Developing Nursing Faculty to Teach Entry-level Healthcare Informatics Competencies Introduction

Healthcare informatics is a core competency that students are expected to master by the completion of their undergraduate (UG) degree.1 The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN)1 has proposed that healthcare informatics competencies (HICs) are crucial for nurses to practice safely in a technology-driven environment. Therefore, it is imperative for students to understand that technology serves as a tool and does not replace clinical judgment. Research has shown positive perceptions of healthcare information technology correlate with increased use of healthcare informatics (HI) systems and reduced healthcare errors.2 Developing and mentoring existing faculty to teach UG HICs is a feasible and cost-effective solution to ensure quality education when content experts are not readily available. The purpose of this article is to describe the design, implementation, and evaluation of a nursing faculty development program initiated in January of 2023 at the Oakland University School of Nursing (OUSON). This initiative ensures enough faculty members are prepared to teach HICs to UG students.3