Factors of Nursing Knowledge on Health Care Informatics

     An important part of this approach to technologically enhanced nursing care is the development of universal nursing data languages. The most prominent of these is the International Classification of Nursing Practice (ICNP) being developed by the International Council of Nurses (ICN). “The purpose of the ICNP is to provide a tool for describing and documenting key elements that represent clinical nursing practice” (Canadian Nurses Association, 2001, p. 2). In Canada, work on the Health Information: Nursing Components (HI:NC) represents a national initiative to quantify nursing care for computer data recording and analysis. As well, the “CIHI completed the development of a new Canadian Classification Health Interventions (CCI) that is currently being implemented in a number of provinces. The CCI was developed to be consistent with concepts and terminology in the ICNP. The classification contains a comprehensive list of diagnostic, therapeutic, support and surgical interventions, allowing for the standardized collection of health interventions, regardless of the service provider or service setting” (Canadian Nurses Association, 2001, p. 3). The intent of these languages is to ensure that nursing actions are included in the emerging electronic health records being developed at national and international levels.This is an important intent, since all too often, nursing actions become merged with the general health data of organizations, and are rendered indistinguishable as actual nursing behaviors. The danger though is that the unique qualities of nursing: the caring, the empathy, the customization of client care to suit client preferences and genuine needs may get “lost” or remain unnamed since they do not fit any of the designated data categories. Thus, the recorded data may only reflect the information needed for bureaucratic operations, rather than provide a continuum of individualized care for the client. 

      It is important then, for nurses to become critically aware of how and why they are using computers in nursing care, and that they become knowledgeable and skilled enough to influence the way nursing care becomes digitized. “The nation is at a tipping point in applying enabling technologies to healthcare. With the push coming from the federal government and all corners of the field, this is indeed a far-reaching revolution. The time has come for healthcare to leave the manual tools of the past in the past and turn to the enablers of the 21st century. The nursing profession is being transformed to meet the needs of the new world and will be a major player in the revolution” (Ball, 2005, p. 2). It is up to nurses as a group to choose whether they will be major players who simply perpetuate the modernistic workings of the system, or learn to apply technology to support the provision of true client-centered and supportive care. “Technology demands levels of attention, time and commitment that can be arduous for a nurse and inappropriate to the needs of patients and the clinical environment” (Barnard, 2000, p. 1138).  (http://www.nursing-informatics.com/revealing/technique.html)