Mary J. Nielubowicz Award. Bringing nurses on-line: implementing nursing informatics.

Processing the vast amount of information required to provide quality nursing and health care today is an immense task. The Surgeon General of the Navy recently updated the Department's "Vision for the Future." He challenged Navy medicine to become a leader in technology integration. Shifting toward a managed-care environment makes it imperative for health care organizations and their personnel to integrate data, information, and systems at all levels. Implementation of a coordinator to assist nursing users with this technology is proving essential. This essay describes how one nursing directorate at a Naval hospital implemented a full-time staff member as Nursing Informatics Coordinator to serve in this role. Receiving and using data and information in the practice of nursing is vital to the profession. Specific factors identifying the reasons for development of this role, impact achieved, opportunities encountered, and the future of the position are addressed.