[rninformatics]

Greetings!


Reflection on National Nurses Week (May 6th-12th)


National Nurses Week is celebrated each year to honor those women and men who have chosen the nursing profession as a career and to highlight the many and diverse ways that nurses contribute to the betterment of patient care. You may additionally know that nursing is the largest of the health care professions and there are more than 2.9 million registered nurses practicing in the United States.


Nurses share their talents in diverse settings and many choose to specialize their practice and expertise in highly defined areas or types of patient care. One of the newest, and rapidly growing of these nursing areas is Nursing Informatics. As envisioned by the International Medical Informatics Association – Nursing Informatics Special Interest Group, “Nursing informatics is the integration of nursing, its information, and information management with information processing and communication technology, to support the health of people world wide.” (Adopted August 1998, Seoul, Korea)


The HIMSS Nursing Informatics Community http://www.himss.org/ASP/topics_nursingInformatics.asp and specifically the Nursing Informatics Awareness Workgroup are requesting your support in circulating the attached flyer noting that May 12th has been designated Nursing Informatics Day by ANA and HIMSS Nursing Informatics Community. It is no coincidence that May 12th was chosen for this day as it is the day of Florence Nightingale's birthday. Florence is probably the first noted nurse to gather, analyze and interpret data for meaningful improvements on care environments and how care was delivered to patients. She was our first identified Informatics Nurse!


Please share the flyer linked below with any nursing groups, members or interested parties that have a desire to understand and learn more about this exciting and expanding area of our profession. The HIMSS Nursing Informatics Awareness Workgroup appreciates your support in this effort.


Have a GREAT National Nurses Week!


Sincerely,


HIMSS Nursing Informatics Community


FLYER: http://www.himss.org/handouts/NIAwar...ay12th2007.pdf