An Overview of Nursing Informatics (NI) as a Profession: How we Evolved Over the Years

摘要

Nursing informatics is a relatively new and expanding field. The evolutionary journey it has, that started more than thirty years ago, marks its rich history. Accordingly, its definition, role, education, competencies and the career path of its practitioners changed significantly through the years. Also, due to its unique nature, different issues emerged as challenges that need to be dealt with. On the other hand, some would view these issues as opportunities which we can benefit from. Nevertheless, the discipline of nursing informatics continues to evolve and progress rapidly over the years, as a result of the efforts and initiatives of its practitioners, scholars and organizations. This paper attempts to shed some light on this unique discipline by briefly examining how it evolved around the world over the past four decades. Yet, some challenges such as the lack of global NI literature could be considered as the main limitation of the scope of this review as there are plenty of resources in some parts of the world, while almost the opposite can be seen in some other regions. Therefore, a comprehensive review of the international historical development of the discipline of Nursing Informatics is beyond the scope of this paper.