Competencies Related to Informatics and Information Management for Practicing Nurses in Select Countries in Asia
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86 Forecasting Informatics Competencies for Nurses in the Future of Connected Health J. Murphy et al. (Eds.) © 2017 IMIA and IOS Press. This article is published online with Open Access by IOS Press and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC 4.0). doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-738-2-86 Competencies Related to Informatics and Information Management for Practicing Nurses in Select Countries in Asia Ying WUa, Yanling WANGa, and Meihua JIa aSchool of Nursing, Capital Medical University Abstract. The advancement of information and communication technology have enabled nurses to practice more effectively, efficiently, and safely. This chapter introduces nursing informatics competency and information management competency for nurses in China (including Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan), India, Japan, Korea, and Singapore. Most countries in Asia are still in the process of developing and standardizing competences that are relevant to nurses and those specialized in nursing informatics. The level and content of nursing informatics offered in entry-to-practice nursing education programs varies greatly. There is a growing need to adopt more comprehensive curriculum for entry-to- practice nursing education programs, as well as offer continuing education to help nurses to develop knowledge, skill, and attitude related to nursing informatics and information management in the world of connected health. Keywords. Nursing informatics; Nursing; Competency; Information management 1. Introduction The advancement of information and communication technology (ICT) and its wide use in nursing practice as well as in the whole healthcare system have enabled nurses to practice more effectively, efficiently, and safely. However, in order to take the full advantage of modern ICT in nursing practice, and create more effective, efficient, and safer nursing information system, it requires nurses to be competent in nursing informatics and information management in their daily practice. This chapter will introduce nursing informatics competency and information management competency for nurses in some Asian countries such as China (including Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong), India, Japan, Korea, and Singapore. 2. Competencies related to informatics and information management for nurses in China 2.1 Mainland China 2.1.1 Evolution of nursing informatics in practice sector The computer was first introduced into hospitals in the late 70s in Mainland China for the processing of basic administrative tasks and became more extensive in the 80s. It Y. Wu et al. / Nursing Informatics Competencies in Select Countries in Asia 87 was introduced into nursing practice in late 80s to the 90s.[1-3] Three stages were observed through our profound literature review. The first stage was a stand-alone system, mainly in office management. Computers were operated independently and there was no data sharing at all. In meeting the needs of nursing practice and management, nurses in some hospitals work with information technicians (ITs) to develop more complicated functions such as unit management and nursing error analysis [4, 5] to assist nursing practice. The second stage started in late 1990s, along with the rapid development of computer technology, especially broadband and multimedia technology. In 1993, the “Creation of Chinese Hospital Information System Project” was launched as the 8th five-year National Key Science and Technology Project, which developed the “China Hospital Information System” named as “Military Health No 1” in 1997. It was recognized as the first integrated clinical hospital information system developed in China [3, 6] and was widely implemented among large tertiary hospitals in China thereafter. [7] It enabled an inpatient nursing workstation system to be built based on that. This second stage was characterized by the utilization of broadband networking and hospital information system focused on three areas: health care management mainly order entry, billing management, and supply management; where data were shared only within the institution. An integrated nursing record information system (mainly free text) was included in this system. [7] In 2002, Peking University People’s Hospital developed a nursing record system which included four modules: collection of medical and nursing history data, nursing care planning, printing the nursing record, and a nursing knowledge database.[8] The third stage was characterized by the wide use of a mobile information system along with the development of wireless network technology in nursing practice (since 2010). Mobile nursing information technologies were first introduced to nursing practice as pilot projects and sporadically emerged at the beginning of this century. One such example is a PDA and mobile nursing information system based on the Hospital Information System (HIS) introduced at Peking Union Hospital in 2002, and then at the People's Liberation Army (PLA) General Hospital and the PLA 251 Hospital in 2005. The popularity of mobile nursing was accompanied with improvement of various mobile information technologies. With advancements in the functions of China’s HIS, increased speed of wireless WiFi, adoption of Radio-Frequency Integration Technology (RFIT), mobile nursing carts and mobile devices, the use of mobile electronic nursing records became one of the most important parts in nursing practice. In 2011, The Third Hospital of Peking University reported using mobile nursing carts based on their clinical nursing information system. Since then, the use of PDA and mobile nursing carts to provide bedside nursing care has become more and more popular in a vast majority of hospitals in Mainland China.[9] The functions of the mobile nursing information system cover many aspects of nursing practice, such as input and retrieval of patients’ demographic and clinical data, patient identification, entry of assessment data and documentation at the point-of-care, as well as the implementation and management of doctors’ orders, nursing quality control, nursing workload tracking etc.[10, 11] In particular, closed-loop medication management, dynamic tracking, quality control and quality improvement are used widely functions in more recent years. 88 Y. Wu et al. / Nursing Informatics Competencies in Select Countries in Asia 2.1.2 Nursing Informatics Organization in Mainland China China Medical Informatics Association (CMIA) was established in 1980, eleven years later, the CMIA Nursing Informatics Committee (CMIA-NI) was inaugurated in 1991. However, because the driving force of the implementation of NI in the practice sector was the hospital management bodies instead of nurses themselves in those early years, few NI activities and academic conferences were organized or held by CMIA-NI until 20 years later. Starting in 2012, the second term of the CMIA-NI board was formed with 48 members. The first academic event hosted by CMIA-NI, the Nursing Informatics Forum, was held on October 24th, 2012, along with the 7th Asia Pacific Association for Medical Informatics (APAMI) Conference. Since then, nursing informatics has developed dramatically in both the practice and academic (mainly research) sectors. In 2013, the 1st China National Nursing Informatics Conference (CNNIC), which is an annual conference hosted by CMIA-NI, was held in Beijing. The 4th CNNIC attracted 264 attendees and was held in September, 2016 in Xiamen, where the 16th World Congress on Medical and Health Informatics (Medinfo 2017) will be held in 2017. Along with the 4th CNNIC, the new term of CMIA-NI Board (4th term) was elected and the number of CMIA-NI members had increased from 48 in 2012 to 249 in 2016. With collaborative efforts from CMIA-NI members, and support from CMIA as well as other local organizations, CMIA-NI won the bid for hosting NI 2020 during NI 2016 GA meeting. It will be held in June, 2020 in Beijing. It was recognized as a new milestone in the history of CMIA and CMIA-NI. 2.1.3 Nursing informatics competencies in Mainland China With the rapid development of NI in the practice sector, the need for nurses to have informatics and information management competency increased dramatically. In some hospitals, positons for nurses to translate nursing practice needs between bedside nurses and information technology department emerged to close the gap between clinical practice and technology (hereafter, this position will be referred to as “informatics nurse”). Therefore, nursing schools in Mainland China began providing nursing informatics courses or related content to nursing students, mainly at the baccalaureate level, in addition to courses such as “Introduction to Computer Science” and “Literature Searching” which are mandatory for all bachelor degree students in Mainland China. Some nursing schools of universities in Mainland China have established master’s programs to prepare nurses working in the practice sector as an informatics nurse or in the academic sector as a NI educator and researcher. In order to provide adequate training on knowledge, skills, and ability related to NI for entry-to- practice nursing graduates, a competency model or a set of nursing informatics competencies for graduates who will work as bedside nurses are an urgent need. Research on nursing information competency emerged in the early 21st century. Early studies mainly focused on information literacy, and various studies viewed this concept differently. Some authors considered information literacy