013

As some institutions may find these competencies difficult to implement in their entirety immediately, as a first and significant step towards information literacy in nurses, the TICC recommends focusing on the first three competencies for the first year. Once these are achieved by nurses in a particular organization, the other two can be added so that by January 2013, all nurses have all five competencies and incoming nurses demonstrate or are helped to obtain all five.

RESOURCES American Library Association The ALA’s report “Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education” identifies the competencies recommended above as standards. The report also lists performance indicators and outcomes for each standard. A faculty member or instructor can effectively use this report to create a more detailed syllabus and or lesson plan(s) to implement the TICC information literacy competencies. http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/standards/informationliteracycompetency.cfm

The Information Literacy in Technology http://www.ilitassessment.com The iLIT test assesses a student’s ability to access, evaluate, incorporate, and use information. It is a commercially available test and may be of use in demonstrating proficiency in information literacy.

Examples of competency statements related to each of the Information Literacy steps can be found in Appendix B of this report.

Information Management Competencies

Information management is the underlying principle upon which TICC Clinical Information Management Competencies are built. Information management is a process consisting of 1) collecting data, 2) processing the data, and

3. presenting and communicating the processed data as information or knowledge.

An underlying concept for information management is the data-information-knowledge continuum. Data are discrete, atomic-level symbols, for example, the number 120. Information is data that is grouped or organized or processed in such a way that the data has meaning, for example a blood pressure of 120/80. Knowledge is information transformed or combined to be truly useful in making judgments and decisions. An example of knowledge is that a blood pressure of 120/80 is dangerously hypertensive in a neonate.

Information is managed by nurses in a variety of ways, but more and more the preferred or required method is through information systems. We define an information system as being composed of human and computer elements that work interdependently to process data into information. The most relevant, important, and fundamental information management competencies for nurses are those that relate to the electronic health record system (EHRs).

Using an EHRs will be the way nurses manage clinical information for the foreseeable future. However, nursing responsibilities are not changing in the shift to increased use of EHRs. For example, nurses are still required to exercise due care in protecting patient privacy. But the manner in which these responsibilities to patients and communities are upheld may be different. Therefore, all practicing nurses and graduating nursing students are therefore strongly encouraged to learn, demonstrate, and use information management competencies to carry out their fundamental clinical responsibilities in an increasingly safe,

effective, and efficient manner.

The most rigorous as well as practical work on enumerating the relevant parts of the EHRs for clinicians was done by Health Level 7 (HL7) EHR Technical Committee and was published in February 2007. This approved American National Standard (ANSI) publication is titled The HL7 EHR System Functional Model, Release 1 , otherwise known as ANSI/HL7 EHR, R1-2007.

The direct care component of the HL7 EHR System Functional Model serves as a basis of information management competencies for practicing nurses and graduating nursing students (see Appendix C). Although these clinical information management competencies are numerous, they merely make explicit competencies for proficient use of EHRS clinical nursing responsibilities that practicing nurses and graduating nursing students are responsible for today in a paper information management environment or a mixed paper and electronic environment.

However, the direct care component of the HL EHR System Functional Model is not quite sufficient by itself to cover the information management responsibilities of nurses in the digital era. What is needed is to translate these items into a set of competencies that address both the purpose and intended use of the HIT system (EHR in this case) and the “due care “ that nurses need to take in managing information via these systems. For example, electronic information is accessed and used in different ways than on paper, and it is important for the user (nurse) to understand these differences as well as the subsequent workflow and policies and procedures.

Fortunately, the European Computer Driving Licence Foundation has come up with a set of items that address these concerns, called ECDL- Health. The following chart (figure 5) illustrates how the ECDL-Health item can be linked to a competency statement.

Information Management Competencies

RECOMMENDATIONS As with the other categories of informatics competencies, the TICC developed a timeline to adopt and

integrate these competencies into nursing practice and education settings. Figure 5 illustrates these

recommendations for adoption.

Figure 5 - Information Management Competencies Timeline

Recommendation Timeline for Adoption

Schools of nursing and healthcare delivery organizations will implement the information competencies listed in Appendix.

By January 2012

Schools of nursing and healthcare delivery organizations will implement the transformed ECDL-Health syllabus items listed above.

By January 2012

RESOURCES

HL7 EHR System Functional Model http://www.hl7.org/EHR/ This ANSI standard can be used by nursing instructors in schools of nursing and healthcare delivery organizations to develop curriculum to impart the recommended information management competencies to all practicing nurses and graduating nursing students.

ICDL-Health Syllabus http://www.ecdl.com A significant portion of the HL7 EHR System Functional Model is covered by the ECDL-Health Syllabus. The ECDL-Health Syllabus was developed by the ECDL Foundation to extend the foundation of basic computer competency skills that are not industry specific into the healthcare industry.

Digital Patient Record Certification (DPRC) http://dprcertification.com The DPRC Program was developed with a panel of U.S. informatics subject matter experts and is endorsed by the American Medical Informatics Association. The DPRC web site states that it assesses a healthcare professional’s ability to accurately, dependably, and legally manage patient records in a digital environment.

Health Information System Management Society www.himss.org The HITS program, sponsored in the United States by the Health Information System Management Society, uses a more international version of the ICDL-Health syllabus. Both the DPRC and HITS certifications are a substantial first step towards achieving clinical information management competencies for U.S. nurses and graduating nursing students.

Implementation Strategies

In summary, Federal initiatives mandate the use of EHRs on all patients in the U.S. necessitates the need for all practicing and graduate nurses to master a minimum set of informatics competencies. This report describes the recommended competencies, and provides recommendations for resources that have already developed related educational material, and recommends a timeline for completion.

There are several other resources that might be

helpful in developing competency-based training

programs for informatics. The Quality Safety

Education For Nurses (QSEN) project is one such

resource. QSEN, a program funded by the

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation since 2006, is

primarily focused on developing the knowledge,

skills and attitudes (KSAs) necessary to improve

the quality and safety of the healthcare systems

within which they work. One of the KSAs within

QSEN is informatics. The QSEN project believes

that nurses need to "Use information and

technology to communicate, manage

knowledge, mitigate error, and support decision

making" (www.qsen.org). Faculty development

as well as curricular resources have been

developed through QSEN and are available for

dissemination on their website at

http://www.qsen.org.

Another beneficial resource that has developed

tools for nurses to assess their competencies

related to informatics can be found online at

http://www.nursing-

informatics.com/niassess/index.html. This

website also offers tools to help develop a

"Personal development plan" to improve

informatics competencies (see

http://www.nursing- informatics.com/niassess/Personal_Plan_ 007.pdf). Other tools available include quick informatics tutorials as well as self- tests:

http://www.nursing- informatics.com/niassess/tutorials.html

http://www.nursing- informatics.com/niassess/tests.html

As mentioned previously, four other TIGER Collaborative teams developed recommendations on how to implement the TICC competencies. Please refer to their reports for additional suggestions. These four teams include:

1. TIGER Education and Faculty Development
2. TIGER Staff Development
3. TIGER Leadership Development
4. TIGER Virtual Demonstration Center

These TIGER Collaborative reports are accessible on the TIGER website at http://www.tigersummit.com under the " Collaboratives" heading.

References

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McNeil BJ, Elfrink VL et al (2006). Computer literacy study: report of qualitative findings. Journal of Professional Nursing 22(1):52-

McNeil BJ, Elfrink VL et al (2003) Nursing information technology knowledge, skills, and preparation of student nurses, nursing faculty, and clinicians: A U.S. survey. Journal of Nursing Education 42(8):341-

McNeil BJ, Elfrink VL, Pierce ST et al (2005) Nursing informatics knowledge and competencies: A national survey of nursing education programs in the United States. International Journal of Medical Informatics 74:1021-

National Forum on Information Literacy (2007) Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. Accessed on November 20, 2009 at www.infolit.org

Ndiwane, A (2005) Teaching with the Nightingale Tracker technology in communitybased nursing educations: A pilot study_. Journal of Nursing Education_ 44(1):40-

Prensky, M (2001, October). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon. Accessed on November 2, 2009 at www.marcpresnsky.com/writing

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References

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Appendix A - Basic Computer Competencies

TIGER Informatics Competencies Recommendations - Basic Computer Competencies

1.3 Networks 1.3.1 Network Types 1.3.1.1 Unde area network (WAN).rstand the terms local area network (LAN), wireless local area network (WLAN), wide 1.3.1.2 Understand the term client/server. 1.3.1.3 Understand what the Internet is and know some of its main uses. 1.3.1.4 (^) Understand what an intranet, extranet is. 1.3.2 Data Transfer 1.3.2.1 Understand the concepts of downloading from, uploading to a network. 1.3.2.2 Understand what transfer rate means. Understand how it is measured: bits per second (bps), kilobits per second (kbps), megabits per second (mbps). 1.3.2.3 Know about different Internet connection services: dial-up, broadband. 1.3.2.4 Know about different options for connecting to the Internet like: phone line, mobile phone, cable, wireless, satellite. 1.3.2.5 U speed, higher risk of intruder attack.nderstand some of the characteristics of broadband: always on, typically a flat fee, high

1.4 ICT in Everyday Life 1.4.1 Electronic World 1.4.1.1 (^) Understand the term Information and Communication Technology (ICT). 1.4.1.2 Know about different Internet services for consumers like: e government. -commerce, ebanking, e-

1.4.1.3 Understand the term e-learning. Know some of its features like: flexible learning time, flexible learning location, multimedia learning experience, cost effectiveness.

1.4.1.

Understand the term teleworking. Know some of the advantages of teleworking like: reduced or no commuting time, greater ability to focus on one task, flexible schedules, reduced company space requirements. Know some disadvantages of teleworking like: lack of human contact, less emphasis on teamwork. 1.4.2 Communication 1.4.2.1 Understand the term electronic mail (email). 1.4.2.2 (^) Understand the term instant messaging (IM). 1.4.2.3 (^) Understand the term Voice overInternet Protocol (VoIP). 1.4.2.4 Understand the term Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feed. 1.4.2.5 Understand the term web log (blog). 1.4.2.6 (^) Understand the term podcast. 1.4.3 Virtual Communities 1.4.3.1 Understand the concept of an online (virtual) community. Recognize examples like: social networking websites, Internet forums, chat rooms,online computer games. 1.4.3.2 Know ways that users can publish and share content online: web log (blog), podcast, photos, video and audio clips.

1.4.3.

Know the importance of taking precautions when using online communities: make your profile private, limit the amount of personal information you post, be aware that posted information is publicly available, be wary of strangers.

Appendix A - Basic Computer Competencies

TIGER Informatics Competencies Recommendations - Basic Computer Competencies

1.4.4 Health 1.4.4.1 Understand the term ergonomics. 1.4.4.2 Recognize that lighting is a health factor in computer use. Be aware that use of artificial light, amount of light, direction of light are all important considerations. 1.4.4.3 Understand that correct positioning of the computer, desk and seat can help maintain a good posture. 1.4.4.4 Recognize ways to help ensure a user’s wellbeing while using a^ computer like: take regular stretches,have breaks, use eye relaxation techniques. 1.4.5 Environment 1.4.5.1 Know about the option of recycling computer components, printer cartridges and paper

1.4.5.2 Know about computer energy saving options: applying settings to automatically turn off the screen/monitor, to automatically put the computer to sleep, switching off the computer. 1. Security 1.5.1 Identity/Authentication 1.5.1.1 Understand that for security reasons a user name (ID) and^ password are needed for users to identify themselves when logging on to a computer. 1.5.1.2 Know about good password policies like: not sharing passwords, changing them regularly, adequate password length, adequate letter and number mix. 1.5.2 Data Security 1.5.2.1 (^) Understand the importance of having an off-site backup copy of files. 1.5.2.2 Understand what a firewall is. 1.5.2.3 Know ways to prevent data theft like: using a user name and password, locking computer and hardware using a security cable. 1.5.3 Viruses 1.5.3.1 Understand the term computer virus. 1.5.3.2 Be aware how viruses can enter a computer system. 1.5.3.3 Know how to protect against viruses and the importance of updating antivirus software regularly.

1.6 Law 1.6.1 Copyright 1.6.1.1 (^) Understand the term copyright.

1.6.1.2 Know how to recognize licensed software: by checking product ID, product registration, by viewing the software licence. 1.6.1.3 Understand the term end-user license agreement. 1.6.1.4 (^) Understand the terms shareware, freeware, open source. 1.6.2 Data Protection 1.6.2.1 Identify the main purposes of data protection legislation or conventions: to protect the rights of the data subject, to set out the responsibilities of the data controller. 1.6.2.2 (^) Identify the main data protection rights for a data subject in your country. 1.6.2.3 Identify the main data protection responsibilities for a data controller in your country.