Nursing Informatics: A Core Competency for the Profession

This chapter provides the reader with a summary of nursing informatics, considering how it has evolved over a 50-year timeframe to become a core competency for the profession of nursing in twenty-first century healthcare. In this chapter we describe the background and context of nursing informatics and why it is a critical enabler for the advancement of the profession. Drawing on nursing theory and historical milestones on development of informatics within health and social care service delivery. This chapter uses an adaptation of the CARE acronym with four core concepts namely Connected health, Administration, Research, and Education to present the evidence and provide insights on key influences shaping the development and advancement of digital within the profession. Specifically this chapter focuses on introducing the reader to critical factors are which driving the practice of nursing informatics in order to impact upon patient outcomes, and deliver a quality orientated global health and social care service over time. This chapter therefore acts as a primer for chapters which follow in this fifth edition, and presents the fundamental concepts of nursing informatics in context. It provides an introductory and summative chapter for those who do not have a background in this topic and who wish to understand how nursing informatics is emerging as a core competency for the profession.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

1. School of Nursing Psychotherapy and Community Health, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland Pamela Hussey
2. Professor (Adjunct), School of Nursing, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada Kathryn J. Hannah

1. Pamela Hussey