Over the years there has been a call and mandates by national originations such as the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN), Institute of Medicine (IOM), and American Nurses Association (ANA) that nurses have more technology skills to meet ever-evolving workforce demands in the newer high-tech healthcare practice environments. This book provides a basic understanding of technology requirements using nursing informatics (NI) knowledge and skills needed in today's practice workforce as well as the basic considerations needed for professional development and lifelong learning. First it provides a foundation explaining the rapid evolution and importance of NI. The book then provides the basics to understating the primary tool used by nurses in today's clinical practice—the computer—as well as other technology and software needed in practice. It presents case scenarios and critical thinking questions and activities to engage the reader and enhance understanding of concepts. The book takes the reader further into clinical application such as general, everyday uses in project management as correlated with the nursing process, applications of NI and computer concepts used in research, as well as how NI and technology tie into and support education. It provides an overview of the connection between data, information, knowledge, and wisdom; definitions for quality and data quality; and criteria for quality data and information during input, storage, and at retrieval, display, and printing. The book also reviews competencies needed by the baccalaureate-prepared nurse in today's healthcare setting to recognize data quality, problems with data quality, and corrective measures.

Understanding and managing technology is a key component in providing quality patient care today. This book delivers required competencies and frameworks for both nursing education and practice, expanding upon integral systems and technologies within one’s healthcare system and their impact on the responsibilities of the individual nurse. Highlighting the intricacies within a specialized approach to healthcare data, data mining, and data organization, this resource connects day-to-day informatics practices to larger initiatives and perspectives. Clear and concise synopses of healthcare essentials, case studies, and abundant practical examples help readers understand how health informatics improves patient care within the nursing scope of practice. Thought-provoking questions in each chapter facilitate in-depth considerations about chapter content. The book provides a broad overview of informatics knowledge to empower nurses to be thoughtful and participate in the capture, storage, and use of data to optimize patient outcomes. Technology is changing rapidly in healthcare, and this book provides a primer for noninformatics nurses who wish to know more about data and how those data affect healthcare. It explains the importance of informatics and informatics competencies and provides the core of the informatics architecture, including the electronic health record and decision support tools. The text concludes with information related to the ethical, legal, and social issues related to informatics and the user experience.

The integration of technology with nursing curricula is a dynamic and increasingly necessary step in the evolution of nursing education. Schools of medicine have been using some form of virtual patient for over 40 years. The National League for Nursing has endorsed simulation as a teaching methodology to prepare nurses for practice across the healthcare continuum. This book offers nursing educators and administrators thoughtful and well-planned simulation integration strategies, and illustrates how students may use technologies to maximize learning and support practice. The book presents, explores, reflects, and expands on a new model for technology integration with nursing curricula. The Faculty Administrators Students Technology Simulation Integration Model^© (FAST SIM) provides a framework for guiding and evaluating the technology integration. The book is organized into four section comprising 19 chapters. Section one describes the evolving virtual learning landscape. It assess the virtual learning landscape, and describes the application of FAST SIM as the basis for integrating virtual educational technologies. Section two presents faculty perspective on pedagogical applications and specific integration strategies. It discusses the opportunities, challenges, advantages, and disadvantages of virtual technology integration. The section also explores the role of faculty in integrating virtual simulations and describes the design and creation of virtual gaming simulations in nursing education. It presents nursing student simulation scenarios within a virtual learning environment and discusses enhancing the rigor of virtual simulation. Section three describes a student’s journey encountering a virtual learning environment. It discusses mentor role in virtual simulation–mediated learning, and creating interprofessional simulation scenarios in virtual learning environments. The section also explores advancing nursing informatics knowledge and skills using a virtual learning environment. The final section presents an administrative perspective in navigating the chasm when a profound difference exists among stakeholders, viewpoints, and feelings regarding virtual simulation.

Project management is an important skill in both career and life, yet little has been written to provide nurses and other healthcare professionals acting in leadership and advanced practice roles with the tools needed to ensure success in this area. This book offers guidance and insights and ties the skills of a seasoned project manager, advanced practice nurse, and nurse educator together to take the reader through all phases of the project management process from start to finish through tools integrated throughout the text. It continues to grow from teaching and practice experiences in nursing informatics as well as working as a consultant and project manager implementing electronic health records nationally and internationally. Concepts in this text provide a guiding framework that graduate students can use in both clinical practice and leadership, as well as when preparing a practicum assignment for graduation and residencies to guide masters of science in nursing, nurse executive, and doctoral projects such as those in doctor of nursing practice and PhD programs. The book supports nurses and healthcare professionals in understanding and applying project management (nursing process) structures to goals and objectives that must be accomplished in an organized way, thus promoting the development of leadership skills as well. It outlines the phases of project management, such as design and planning, implementation, monitoring and controlling, and final evaluation. Tools utilized in the process include timelines and tracking tools, and many other management documents that help application and monitoring tasks are included. New to this second edition are case scenarios with exemplars of a process or application of a tool, critical-thinking questions and activities, and new, updated content based on the current practices and national organizations’ mandates. Many tools used in organizations for management of goals and objectives are included in each chapter.