Presentation by:

Aliza Grace Savarez

Andrea Garingo

Nursing Informatics
in Canada

The Canadian Nurses

Association

Has taken the position that registered

nurses and other stakeholders in health care
delivery require information on nursing
practice and its relationship to client
outcomes. Current applications of Nursing
Informatics cover many kinds of clinical,
education.
Administrative,
research
and
health- care systems initiatives (e.g.: telehealth, electronic health records, decision
support systems, workload measurement and
virtual education) Nevertheless, the focus of
nursing informatics in Canada is on the role of
nursing within the healthcare organizations.

In 1998
The
Canadian
Nurses
Association
spearheaded
another
initiative,
the
National Nursing Informatics Project, to
begin
to develop a national consensus on
definition, competencies, and educational
strategies
and
priorities
in
nursing
informatics development.
identify
curriculum
implications
and
strategies for both basic and continuing
nursing education;
and determine priorities for implementing
national nursing informatics education
strategies. The first phase of the project

TheCanadian Organization for

the Advancement of Computers in
Health
(COACH),founded in 1975, has
actively
initiated
professional
protocols
for
using
computer
systems in Canadian health care.
Today,
COACH
is
a
leading
organization
with
an
evolving
membership. It is in the forefront of
the
Canadian
Healthcare
information
resource
and
technology
field
by
working
cooperatively
with
health
institutions,
professions,
associations, consultants, vendors
of information technology and
applications,
government
and
regulatory organizations in the
pursuit of its mandate.

Canadian Nursing Informatics Association

(CNIA)
Exists to help nurses across Canada to
learn, share, research, and create
informatics-related
projects
and
experiences that can help to boost the
competencies, theory, and practice of
informatics on a national level.

The Code of Ethics for

Registered Nurses (CNA,

States that nurses

safeguard the trust of
clients that information
learned in the context of
a
professional
relationship is shared
outside the health care
team only with the
clients permission or as
legally required. Finally,
security refers to the
procedures
and
technologies that are
used to restrict access

Canadian Nursing
Informatics Association
Mission
To be the voice for
Nursing Informatics in
Canada. The CNIA is the
culmination of efforts to
catalyze the emergence of

GOALS
To provide nursing leadership for the development of
Nursing/Health informatics in Canada.
To establish national networking opportunities for nurse
informaticians.
To facilitate informatics educational opportunities for all
nurses in Canada.
To engage in international nursing informatics initiatives.
To act as a nursing advisory group in matters of nursing
and health informatics.
To expand awareness of Nursing Informatics to all
nurses and the healthcare community.

Health Informatics
Health Informatics projects in
Canada
are
implemented
provincially,
with
different
provinces
creating
different
systems.

Provincial and territorial

programs include the
following:
Alberta Netcare- was created in 2003 by the

Government of Alberta. Today the netCARE

portal is used daily by thousands of clinicians. It
provides access to demographic data,
prescribed/dispensed drugs, known
allergies/intolerances, immunizations, laboratory
test results, diagnostic imaging reports, the
diabetes registry and other medical reports.
NetCARE- interface capabilities are being
included in electronic medical record products
which are being funded by the provincial
government.

Privacy, confidentiality and

security of health information
Nurses have identified the protection of personal
health information as a critical issue in the
context of rapidly evolving health information
technologies.
Individuals and organizations responsible for the
development of systems designed to collect,
process, store, and share health information
have a responsibility to ensure that these
systems are secure in order to maintain the
integrity and confidentiality of personal inform

 Over the last two decades Canadian

leaders in nursing informatics have
discussed and conceptualized a nation
wide nursing informatics strategy that
would benefit all nurses and nursing
students. In 2006, the Canadian Nurses
Association launched the
Canadian Nurses Portal Project,
shortened to NurseONE to address this
vision, in the form of a e-nursing strategy.

Initial goals of this e-nursing

strategy include:
advocating for nurses' access to ICT and the
resources required to integrate ICT into nursing
practice;
supporting the development and implementation
of nursing informatics competencies among the
competencies required for entry-to-practice and
continuing competence; and
advocating for the involvement of nurses in
decision-making about information technology
and information systems. (Canadian Nursing
Association, 2006)

 Indeed, Canadians have a unique healthcare

system, one that is the envy of many countries.
One of the things that makes the Canadian
healthcare system unique is the belief in health
as right, not as a privilege or an economic
commodity but rather as a right for Canadians.
The Principles include, universality, portability,
accessibility, comprehensiveness, and public
administration. In addition, health is a provincial
responsibility in Canada , not a federal one.