Need Assessment for Nursing Informatics Curriculum in Iran: An Application of the Delphi Technique

The progresses in information and communication technology, the increase in medical and nursing knowledge, the need for new methods for processing, maintaining and retrieving information for the production of new knowledge and also the economic benefits of the use of information and communication technology are the reasons for the importance of nursing informatics. This study was conducted with the aim of determining the skills of nursing informatics and need assessment for designing nursing informatics curriculum in Iran.

It was a mixed method study in which Delphi technique was used. The research population included nursing and medical informatics specialists who were a member of the faculty of medical universities of the country with a Ph.D. degree. Purposive and snowball sampling were used, and 45 people participated in this study. The data collection was first carried out on the basis of a review of the texts and global experiences. The researcher made questionnaire was sent through email in two steps. Focus group comments were used to complete and finalize the skills.

Based on the results, 81% of the experts considered the design of a course in nursing informatics essential and, expressed their positive views on nursing informatics and considered it as a missing link in the application of informatics knowledge in nursing, which can contribute to beneficial change, innovation and professional development of existing knowledge in nursing. Nursing informatics skills were designed with 28 items in 4 domains. The role of graduates was determined in the areas of care with 6 tasks, training with 5 tasks, research with 5 tasks, and management with 5 main tasks.

The findings showed the importance of nursing informatics in the areas of training, research, management and clinical education. Moreover, the results showed that designing nursing informatics curriculum for postgraduate degree is a necessity which was approved by Nursing and Medical Informatics Experts. The findings of this study can be used for designing curriculum in the field of nursing informatics.