Information Technology and Education

¶ … competencies put out by the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties (NONPF) is that nurse practitioners should be able to integrate appropriate technologies for knowledge management to improve health care. Information literacy is critical for promoting and ensuring evidence-based practice. The reason why the NONPF stipulates that information technology and knowledge management should be a core competency is that nurses need to be able to make decisions based on available evidence, and incorporate those decisions into their daily practice especially when it comes to clinical practice guidelines.

Moreover, the NONPF suggests that informatics literacy is ideally integrated into nurse education programs. Electronic clinical tracking systems (ECTSs) like Medatrax are crucial for promoting health informatics literacy in nursing education. Medatrax is a Web-based ECTS specifically designed for nursing students, providing a "permanent searchable repository for individual student clinical experiences across specific courses within an educational program," (Smith & Branstetter, 2016, p. 393). Population summaries and skills sets can be accessed via Medatrax, and used to help the nursing student locate appropriate employment placements (Smith & Branstetter, 2016, p. 393).

Furthermore, Medatrax allows for documentation and performance tracking, and can help reveal whether or not the student has achieved the core competencies. The system therefore ensures quality of care through human resources decisions. Hospital administrators and nurse managers can therefore capitalize on the ability of systems like Medatrax to improve their performance outcomes and meet objectives. Variables that affect competency in informatics include "level of education, nursing administration experience, and informatics education/training were significant factors affecting competency levels," (Yang, et al., 2014, p. 1).

Therefore, these variables can be taken into consideration when making clinical decisions or human resources decisions. Smart, Carter-Templeton & Brown (2016) point out that "the incorporation of information literacy skills training in nurse practitioner educational programs is paramount for the actualization of evidence-based practice in clinical nursing," (p. 145). When making decisions related to the actual curricula or coursework in a nurse education program, nursing educators can also use systems like Medatrax. It is a foregone conclusion that information technology literacy is a core competency for healthcare practitioners.

Nurse educators and healthcare administrators need systems that help them to identify weaknesses in their human resources, or in their curricula. Systems like Medatrax can help with this, to promote evidence-based practice. Nursing students need to fathom of the basics of health informatics, but also need to be able to integrate health informatics into their practice, to make critical decisions related to healthcare goals. Health informatics may also promote cultural competencies and complement other core competencies as listed by the NONPF.

For example, the informatics can lead to improvements in communications. Technology systems can be used to manage patient data across various spectrums, and integrate patient data between various providers. The nurse practitioner can also help advocate on behalf of patients better when armed with evidence from peer-reviewed sources. No matter what the area of specialization, nurse.