Nursing Informatics MS Curriculum

The syllabus for N41.2005 is intended for graduate students in nursing. The course provides the foundations necessary to understand elementary biostatistics and applications of biostatistics in the medical literature. It will concentrate on the interpretation and comprehension of graphical and statistical techniques that are essential components to medical research. The ability to understand basic arithmetic and high school algebra is required.

This graduate research course is designed to develop the role of the advanced practice nurse, midwife, educator, administrator, or informatics specialist as a competent research consumer. An evidence-based practice paradigm is used to promote acquisition of information literacy and critical appraisal skills which, combined with clinical judgment and patient preferences, support evidence-based decision making.

This course analyzes health care system issues and trends, such as capitation, managed care and health care reimbursement, from historical, political and developmental perspectives. Factors that influence nursing practice will be analyzed, such as the corporatization of health care, and conflicts between economic and clinical priorities. Strategies and mechanisms that enhance the delivery of high quality nursing care will be discussed. The course will focus on these matters as they affect the scope, preparation and practice of advanced practice nurses and nurse-midwives.

The Population-Focused Care course explores advanced practice nursing at community and population levels. Nursing contributions to core public health functions and essential public health services are considered in the context of theoretical frameworks for health communication and behavioral change to develop programs to improve the health of populations. Data sources for community health assessment and epidemiologic analyses are examined. Cultural and political competencies are also addressed.

This course focuses on the theoretical basis of nursing and health care informatics. The model of data, information, and knowledge is used to explore the basis of nursing informatics within health care. Nursing classifications and taxonomies and the computerized patient record (CPR) are introduced. Strategies are examined for dissemination, access, retrieval, and evaluation of information for professionals and consumers of health care, with an emphasis on reducing health care disparities.

This course prepares nurses to employ a variety of interactive strategies and technologies to enhance health care delivery to consumers, with an emphasis on increasing access to underserved populations through reducing health disparities. Strategies for the successful deployment of technologies, as well as policy, research, funding, and reimbursement issues are explored. Consumer and computer interaction is emphasized and exemplified through specific computer applications.

This course emphasizes principles of system analysis and information flow within an organization. Content emphasizes identification of organizational problems, establishment of user priorities, and the use of automated design to address patient care system requirements. Concepts of the longitudinal patient record, enterprise health care systems, and life cycle of systems are discussed within the structure of evolving and changing systems. Students are introduced to the concepts of project management, collaboration, system integration and data security, and regulatory issues.

This course focuses on theoretical and application aspects of decision modeling in health care. Quantitative reasoning, including probabilistic reasoning, decision analysis, knowledge representation, and rule-based systems are presented. Clinical decision analysis incorporating patient preferences to support decision making are examined within the framework of the system architecture. Nursing and medical domain standards of information systems are identified.

This course focuses on the role of the nurse informaticist in the selection, implementation, management, and evaluation of nursing, clinical, and health care information systems. Strategies supporting system selection, change management, return on investment, value metrics, clinician buy-in, training, system security, monitoring, and evaluation criteria are presented reflective of a variety of clinical settings. The use of data in the provision of integrated information necessary for making critical business and or patient care delivery decision are also explored. In addition, regulatory and HIPAA standards and their impact on system implementation, management, and evaluation are also discussed.

This course is the final informatics experience for the nursing informatics curriculum. Within a clinical situation, the student completes a final project?approved by the course instructor?that demonstrates the advanced application of theoretical and practical aspects of nursing informatics. The leadership role of the nurse informaticist within the health care informatics framework is stressed. A weekly seminar, combined with the informatics practicum, promotes the integration of theory, knowledge, evidence-based informatics principles, collaboration issues, and legal and ethical issues for the nurse informaticist.