Organizational and Faculty Determinants Associated with Health Information Technology Adoption in DNP Programs: A Descriptive Study

Abstract

Background: Informatics is a key component of graduate nursing education and an accreditation requirement, yet little is documented about the barriers to implementing informatics in Doctor of Nursing Practice curricula. Purpose: The purpose of this descriptive study was to explore: 1) the degree to which the accreditation standard and informatics guidelines have been met across programs; 2) the outcome of the Technology Informatics Guiding Educational Reform Initiative Foundation’s Phase II goals and recommendations as they relate to the Education and Faculty Development Collaborative; 3) the faculty and organizational determinants that lead to actions characteristic of Doctorate of Nursing Practice programs that are required by American Association of Colleges of Nursing to implement Essential IV into their curricula. Method: A survey was sent electronically to 138 Doctor of Nursing Practice program directors as identified on the American Association of Colleges of Nursing website with an 84% response rate. Results: Major findings include a lack of informatics’ certified and/or prepared faculty and a lack of awareness of informatics curricular guidelines. Conclusions: Recommendations for deans and DNP program directors include encouraging interested faculty members to pursue informatics education, using established national informatics curricular competencies, and partnering with educational institutions which do have nursing informatics certified or master’s prepared faculty to improve the development of informatics/health information technology curricula.