Educational strategies for integrating nursing informatics into undergraduate nursing curricula: A scoping review

The expansion of nursing informatics is a key development in the age of healthcare digital transformation. Nursing informatics integrates computer science, information management, and nursing science. Nursing informatics, an emerging discipline, significantly enhances nursing practice, education, research, and administration, improving care quality and patient safety by converting data into meaningful insights that reflect organisational efficiency and effective healthcare delivery.

The researchers conducted a scoping review from March 2025 to October 2025, encompassing five electronic databases: CINAHL, ERIC, ScienceDirect, ProQuest, and Google Scholar. The review followed the Arksey & O'Malley framework and the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) methodological guidelines and was reported using the PRISMA-ScR extension (PRISMA for Scoping Reviews). The inquiry also included grey literature. The search was confined to accessible sources with full-text availability, published in English from 2015 to 2025. The screening and selection of sources were conducted by two separate reviewers, with a third mediator reviewing any conflicts. The two principal reviewers executed the data extraction and thematic analysis.

Out of 1311 identified sources, 168 duplicates were removed, and 1143 underwent title and abstract screening, leading to the exclusion of 1044 sources. Consequently, 99 records remained, of which 84 were excluded for specific reasons, leaving 15 records included in the final review. Data were charted on authors; year and country of publication; study design (MMAT category); key competences; integration strategies/models; identified barriers/facilitators; and key outcomes. The findings identified four key themes: (1) a pervasive competency gap, (2) systemic and curricular limitations, (3) active and experiential learning strategies and (4) critical success factors and barriers.

This review maps the landscape of knowledge regarding the integration of informatics into nursing curricula. The evidence provided a synthesis of existing information on nursing curriculum informatics. The findings identify four major themes, highlight key gaps, and outline future directions for addressing these gaps. Outdated institutional practices, redundant instructional methods, and faculty resistance were identified as barriers to effective nursing informatics training.