The DNP accreditation process identifies the learning objectives appropriate for required for the area of informatics. This defines the learning objectives for this course (with a few tweaks). These course objectives are covered in the Jenkins, et al, article in our assigned readings (Informatics in the Doctor of Nursing Practice Curriculum). They are on the 3rd and 4th pages of the article & they are also available on the course syllabus. These objectives were established in 2006. Should they be updated? How would you update them? Also, you can also consider how they match what you want to learn (if you want – just a suggestion).
To give you a sense of context, in 2006 Facebook began to open access to more than just select University students, the Motorola’s StarTAC cellphone was named one of the top-10 gadgets for the last 50 years.
(StarTAC my favorite cell phone– such a status symbol in the early ’00s)
The iPhone wasn’t introduced until 2008 and the iPad in 2010. Less than 35% of hospitals had an EHR and less than 15% of ambulatory practices had an EHR. In 2006, no one dreamed that in 2009 the federal government would start spending $38 billion in incentive payments to hospitals and eligible providers through the HITECH program (commonly referred to as Meaningful Use) to purchase and use EHRs and other software.
So you get the drift … times have changed. Should the objectives change? Or are they still core? Do they consider the new generation of nursing students who grew up with technology and are “Digital Natives?”
Some sources you can look at are Nursing Informatics programs and accreditation requirements, American Medical Informatics Association, and trade journals. You can also check out some leading Nursing Informatics Programs like the University of Maryland and UCSF.