Informatics Competency Measurement Instruments for Nursing Students: A Rapid Review.

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Nursing Education
• Digital Health Transformation

Background:

• Digital transformation necessitates essential informatics capabilities for future health professionals.
• Measuring these competencies is vital for a smooth transition from education to practice.
• Existing instruments for self-assessing nursing informatics competencies require rigorous evaluation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review and assess the validity and reliability of existing instruments for self-assessing nursing informatics competencies.
• To identify gaps in the psychometric properties of current measurement tools.
• To inform the selection of appropriate instruments for educational and practice settings.

Main Methods:

• Rapid review conducted following Cochrane and World Health Organization guidelines.
• Searched MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE, and PubMed databases for empirical studies.
• Included studies reporting psychometric assessment of informatics competency instruments; methodological quality appraised using COSMIN taxonomy.

Main Results:

• Identified five instruments from six studies across four countries.
• Examined study characteristics, constructs measured, populations, instrument types, and psychometric properties.
• Found underreporting of crucial measurement properties, specifically content validity and reliability, indicating significant gaps.

Conclusions:

• Existing instruments for assessing nursing informatics competencies have limitations in reported validity and reliability.
• Further research is needed to address identified gaps in measurement properties.
• Selecting practical and feasible instruments requires consideration of measured constructs and suitability for diverse settings.