Commentary: A systematic review of informatics competencies: requirements for nurse managers in healthcare organisations

Digital technology use within healthcare settings globally has increased significantly in recent decades. Nurses are often now expected to use electronic health record systems to find information about their patients, document assessments and care and perform functions like reviewing orders that were previously done on paper. Since the onset of the global pandemic, more care is being delivered by nurses in a virtual manner through video or telephone. Other technologies are also present in care settings, for example, those that monitor patients, and advanced communication systems. This massive increase in technology use by nurses has allowed for the capturing of all sorts of clinical and health system data that can be used to support improvements in the care that nurses deliver. This field, called informatics, has become increasingly recognised and popularised as a result. Many health professions have claimed their stake in informatics with physicians often talking about ‘medical informatics’, and nurses commonly discussing ‘nursing informatics’.

Given the rising technological demands on nurses, it is no wonder that there has been an increasing focus on how to ensure that direct care nurses have the appropriate competencies to provide patient care in technological environments. Much of the work completed in the nursing informatics competencies space to date has therefore been directed at the entry-to-practice level direct care nurse, with country-specific competencies sometimes being identified. For example, in Canada, the Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing and Canada Health Infoway developed a set of entry-to-practice competencies for nurses which is widely used today across the country (Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing, 2014). Competencies directed at this level have been most useful for nursing schools that aim to incorporate nursing informatics education into their programs.

While most literature to date on nursing informatics competencies has focused on direct care nurses, an increasing body of literature has developed on the unique competencies required of nurse leaders. Nurse leaders however are not a homogenous group, and therefore the competencies of a manager of direct care nurses is likely very different from that of those at senior and executive leadership levels. One nurse leader role that can have a very significant influence on the uptake and use of technology by nurses are nurse managers of direct care staff. These individuals will require a very different set of knowledge and skills to support adoption and use, from that of direct care staff themselves. In my role as Chief Clinical Informatics Officer at an academic teaching hospital, I have witnessed first-hand the significant value that nurse managers can exhibit in this regard. In my other role as a scientist, I was able to study some of the tactics and approaches nurse managers used to support nurses’ use of electronic health record systems (Strudwick et al., 2019). I am therefore glad to see the articulation of competencies specific to nurse managers in healthcare organisations presented in this literature review. This is an important first step in not only recognising the important role nurse managers play in the nursing informatics space, but also the articulation of what is needed to be successful in doing so.

As I think about the next steps of what happens after the identification of these competencies for nurse managers, several thoughts come to my mind. I wonder how nurse managers will come to know of these competencies, and how they will go about acquiring them. I also consider what the role of healthcare organisations is in supporting nurse managers in attending courses, developing learning plans, and other activities associated with obtaining these competencies.

Biography

Gillian Strudwick RN, PhD, FAMIA, FCAN is the chief clinical informatics officer and scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. She is an associate professor at the University of Toronto. She is a board member of AMS Healthcare and the Village Family Health Team.