Nursing Informatics

Nursing informatics is defined as “a specialty that integrates nursing science, computer science, and information science to manage and communicate data, information, knowledge and wisdom in nursing practice” (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2018). Many topics were covered during the course of the NUR 4040 Nursing Informatics class. These topics ranged included learning and identifying what the topic of nursing informatics entailed, the ethical application of nursing informatics, and the human-technology interface to name a few. This paper will examine the personal objectives established at the beginning of the course and results of the computer attitude scale, as well as any changes in those responses. At the beginning of the course, each student was required to identify two personal objectives for the course. My two personal objectives were: 1). Gain a better understanding of what nursing informatics is and entails; and 2). Learn how I can apply this new gained knowledge to my own nursing practice. I feel that I have met my objectives for now, but there will continually be more information to learn and apply to my nursing practice. My first objective to gain understanding of what informatics is was established primarily in the first four chapters of the textbook. The first chapter, which was addressed in the first unit was “Nursing Science and the Foundation of Knowledge” (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2018). This defined the term nursing informatics and explained that nursing informatics encompasses data, information, knowledge and wisdom. Based on the definition of data and information, I was able to convert the data (the definition) and convert it into usable information. This allowed me to begin my understanding of nursing informatics. This was further enhanced by the following three chapters. These chapters included more detail on information science, cognitive science and computer science. I have learned that we acquire information through verbal and non-verbal cues (i.e. read, listen, see). The textbook also addressed wisdom and its role in nursing informatics (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2018). My favorite description of wisdom in the book is: “the synthesis of our experience