Nursing and the informatics revolution

The Institute of Medicine's quality initiatives have collectively emphasized the importance of information technology to the transformation of health care. Not coincidentally, federal initiatives in 2004 have signaled the start of “the decade of health information technology.” Building on those reports, this article describes the informatics revolution in process, and nursing's readiness to move in that direction. The promise of informatics in reshaping practice is sketched out in terms of seven aims for improvement, followed by a listing of some of the issues that must be addressed for nursing to realize those possibilities. In similar fashion, changes in academia are discussed both in terms of the promise of informatics applications and the barriers to achieving that preferred future. The article ends with some policy recommendations and reflections on opportunities at hand, particularly the growing emphasis on patient self-management support.