Education_methodology

The TIGER Initiative

Technology Informatics Guiding Educational Reform

TIGER Education and Faculty Development Collaborative - METHODOLOGY

The TIGER Summit identified numerous objectives related to the education of nurses and the respective development of faculty, which are listed below. Emphasis was placed on the need for more nursing informatics specialists. These issues were raised in a variety of venues, including HRSA meetings and conferences. Based on the TIGER Summit Summary Report, the following specific objectives were set for the TIGER Education and Faculty Development collaborative:

· Use the informatics competencies, theories, research, and practice examples throughout nursing curriculums.

· Create programs and resources to develop faculty with informatics knowledge, skill and ability and measure the baseline and changes in informatics knowledge among nurse educators and nursing students.

· Develop a task force to examine the integration of informatics throughout the curriculum.

· Develop strategies to recruit, retain, and educate current and future nurses in the areas of informatics education, practice, and research.

· Improve and expand existing Nursing/Clinical/Health Informatics education programs.

· Encourage existing Health Services Resources Administration Division of Nursing to continue and expand their support for informatics specialty programs and faculty development.

· Encourage foundations to start programs that provide funding for curriculum development, research, and practice in nursing informatics and IT adoption.

· Collaborate with industry and service partners to support faculty creativity in the adoption of informatics technology and offer informatics tools within the curriculum.

To address these objectives, the TIGER Education Collaborative established several work groups to address the specific issues relevant to each stakeholder.

It is recognized that there is additional work that must continue to further develop faculty, enhance the access to technology resources for nursing schools, and develop courses that integrate informatics seamlessly into nursing practice. Much of this work will continue to be shared through the organizations that support the TIGER effort, including but not limited to the National League for Nursing (www.nln.org), the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (www.aacn.org), the Health System Resources Administration (www.hrsa.gov), and the National Organization for Associate Degree Nursing (N-OADN).

Each workgroup was led by a chairperson and completed their research with the use of interviews, conference calls, web meetings, and electronic survey tools. All TIGER collaborative teams created a wiki, an online website used as a tool to share their findings, that all members could update (http://tigereducation.pbworks.com). Their conclusions are published in this report and were shared with colleagues through webinars that were held in late 2008. In addition, several presentations on this topic were given at local and national conferences.