Bringing nursing informatics into the undergraduate classroom

Nursing informatics is not formally addressed in most undergraduate nursing education programs. Nurses usually rely on their employer and/or device vendors to provide this education. Few nurses are able to capitalize on the potential of computer technology because they have not been sufficiently exposed to nursing informatics during their nursing education. Biomedical computer technology/informatics needs to be brought into the classroom, away from the pressures of the work environment. Informatics training needs to be incorporated into undergraduate nursing education through an integrated systems approach, combining elements of nursing, systems analysis, and engineering. In this article, a university-based state-of-the-art classroom and education plan using an integrated approach to educate nurses in nursing informatics is described.