NURSING INFORMATICS IN

CANADA
CANADIAN NURSES
ASSOCIATION
Registered nurses need to be able to
demonstrate their unique contribution
to the health of Canadians within Canada's
rapidly evolving health care system.
Basic, essential nursing information is required
by nurses, employers, researchers,
educators, policy makers, and clients so that
informed decisions can be made
about nursing's role in the changing health care
system,"
The National Nursing Informatics
Project

In 1998, the Canadian Nurses Association
spearheaded another initiative, the
National Nursing Informatics Project, to
begin to develop a national consensus on
definition, competencies, and educational
strategies and priorities in nursing
informatics development.
"In 1998 a national steering committee
was formed to address Nursing
Informatics issues and develop strategies
to ensure that Registered Nurses have the
competencies required to successfully
carry out the responsibilities of their
practice - whether that be clinical,
administrative, educational or research.
The committee members of
National Nursing Informatics
Projects
1. Canadian Association of University
Schools of Nursing
2. Canadian Nurses Association,
3. Registered Nurses Association of British
Columbia
4. Academy of Canadian Executive
Nurses
5. COACH Nursing Informatics Special
Interest Group.
Each participating organization appointed
a nurse expert in Nursing Informatics to a
five-member working group to develop and
initiate a plan to:
1. develop consensus on a definition of
Nursing Informatics for Canada;
2. recommend Nursing Informatics
competencies for entry level nurses and
specialists, managers, educators, and
researchers;

3. identify curriculum implications and
strategies for both basic and continuing
nursing education
4. determine priorities for implementing
national nursing informatics education
strategies.

Nursing Minimum Data Set

The Nursing Minimum Data Set was the
first major Canadian Nurses Association
informatics initiative beginning in 1990.
This was in response to the strong
conviction that nursing data must be
included in the centralized national health
data system being planned by the
Canadian Institute of Health Information
(CIHI)

Another influential group, the Canadian
Institute for Health Information (CIHI) also
plays a unique and crucial role in the
development of this new Canadian health
information system. CIHI has described its' role
as
1. Setting National standards for financial,
statistical, and clinical data
2. Setting National standards for health
information technology,
3. Collecting, processing, and maintaining health
related databases and registries
The CIHI helped introduce the Strategic Plan for
Health Information Management in British
Columbia in 1996 that provides guidelines for
holistic assessment and processing of
information.
1995, the CIHI initiated a project to provide a
cohesive set of guidelines for Canadian health
information privacy
In 1999, a second edition of these guidelines
was produced, which incorporated issues
related to the advancement of health information
and techology.
In 2002, an updated version Privacy and
Confidentiality of Health Information at
CIHI: Principles and policies for the
protection of health information
In March 2000, the CIHI published an
updated version of theRoadmap
Initiative, a national vision and four-year
action plan to modernize Canada's health
information system
The CIHI also provide a
comprehensive Goodsourcing
Statisticswebsite related to Canadian
health and health care, society, the
environment and National populations.
Dozens of other reports are available on
the CIHI website, related to population
health, health indicators, health workforce,
issues in health and health care
institutions.
Another national organization,
the Canadian Organization for the
Advancement of Computers in
Health or COACH, founded in 1975
actively initiated professional protocols for
using computer systems in Canadian
health care.
One important document, Guidelines to Promote
Confidentiality and Security of Automated
Health-related Information (1979),
In 2001, COACH, as Canada's Health
Informatics Association, launched the Patron
Program. As an individual member based
organization, COACH promotes understanding
and effective utilization of information and
information technologies within the Canadian
Healthcare industry through education,
information, networking and communication.
Today, COACH is a leading organization
with an evolving membership. It is in the
forefront of the Canadian Healthcare
information resource and technology field
by working cooperatively with health
institutions, professions, associations,
consultants, vendors of information
technology and applications, government
and regulatory organizations in the pursuit
of its mandate.
In February 1999 the Canadian Federal
government published the timely
document, Strengthening Health Care for
Canadians,outlining new initiatives and
funding to promote health care technology
and informatics initiatives.
Various nursing programs are beginning to
offer courses and content in Nursing
Informatics.
ome programs integrate informatics into
individual courses, which is the model we
have adopted in the BSN Nursing
Program
lowly but steadily, other colleges and universities
are expanding their curricula to include Nursing
Informatics at both the undergraduate and
graduate levels. As more nurses become
computer literate, and become aware of the
potential of technology to support nursing
documentation, decisions, and professionalism,
Nursing Informatics can become a strong and
integral part of Canadian nursing science. With
this goal in mind,
The BSN Nursing Program has adopted
Nursing Informatics as an integral
component of the curriculum
In 2001, a new group, the Canadian
Nursing Informatics Association (CNIA)
received emerging group status from the
CNA and affiliate status in 2003. The CNIA
now has full associate status with the
CNA.
he CNIA conducted a study in 2002 - 2003
on the Informatics Educational Needs of
Canadian Nurses, funded by the Office of
Health and the Information Highway,
Health Canada or OHIH calledEducating
Tomorrow's Nurses: Where's Nursing
Informatics?
The intent of the study was to
describe the current state of
informatics education opportunities
currently available to students of nursing
across the country,
the level of preparedness of nursing
faculty to deliver these offerings,

information and communication
technology infrastructure and support for
faculty in delivering these offerings, and

opportunities to enhance nursing curricula,
faculty preparedness, and ICT
infrastructure and support in schools of
nursing across Canada.

Nursing Informatics at Kwantlen
Polytechnic University

wantlen Polytechnic University offers The BSN
and BSN Post Baccalaureate Nursing
Programs which integrate both theory and
practice of Nursing Informatics across the
program in BC, Canada. The faculty of the BSN
Nursing Programs fully support that Nursing
Informatics is central to nursing in the various
domains of practice. Since 1996, Kwantlen
Polytechnic University faculty have integrated
Nursing Informatics into all semesters of the
program.
Learning activities which include:
. a Cognitive, ("to know" or
epistemological),
an Interactive, ("to do" or ontological) as
well as
a Reflective, ("to be" or
phenomenological) component