Week 4: Midterm Study Guide

General Principles of Nursing Informatics

• Overview: Nursing informatics provides data that supports clinical decision-making. It integrates the science of nursing into healthcare by incorporating electronic systems that assist healthcare professionals in their practice. The use of informatics helps in organizing and analyzing data to improve patient care.

Knowledge

• Definition: Knowledge involves understanding and applying information to support decisions and tasks. It includes knowing which interventions are appropriate based on the situation. This knowledge is crucial for making informed clinical decisions.

Wisdom

• Definition: Wisdom is the application of knowledge gained from experience over time. It involves using past experiences to assist with clinical decisions and making choices about the most appropriate interventions. Wisdom is rooted in the foundation of nursing science and is the appropriate application of knowledge to specific situations.

Scientific Underpinning

• Definition: Scientific underpinning refers to the scientific basis for nursing practice, which provides the foundation for knowledge. This includes sciences such as biology, physiology, psychology, ethics, and nursing. These scientific principles are essential for advanced nursing practice.

The Foundation of Knowledge Model

• Overview: This model explains how knowledge relates to nursing informatics. It emphasizes that knowledge is key to informatics and is composed of several components, including knowledge acquisition, dissemination, generation, and processing. This model serves as an organizing conceptual framework for nursing informatics.

Computer Science

• Definition: Computer science provides the theoretical foundations of information and computation, along with their implementation and application in computer systems. This knowledge is crucial for developing and utilizing healthcare informatics tools.

Cognitive Science

• Definition: Cognitive science studies the mind, intelligence, and behavior from an informational perspective. It explores how the mind processes information, which is essential for understanding human interaction with informatics systems and for designing user-friendly healthcare technologies.