Diane J. Skiba

Benchmarking Best Practices in Web-Based Nursing Courses

This article describes the framework and process to determine best practices in online learning communities for Web-based nursing courses. The benchmarks for best practices were determined based on evidence-based research in higher education. These quality indicators were then used to develop and pilot test a benchmarking survey across three state schools of nursing. The results of the pilot test, as well as the applications and implications for benchmarking best practices, are discussed

Health professionals' views of informatics education: findings from the AMIA 1999 spring conference.

Health care leaders emphasize the need to include information technology and informatics concepts in formal education programs, yet integration of informatics into health educational programs has progressed slowly. The AMIA 1999 Spring Congress was held to address informatics educational issues across health professions, including the educational needs in the various health professions, goals for health informatics education, and implementation strategies to achieve these goals. This paper presents the results from AMIA work groups focused on informatics education for non-informatics health professionals. In the categories of informatics needs, goals, and strategies, conference attendees suggested elements in these areas: educational responsibilities for faculty and students, organizational responsibilities, core computer skills and informatics knowledge, how to learn informatics skills, and resources required to implement educational strategies.

Class Size as Related to the Use of Technology, Educational Practices, and Outcomes in Web-Based Nursing Courses

With the expanding numbers of nursing students enrolled in Web-based courses and the shortage of faculty, class sizes are increasing. This exploratory descriptive study examined class size in relation to the use of technology and to particular educational practices and outcomes. The sample consisted of undergraduate (n = 265) and graduate (n = 863) students enrolled in fully Web-based nursing courses. The Evaluating Educational Uses of Web-based Courses in Nursing survey (Billings, D., Connors, H., Skiba, D. (2001). Benchmarking best practices in Web-based nursing courses. Advances in Nursing Science, 23, 41--52) and the Social Presence Scale (Gunawardena, C. N., Zittle, F. J. (1997). Social presence as a predictor of satisfaction within a computer-mediated conferencing environment. The American Journal of Distance Education, 11, 9-26.) were used to gather data about the study variables. Class sizes were defined as very small (1 to 10 students), small (11 to 20 students), medium (21 to 30 students), large (31 to 40 students), and very large (41 students and above). Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. There were significant differences by class size in students perceptions of active participation in learning, student-faculty interaction, peer interaction, and connectedness. Some differences by class size between undergraduate and graduate students were also found, and these require further study.

Guideposts to the Future—An Agenda for Nursing Informatics

As new directions and priorities emerge in health care, nursing informatics leaders must prepare to guide the profession appropriately. To use an analogy, where a road bends or changes directions, guideposts indicate how drivers can stay on course. The AMIA Nursing Informatics Working Group (NIWG) produced this white paper as the product of a meeting convened: 1) to describe anticipated nationwide changes in demographics, health care quality, and health care informatics; 2) to assess the potential impact of genomic medicine and of new threats to society; 3) to align AMIA NIWG resources with emerging priorities; and 4) to identify guideposts in the form of an agenda to keep the NIWG on course in light of new opportunities. The anticipated societal changes provide opportunities for nursing informatics. Resources described below within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the National Committee for Health and Vital Statistics (NCVHS) can help to align AMIA NIWG with emerging priorities. The guideposts consist of priority areas for action in informatics, nursing education, and research. Nursing informatics professionals will collaborate as full participants in local, national, and international efforts related to the guideposts in order to make significant contributions that empower patients and providers for safer health care.

Patient-centered care, collaboration, communication, and coordination: a report from AMIA's 2013 Policy Meeting

In alignment with a major shift toward patient-centered care as the model for improving care in our health system, informatics is transforming patient-provider relationships and overall care delivery. AMIAs 2013 Health Policy Invitational was focused on examining existing challenges surrounding full engagement of the patient and crafting a research agenda and policy framework encouraging the use of informatics solutions to achieve this goal. The group tackled this challenge from educational, technical, and research perspectives. Recommendations include the need for consumer education regarding rights to data access, the need for consumers to access their health information in real time, and further research on effective methods to engage patients. This paper summarizes the meeting as well as the research agenda and policy recommendations prioritized among the invited experts and stakeholders.

National League for Nursing's informatics agenda.

tury.” At the summit, 3and 10-year plans were created, and individual professional organizations made a commitment to ensure that all nurses, current and future, will have the necessary knowledge and skills to practice in the ever-changing technology-rich healthcare environment. According to Skiba and Dulong, the TIGER Initiative embraces knowledge leadership and the effective use of social and intellectual capital to reach an intended target. Knowledge leadership brings together the intellectual capital from its network, in this case, more than 40 nursing professional organizations that were selected to represent the broader nursing community. The goal was to bring in these organizations and then use their social capital and infrastructure to bring forward the TIGER Initiative agenda and dissemination throughout their organization. “The success of the TIGER Initiative depends largely upon the extent to which the social capital of the broader nursing community is leveraged.” One such organization was the National League for Nursing (NLN), a professional organization dedicated to excellence in nursing education. The NLN, founded in 1893 as the American Society of Superintendents of Training Schools for Nurses, was the first organization for nursing in the United States. Their mission is to promote excellence in nursing education to build a strong and diverse nursing workforce. Within the NLN structure, there are various advisory councils and task groups to facilitate the mission and goals of the organization. One such advisory council is related to technology and has a long, rich history within the NLN. The NLN, along with the American Nurses Association (ANA), was the first professional organization in the 1980s to have councils devoted to informatics. National League for Nursing’s Informatics Agenda Diane J. Skiba, PhD, FAAN, FACMI Mary Anne Rizzolo, EdD, RN, FAAN

Using TIGER vision to move your agenda forward.

14 Nursing Management March 2008 H ow do effective nurse leaders collaborate to move an agenda? A common vision and action plan are important, but additional key ingredients are necessary for success. The TIGER (Technology Informatics Guiding Education Reform) Initiative is an example of how nurse leaders from diverse organizations representing specialty practices, academic institutions, informatics organizations, government, industry, and other professional groups have collaborated to define a common vision and action plan that can be completed within the next 3 years. The TIGER vision enables all nurses to use information systems and technologic solutions seamlessly within their practice to make healthcare safe, effective, efficient, patient-

TIGER Collaboratives and Diffusion

The Technology Informatics Guiding Education Reform (TIGER) Initiative started with a passionate dinner discussion among informatics colleagues after the announcement of the Office of the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology. These colleagues were determined to insure that nurses had the necessary knowledge and skills to practice in the “Decade of Health Information Technology” as it was being defined in July of 2004. From this conversation, a planning meeting was held in January of 2005 at Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing. The planning meeting brought together informatics colleagues from academia, health care institutions, the vendor community, and other federal entities. Many ideas were exchanged, but perhaps the most influential was from Dr. Angela McBride, who noted that the informatics community had many accomplishments but as a community we had not engaged our nursing colleagues. If we truly wanted to reach our goal of insuring that all nurses were prepared to practice, it was essential for us to engage the broader nursing community. Thus, the mission of TIGER was defined – to bring together leaders from various nursing specialty organizations to coalesce and create a vision plus an informatics agenda for the next 3 years and 10 years. This mission involved bringing together the intellectual and social capital of these specialty organizations with the informatics community to create an informatics agenda.

Usability-testing healthcare software with nursing informatics students in distance education: a case study

For two years, the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center nursing informatics program has joined with McKesson, a leading vendor of health care provider software, to simultaneously teach distance education students about user-centered design and to improve the usability of McKessons products. This paper describes lessons learned in this industry-education partnership. We have found that usability testing with nursing informatics students who are also experienced nurses compares well to testing with nonstudent nurses in terms of data collected, although there can be differences in how the data are interpreted organizationally and in the constraints on the data collection process. The students find participation in a remote usability test of health care software to be an engaging and helpful part of their coursework.

Technology Informatics Guiding Education Reform (TIGER). The Future of Interprofessional Education Is Here

This session will describe the TIGER Initiative journey, its evolution and accomplishments nationally and internationally. A powerful demonstration of the TIGER Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) will be highlighted along with case studies from around the world, with emphasis on global competencies and opportunities for engagement in all current TIGER activities and future plans.