Educating the future eHealth professional nurse

Abstract

Nursing is at the cusp of a truly revolutionary time in its history with the emergence of electronic health (eHealth) technologies to support client care. However, technology itself will not transform healthcare without skilled practitioners who have the informatics background to practice in this new paradigm of client care. Nurse educators have been slow to react to the matter of the necessary knowledge, skills, and practice competencies required for nurses to function as eHealth practitioners. Specifically, undergraduate nursing education must take a proactive stance towards curriculum development in the areas of eHealth and informatics. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to propose recommendations about the review and redesign of nursing curricula in relation to nursing informatics. Recommendations include increased information literacy education, interdisciplinary collaboration, and client-centred technologies. Recommendations for faculty development in nursing informatics are also provided.