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Models For Nursing Informatics

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Mercy Anne Ecat
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17 views

Models For Nursing Informatics

Uploaded by

Mercy Anne Ecat
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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MODELS FOR NURSING INFORMATICS

The foundations of nursing informatics are the core phenomena and nursing-informatics models. The core phenomena
are data, information, knowledge, and wisdom and the transformations that each of these undergo.
Models are representations of some aspect of the real world. Models show particular perspectives of a selected
aspect and may illustrate relationships. Models evolve as knowledge about the selected aspect changes and are
dependent on the worldview of those developing the model. It is important to remember that different models reflect
different viewpoints and are not necessarily competitive; that is, there is no one, right model.
A clinical-information-system (CIS) model shows how modelling can be used to organize different concepts into
a logical whole. The purpose of this model is to depict system components, influencing factors, and relationships that need
to be considered when attempting to capture the complexities of professional nursing practice.
Different scholars in nursing informatics have proposed different models. Some of these models are presented
here to provide further perspectives on nursing informatics, to demonstrate how differently scholars and practitioners
may view what seems to be the same thing, and to show that nursing informatics is an evolutionary, theoretical, and
practical science. Again, remember that there is no one, right model nor are any of the models presented here exhaustive
of the possible perspectives of nursing informatics.

1. Graves and Corcoran’s seminal work included a model of nursing informatics. Their model placed data,
information, and knowledge in sequential boxes with one-way arrows pointing from data to information to
knowledge. The management processing box is directly above, with arrows pointing in one direction from
management processing to each of the three boxes (Graves & Corcoran, 1989). The model is a direct depiction of
their definition of nursing informatics.

2. In 1986, Patricia Schwirian proposed a model of nursing informatics intended to stimulate and guide systematic
research in this discipline. Her concern was over the sparse volume of research literature in nursing informatics.
The model provides a framework for identifying significant information needs, which, in turn, can foster research.
In this model, there are four primary elements arranged in a pyramid with a triangular base. The four elements
are the raw material (nursing-related information), the technology (a computing system comprised of hardware
and software), the users surrounded by context (nurses, students), and the goal (or objective) toward which the
preceding elements are directed. Bidirectional arrows connect the three base components of raw material, user,
and computer system to form the pyramid’s triangular base. The goal element is placed at the apex of the pyramid
to show its importance. Similarly, all interactions between the three base elements and the goal are represented
by bidirectional arrows (Schwirian, 1986).

3. Turley, writing in 1996, proposed another model in which the core components of informatics (cognitive science,
information science, and computer science) are depicted as intersecting circles. In Turley’s model, nursing science
is a larger circle that completely encompasses the intersecting circles. Nursing informatics is the intersection
between the discipline-specific science (nursing) and the area of informatics (Turley, 1996).

4. McGonigle and Mastrian (2012) developed the foundation of knowledge model. The base of this model shows
data and information distributed randomly. From this base, transparent cones grow upward and intersect. The
upward cones represent acquisition, generation, and dissemination of knowledge. Knowledge processing is
represented by the intersections of these three cones. Circling and connecting all of the cones is feedback. The
cones and feedback circle are dynamic in nature (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2012).

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