Grant: Planning and Dissemination Grant - Institute Community Support

Many Canadian healthcare organizations have implemented, or are in the process of implementing eHealth systems, like electronic health record systems, to enhance efficiency, effectiveness and safety, as well as support patient participation, education and empowerment. Unfortunately, these organizations have not consistently taken full advantage of their eHealth systems, and therefore many of the potential benefits to patients, families, health professionals, and the healthcare system remain unseen.One explanation for why these benefits have not have been realized is that nurses in Canada have rarely contributed to their design, selection, adoption, use or evaluation despite being the single largest user group of these systems. Nurses, particularly those in senior leadership roles (e.g., Chief Nursing Officer), have the capacity to influence the selection, implementation, use, and evaluation of technologies in a way that could lead to numerous clinical benefits. The aims of the proposed activities are to: 1) Disseminate findings of studies that have identified informatics competencies of importance to Canadian nurse leaders to relevant stakeholder audiences; 2) Obtain the perspectives of nurse leaders on appropriate dissemination strategies for the identified informatics competencies; and, 3) Explore practical strategies for how healthcare organizations, nursing schools and professional nursing organizations can support the dissemination of these competencies.