Introduction 

Background  

Nursing Language in  
Information Systems  

Glossary  

Informatics Standards of  
Interest to Nurses: 

Nursing Informatics 

 

Introduction 

Nursing informatics is one element of the broader field of health informatics, an amalgam of health and information sciences. Nursing informatics intersects with the disciplines and domains concerned with the conceptual, cognitive, and mechanical structures and algorithms used to manage data, information, and knowledge. These intersections or overlaps contribute to the delivery of professional nursing care, the generation of nursing knowledge, and the achievement of health for individuals, families, and communities. 

All health care professions interact, share the same overall mission, have access to the same published scientific knowledge, and, to some degree, overlap. In the practice setting, nursing informatics applications do not exist alone. Nursing uses programs and data sets common to many clinical disciplines. Nursing informatics assumes an important role in ensuring that nursing's data and knowledge are structured in such a way that they are accepted and accessible to the larger health care community. Because nursing utilizes information for purposes different from those of other clinical disciplines, it may require programs and information management tools that are tailored to the unique goals of clinical nursing. 

Nursing informatics is a scientific discipline that serves the profession of nursing by supporting the information handling work of other nursing specialties. Nursing informatics is the specialty that integrates nursing science, computer science, and information science in identifying, collecting, processing, and managing data and information to support nursing practice, administration, education, research, and the  expansion of nursing knowledge. It supports the practice of all nursing specialties in all sites, settings of care, and at the basic or advanced practice level. 

The practice of nursing informatics includes the development and evaluation of applications, tools, processes, and structures which assist nurses with the management of data in taking care of patients or in supporting the practice of nursing. It includes adapting or customizing existing informatics technology to the requirements of nurses. It involves collaboration with other health care and informatics professionals in the development of informatics products and standards for nursing and health care informatics. 

The term, informatics, denotes the activities involved in identifying, naming, organizing, grouping, collecting, processing, analyzing, storing retrieving, or managing data and information. The term, information handling, defines all the informatics activities of nurses. The term, nursing practice, includes all areas of nursing endeavor e.g., patient care, research, education, administration, and informatics.