Joseph Tan
McMaster University, Canada
Title: Mapping the Critical Skills of Community Nursing on a Global Scale: The Nursing Informatics Competency Challenges & Trends
Biography
Biography: Joseph Tan
Abstract
Today, nurses and community health workers (CHWs) are often regarded asrnglobal citizens and community heroes. In the last few decades, with rapidly agingrnpopulations, major destabilization of global economies as well as ongoingrnenvironmental disasters and other unpredictable events such as the Fukushimarnaccident, global climate change impacts, ongoing terrorist activities and warfare,rnthe need for cost-effective and time-efficient community healthcare servicesrnglobally is overwhelming. In an era of smart applications of cell phonerntechnologies and e-health informatics capabilities, governments of manyrncountries will now be looking at the need for a new generation of well-trained andrnengaged nurses and CHWs with e-health informatics competencies to realize thernongoing maintenance of the health and well being of their citizens via securedrnnetworks and infrastructures.rnNot only will e-health informatics competencies provide a significant advantagernover wasteful, poorly coordinated and expensive conventional medicalrnprocedures, but also hold the potential for leveling the playing fields in terms ofrndelivering care where it may be most critically needed, especially for thernunderserved. Understanding the e-health informatics competency challenges andrntrends is therefore a critical step towards identifying the various roles that couldrnor should be played by nurses and CHWs to aid policymakers, vendors,rnphysicians and other health care professionals and/or researchers, and evenrnpatients in this age of the Internet of Things.rnThis talk overviews the prevailing e-health informatics competency challengesrnand trends for practicing community nursing. Starting with the major referencerndisciplines contributing to the evolution of e-health informatics competencies, therntalk will survey current developments, provide insights on new opportunities andrnongoing challenges arising from use of these newer technologies, including thernneed for securing networks and infrastructures. In contrast to the centuries oldrntraditional practice of conventional medicine, the discussion will offer thernaudience important directions and insights related to the next phase research,rndevelopments and practices of community nursing and trends. Among otherrnthings, key challenges include knowledge to translate lean and technology-basedrnthinking into community healthcare practices, envisioning the power andrnconvenience of an interoperable Information and Communication Technologyrn(ICT) infrastructure for e-health and m-health applications, incorporating therndesign of intelligent and appealing interfaces, deploying emerging m-health &rncloud-based strategy, understanding the influence of social media, and debatingrnon the value of digital alerts, monitoring and patient assisted self-carerninterventions.rnWhile identifying the different e-health informatics competencies, challenges andrntrends needed by new generations of nurses and CHWs, I will also attempt tornprovide critical thoughts and lessons gleaned from a few ongoing studiesrnconducted at McMaster University and elsewhere. For example, we are lookingrnat health informatics competencies for paramedical professionals across allrnCanadian Provinces. Finally, the talk will conclude with the observation thatrnregardless of how e-health and m-health technologies evolve, it will still be limitedrnwithin the confines of regulatory policies, sustainable paradigm changes, thernchallenge of interoperability, standards, privacy, security, socio-political, legalrnand ethical concerns.