The current status of nursing informatics in undergraduate nursing programs: comparative case studies between Sweden and Australia.

During the last ten years, the inclusion of education in health information systems has assumed an important role in graduate programs for health professionals. More recently, attention has focused on undergraduate programs. Throughout the world schools of nursing, organisations and associations are addressing the issue of educational offerings in nursing informatics. This paper reports on the status of nursing informatics at undergraduate level. Nurse academics from Gävle and Lund in Sweden, and from Melbourne and Sydney in Australia, took part in a survey of the respective nursing courses. The purpose of the study was to identify and describe examples of types of nursing informatics courses in Australia and Sweden. A convenient sample of academics were approached and interviewed. The results of the survey illustrate, in the schools surveyed, the slow emergence of nursing informatics into nursing curricula.