The TIGER Initiative received significant support from education-focused professional organizations including the National League for Nursing (NLN) and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN). By late 2008, both had revised their curricular recommendations to include the use of information technologies and electronic health records as a core component of basic nursing education. This report will review the actions taken by these organizations as well as the ongoing development work that will continue to ensure that graduating nurses have the necessary informatics competencies to practice in today’s digital environment.
The National League for Nursing and two of their advisory committees are providing leadership in moving TIGER's agenda to prepare nurses to practice in a digital environment. In May 2008, the NLN Board of Governors approved the position statement titled, Preparing the Next Generation of Nurses to Practice in a Technology-Rich Environment: An Informatics Agenda. The position statement is available online at http://www.nln.org/aboutnln/PositionStatements/index.htm.
The position statement outlines 23 recommendations for nursing school administrators, faculty and for the organization itself. Examples of the recommendations include:
For Nursing School Administrators
For Faculty For the NLN
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF COLLEGES OF
NURSING
AACN took the lead incorporating informatics as an essential element of Baccalaureate and the Doctor of Nursing Practice Education and published “Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Practice,” which can be accessed at
http://www.aacn.nche.edu/Education/bacessn.htm.
This document serves as a framework for the preparation of nurses for professional practice in the 21st century. One of the nine essentials is
Information Management and Application of Patient Care Technology. It is expected that all baccalaureate education programs will incorporate the new essentials into their curriculum. In addition, the AACN previously incorporated informatics into their “Essentials of Doctoral Education for Advanced Nursing Practice.” One of the eight essentials is Information Systems/Technology and Patient Care Technology for the Improvement and Transformation of Health Care. See the sample recommendations for doctoral programs listed below, and you can access all recommendations online at: http://www.aacn.nche.edu/Education/essential s.htm.