The Omaha System as a Structured Instrument for Bridging Nursing Informatics With Public Health Nursing Education

Abstract

Advancements in healthcare systems include adoption of health information technology to ensure healthcare quality. Educators are challenged to determine strategies to integrate health information technology into nursing curricula for building a nursing workforce competent with electronic health records, standardized terminology, evidence-based practice, and evaluation. Nursing informatics, a growing specialty field, comprises health information technology relative to the profession of nursing. It is essential to integrate nursing informatics across nursing curricula to effectively position competent graduates in technology-laden healthcare environments. Nurse scholars developed and evaluated a nursing informatics case study assignment used in undergraduate level public health nursing courses. The assignment included an unfolding scenario followed by electronic health record charting using standardized terminology to guide the nursing process. The assignment was delivered either online or in class. Seventy-two undergraduate students completed the assignment and a posttest. Fifty-one students completed a satisfaction survey. Results indicated that students who completed the assignment online demonstrated a higher level of content mastery than those who completed the assignment in class. Content mastery was based on posttest results, which evaluated students' electronic health record charting for the nursing assessment, evidence-based interventions, and evaluations. This innovative approach may be valuable to educators in response to the National Academy of Sciences recommendations for healthcare education reform.

A crosswalk between the Omaha System and guiding undergraduate public health nursing education documents

“…System awareness could introduce the knowledge that the Omaha System spans across multiple system layers. At the microsystem level, the Omaha System meets the needs of novice users who want to adopt it and to highlight its utility and rich datasets (Eardley et al., ). At the mesosystem level, the Omaha System can be used to guide academic and clinical program outcomes, measuring changes in knowledge behavior and status of nursing faculty, professional nurses, patients, populations, and organizations served (Joyce et al., ).…”

“…Categories have four sublevels that describe nurse actions as: (a) teaching, guidance, and counseling, (b) treatments and procedures, (c) case management, and (d) surveillance. linked to the category, is “target” which further specifies the foci of care (Eardley et al., ). The client specific information field allows clinicians to customize interventions.…”

“…All four levels make up one Intervention. The Omaha System maintains 12,600 possible combinations of problems, categories, and targets (Eardley et al., ; Martin, ).…”

Transforming learning: Applying community and systems level interventions through a poster project

“…The primary role of the nurse educator using Transformative Learning Theory (TLT) is to facilitate the students' ability to construct knowledge using innovative teaching strategies that engage students (Faulk, Parker, & Morris, 2010). TLT has evolved from Dewey's (1948) and Freire's (2005) research that focused on experiential learning, relevant life experiences, and the creation of knowledge. Mezirow's TLT (2000) provides the underpinnings of past experiences, critical reflection, recognizing the necessity to change perspectives, and incorporating new beliefs and ideas to the process by which learners solve problems.…”

“…While public health nursing literature promotes innovative and active learning–teaching strategies such as digital story telling (LeBlanc, 2017), games (Day‐Black, Merrill, Konzelman, Williams, & Hart, 2015), case studies (Eardley et al., 2018), innovative public health clinical opportunities (Schoon et al., 2019), and simulations (Akselbo, Olufsen, Ingebrigtsen, & Aune, 2018; Wheeler & McNeils, 2014), no literature was found describing the use of poster presentations as an active‐learning technique in public health nursing education. Nurse educators must look to develop innovative approaches, interactive opportunities, and learning experiences that may be transformative for nursing students in the undergraduate baccalaureate didactic learning environment.…”