Call for More Health Care IT Training

[rninformatics, DNP, RN]

May 30, 2008

National League for Nursing Calls for More Health Care IT Training

Nursing schools need to update their undergraduate and post-graduate curricula and add faculty to adequately prepare nurses to use health care IT, according to a position statement from the National League for Nursing, a membership organization for nurse faculty and leaders in nursing education, Health IT Strategist reports.

"There is minimal implementation of these recommendations despite the fact that ours is an increasingly technological society, health care technology has expanded and the amount of access to information continues to grow at a phenomenal rate," the six-page statement said. It added, "It is imperative that graduates of today's nursing programs know how to interact with these important informatics tools to ensure safe and quality care."

Beverly Malone, CEO of the league, said, "If we don't get our nurses ready for this technology-rich environment, the care is not going to be where we want it to be." She added that 88,000 qualified nursing applicants were turned away last year because of a faculty shortage nationwide, so finding technologically-savvy educators will be another challenge for nursing schools.

The position statement includes 23 recommendations for nursing school administrators, faculty and the league (Conn, Health IT Strategist, 5/30).

The National League of Nursing's position statement is available online (.pdf).

http://www.nln.org/aboutnln/PositionStatements/informatics_052808.pdf