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.