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Nursing Informatics and the Foundation of Knowledge
Dee McGonigle and Kathleen Mastrian
Jones and Bartlett Publishers 2008, 499 pages$52.95 softcover
This book is a basic textbook written for nursing students and others interested in the field of nursing informatics. The book is divided into five sections, covering nursing informatics from early technology to today, as well as prospects for the future. This book is appropriate for use with an instructor in an organized learning environment.
The authors use the Foundation of Knowledge model throughout the book to illustrate how knowledge is used to meet different needs in health care: delivery, organizational, patient, and nursing. The model, introduced in section one, illustrates the relationship of information to information science, computer science, cognitive science, and nursing science. It encompasses the interrelationship between
knowledge acquisition, dissemination, generation, and processing and
information and data, feedback, and
the human interface.
This section also covers basic computer terminology, software, and hardware, and discusses the building blocks of nursing informatics (NI).
Section two is devoted to nursing experts perspectives of NI. It covers concepts and basic competencies every 21st century nurse will need to have as a knowledge worker, defined by McGonigle and Mastrian as those who work with information and generate information and knowledge as a product.
Sections three and four cover clinical, administrative, practice, nursing research, and nursing education applications of informatics. General discussions of ethics, the Health Insurance Portability and Account ability Act of 1996, and electronic record security also are presented. Also covered extensively in section three are applications...