The Professional Association's Perspective on Nursing Informatics and Competencies in the US

The American Nurses Association (ANA) recognized nursing informatics as a nursing specialty in 1992, developed the first scope and standards of nursing informatics practice in the mid-1990s, and remains the custodian and steward of each document revision. Over the past two decades, the definition of nursing informatics, scope of practice statement, and framework of the standards of practice have evolved to now include a collection of competencies for the informatics nurse and informatics nurse specialist. The American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), an ANA subsidiary, created and maintains a nursing informatics certification program that offers a board certification credential to qualified applicants, including international nurse colleagues. Such a certification program is intended to assess and publicly recognize competence of the informatics nurse.