Achampong Emmanuel Kusi
Department of Medical Education and IT, School of Medical Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana.
J Med Educ Curric Dev. 2017 May 1;4:2382120517706890. doi: 10.1177/2382120517706890. eCollection 2017 Jan-Dec.
The use of computers in the delivery of health care has significantly improved the way health service is delivered to clients and patients in the world. Despite the importance of computing to the delivery of health service, developing countries have not greatly benefited from it. Nursing informatics has been in existence and part of academic curriculum for the past 2 decades in some advanced countries. The Ghana Nursing and Midwifery Council introduced the nursing and midwifery informatics course during the 2015/2016 academic year. This seeks to train student nurses on the relevance of computers to health care. Two separate workshops were organised to ascertain the preparedness of tutors (teachers at the nursing and midwifery training institutions) for teaching the new nursing and midwifery informatics course as well as to compare the curriculum with other international recommendations. The nursing and midwifery informatics course is taught at the first year where students have not been introduced to the nursing processes for them to appreciate the use of nursing informatics skills. It would be better if the nursing and midwifery informatics course is rather introduced during the second year second semester when students are about going for the hands-on training at the various health care institutions. Examining the course content reveals that the practical aspect within the course is very small. It is expected that more practical contents will be introduced. Tutors are not adequately prepared to teach this new course. More training is therefore needed to make tutors fully prepared to teach both the theory and practical aspects of the nursing and midwifery informatics course. It is expected that the nursing and midwifery informatics course would prepare student nurses on all nursing informatics competencies. It is essential that nurse educators incorporate the entire concept of informatics into the education of nurses.
计算机在医疗保健服务中的应用显著改善了全球向客户和患者提供医疗服务的方式。尽管计算机对医疗服务的提供至关重要，但发展中国家并未从中获得太大益处。在一些发达国家，护理信息学已经存在并成为过去20年学术课程的一部分。加纳护理与助产士理事会在2015/2016学年引入了护理与助产士信息学课程。这旨在培训护生了解计算机与医疗保健的相关性。举办了两场单独的研讨会，以确定教师（护理与助产士培训机构的教师）对教授新的护理与助产士信息学课程的准备情况，并将该课程与其他国际建议进行比较。护理与助产士信息学课程在第一年开设，而此时学生尚未接触护理流程，难以理解护理信息学技能的用途。如果护理与助产士信息学课程能在第二年第二学期引入，此时学生即将前往各医疗机构进行实践培训，情况会更好。审视课程内容会发现，该课程中的实践部分非常少。预计将引入更多实践内容。教师没有充分准备好教授这门新课程。因此，需要更多培训，以使教师充分准备好教授护理与助产士信息学课程的理论和实践方面。预计护理与助产士信息学课程将使护生具备所有护理信息学能力。护士教育工作者将信息学的整体概念纳入护士教育至关重要。
