Nursing informatics competencies required of nurses in Taiwan

The rate of development and change in information technology is accelerating. This has a great effect on nursing. In today's workplace, nurses are required to be highly skilled professionals with both information technology and nursing expertise. Health educators and administrators have encouraged the integration of informatics into the nursing curriculum. In addition, nursing informatics competencies are being recognized as an important capability of nurses. This study concerning nursing informatics competencies within the nursing profession is necessary, because it integrates the dimensions of nursing informatics competencies and suggests a useful starting point to further develop an appropriate nursing curriculum in Taiwan, resulting in better prepared nursing students to succeed in health care systems. This study focused on identifying the nursing informatics competencies required of nurses in Taiwan. A modified Web-based Delphi method was used to implement the study seeking consensus with nursing informatics competencies from two expert groups in nursing. Nursing experts, including 23 nursing educators and 9 nursing administrators in Taiwan, were recruited. The experts responded to 323 items of the Nursing Informatics Competencies Questionnaire, modified by the researcher to include 45 additional items. Three Web-based Delphi rounds were conducted to identify nursing informatics competencies required of nurses in Taiwan. Analysis included detailed item analysis and comparison of educators' and administrators' ratings using Fisher's exact test. Competencies that met 60% or greater agreement of item importance and appropriate level of nursing practice were included. By the conclusion of Round 3, 318 nursing informatics competencies had achieved consensus of item importance and appropriate level of nursing practice. There was a high degree of agreement regarding specific nursing informatics competencies requirement for nurses in Taiwan. In addition, the study updated the list of nursing informatics competency requirements, which has international relevance since information technology is a global track in the nursing profession.