A systematic review of informatics competencies: requirements for nurse managers in healthcare organisations

One vital strategy for the success of healthcare organisations currently resides in the capacity of the nurse managers (NMs) to develop informatics competencies in management.

The aim of this review was to synthesise the evidence related to the informatics competencies of NMs in healthcare settings.

The databases of PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus and Education Resources Information Center were searched. All publications were accepted if they had been published in English and full texts were accessible. The study was carried out using a systematic literature search of work published between January 2000 and December 2021. The Endnote v.17 software was used to facilitate reference management. Quality assessment of publications was carried out independently by two reviewers using the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme guidance. A descriptive summary with data tables was produced to summarise the literature.

After screening the search results, 12 studies published between the period 2001 and 2019 met the inclusion criteria. Analysis of the included studies led to the classification of informatics competencies in three main themes: skills related to work with computers (four sub-themes), informatics skills of NMs (three sub-themes) and knowledge of NMs about informatics (five sub-themes).

These systematic review results can lead to the identification of informatics competency gaps and recommend and provide solutions to address these gaps and increase competencies for nursing managers.