Presentation by: Aliza Grace Savarez

Andrea Garingo

Nursing Informatics in Canada

The Canadian Nurses Association

Has taken the position that “registered nurses and other stakeholders in health care delivery require information on nursing practice and its relationship to client outcomes’’. Current applications of Nursing Informatics cover many kinds of clinical, education. Administrative, research and health- care systems initiatives (e.g.: tele-health, electronic health records, decision support systems, workload measurement and virtual education) Nevertheless, the focus of nursing informatics in Canada is on the role of nursing within the healthcare organizations.

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.

• identify curriculum implications and strategies for both basic and continuing nursing education;

• and determine priorities for implementing national nursing informatics education strategies. The first phase of the project was the collection of feedback on key issues related to nursing informatics competencies development from Canadian nurses.

The Canadian Organization for the Advancement of Computers in Health (COACH), founded in 1975, has actively initiated professional protocols for using computer systems in Canadian health care. 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.

Canadian Nursing Informatics Association

(CNIA)

Exists to help nurses across Canada to learn, share, research, and create informatics-related projects and experiences that can help to boost the competencies, theory, and practice of informatics on a national level.

 

The Code of Ethics for Registered Nurses (CNA,

1997)

States that nurses safeguard the trust of clients that information learned in the context of a professional relationship is shared outside the health care team only with the client’s permission or as legally required. Finally, security refers to the procedures and technologies that are used to restrict access to, and maintain the integrity of health information.

MissionTo be the voice for

Nursing Informatics in Canada. The CNIA is the culmination of efforts to catalyze the emergence of a new national association of nurse informaticians.

Canadian Nursing Informatics Association

GOALS• To provide nursing leadership for the development of

Nursing/Health informatics in Canada.• To establish national networking opportunities for nurse

informaticians.• To facilitate informatics educational opportunities for all

nurses in Canada.• To engage in international nursing informatics initiatives.• To act as a nursing advisory group in matters of nursing

and health informatics.• To expand awareness of Nursing Informatics to all

nurses and the healthcare community.

Health Informatics

Health Informatics projects in Canada are implemented provincially, with different provinces creating different systems.

Provincial and territorial programs include the

following:• Alberta Netcare-  was created in 2003 by the Government of Alberta. Today the netCARE portal is used daily by thousands of clinicians. It provides access to demographic data, prescribed/dispensed drugs, known allergies/intolerances, immunizations, laboratory test results, diagnostic imaging reports, the diabetes registry and other medical reports.

• NetCARE- interface capabilities are being included in electronic medical record products which are being funded by the provincial government.

Privacy, confidentiality and security of health information

• Nurses have identified the protection of personal health information as a critical issue in the context of rapidly evolving health information technologies.

• Individuals and organizations responsible for the development of systems designed to collect, process, store, and share health information have a responsibility to ensure that these systems are secure in order to maintain the integrity and confidentiality of personal inform

• Over the last two decades Canadian leaders in nursing informatics have discussed and conceptualized a nation wide nursing informatics strategy that would benefit all nurses and nursing students. In 2006, the Canadian Nurses Association launched the Canadian Nurses Portal Project, shortened to NurseONE to address this vision, in the form of a e-nursing strategy.

Initial goals of this e-nursing strategy include:

• advocating for nurses' access to ICT and the resources required to integrate ICT into nursing practice;

• supporting the development and implementation of nursing informatics competencies among the competencies required for entry-to-practice and continuing competence; and

• advocating for the involvement of nurses in decision-making about information technology and information systems. (Canadian Nursing Association, 2006)

• Indeed, Canadians have a unique healthcare system, one that is the envy of many countries. One of the things that makes the Canadian healthcare system unique is the belief in health as right, not as a privilege or an economic commodity but rather as a right for Canadians. The Principles include, universality, portability, accessibility, comprehensiveness, and public administration. In addition, health is a provincial responsibility in Canada , not a federal one.