Nursing (NURS) 322

Overview

Welcome to Nursing 322: Nursing Informatics. In this course you will explore the use of informatics in nursing practice and its role in enhancing client care. You will gain an appreciation of the competencies required of an expert knowledge worker and apply the relevance of those competencies to your day-to-day practice as a nurse. You will also examine issues related the protection of the privacy, confidentiality, and security of information in health care environments and the potential utility of a wide array of social networking tools in communicating health-related information.

Learning Outcomes

Nursing 322: Nursing Informatics is designed to assist you to

• develop a deeper appreciation of the concept of nurse as knowledge worker.
• become a more effective user of health information and information technology.
• describe how healthcare information systems and electronic health records can be used to enhance client care.
• explore privacy, confidentiality and security of information in electronic environments.
• describe some of the trends in health care that have lead to the increased use of information technology.
• examine the use of e-health and telehealth to deliver health care at a distance.
• investigate the utility of social networking tools, personal digital assistants and e-portfolios in health care environments.
• discuss ergonomic considerations in electronic environments.

Course Structure

NURS 322 comprises eleven units. Each unit includes a list of learning outcomes, recommended readings, and related learning activities.

Unit 1: What is Nursing Informatics?

Unit 2: Health Information on the Internet

Unit 3: Navigating the Digital Library

Unit 4: Electronic Health Record

Unit 5: Health Care Information Systems

Unit 6: Ethical and Legal Considerations

Unit 7: Telehealth

Unit 8: Using Social Networking Tools

Unit 9: Using Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs)

Unit 10: Using e-Portfolios

Unit 11: Ergonomics

Evaluation

To receive credit for NURS 322, students must complete and submit all of the required assignments, including conference participation, and achieve a composite grade of at least “C-” (60%). Effective January 1, 2010, all papers submitted must follow the guidelines of the APA Publication Manual (6th ed.) (2010).

The assignments and weighting of the composite grade is as follows:

Assignment 1 - Website Critique	20%
Assignment 2 - Security of Health Information	30%
Assignment 3 - Using Information Technology	30%
Assignment 4 - Conference Participation	20%
Total	100%

To learn more about assignments and examinations, please refer to Athabasca University's online Calendar.