[Nursing Informatics: state of the art and future of a subspecialty in nursing]

Nursing Informatics is defined as a specialty that combines nursing science, computer science and informatics to capture, process, store and communicate data, information and knowledge from the nursing domain. Therefore, Nursing Informatics is understood as a subspecialty within nursing. In Germany, Switzerland and Austria, Nursing Informatics looks back to more than 10 years of experience in the field. A Nursing Informatics Framework is proposed to represent the scientific and practical work. It goes beyond a mere definition and forms an action space for showing present achievements and the need for future activities. An analysis of the state of the science reveals that applications in patient care, management and education and training are nearly equally covered by Nursing Informatics. However, a deficit in basic research is apparent mainly in formalising and representing nursing knowledge. There is also a lack of system descriptions following the phases of the software-engineering process. In the requirements specification phase for nursing information systems meaningful reporting applications for use in quality assurance, evidence based nursing and management will have to be identified. Systematic software-engineering including scientific evaluations is needed in particular of systems in emerging areas such as case management. However, the activities proposed require a thorough education and training in Nursing Informatics on all levels.