Answer

The ability to analyze and communicate critical elements necessary to the selection, use and evaluation of healthcare information systems and patient care technology is made possible by studying informatics. By collecting data on patient intervention, care coordination and other nursing interventions, it is possible to analyze processes and outcomes.   It is also important to determine the type of data that is important. Such data include clinical diagnoses, type of interventions and the outcomes and the demographics of both staff and patients .Since these information need to be coordinated to facilitate health care delivery, the data should be stored in a data base accessible by the concerned parties.  Studying informatics has provided adequate skills to carry out the above activities

American Association of Colleges of Nursing [AACN] (2006) gives one of the essential competencies as ability to design, select, use, and evaluate programs that evaluate and monitor outcomes of care, care systems, and quality improvement including consumer use of healthcare information systems. Knowledge and understanding the activities of the systems life cycle has made it possible to acquire that competency. It is also made possible by an understanding of the current evaluative literature on implementation of informatics and outcomes. Informatics tools also enable to evaluate and monitor outcomes of health care systems. An ability to analyze data provides the basis of quality improvement. To evaluate programs is possible due to the different methods on analyzing systems that was acquired. This enables one to decide which evaluation methods are best suited to a specific system. Informatics provide the skills necessary to understand the current use of computers, systems and applications in healthcare

The use of technology and technology systems means that data is stored in a way to enable extraction when need arises which is usually in databases. Informatics literacy allows for the evaluation of how data can be retrieved including the ease and security of such data. Data extraction is done by different people in the healthcare delivery systems which necessitates for such information to be easily and correctly retrieved to ensure security.

Evaluation is a major competency acquired by DNPs. With technology comes an issue of privacy and confidentiality. By understanding how information technology, information systems, communication networks, and patient care works, it is now possible to identify possible areas where ethical standards can be breached and to design ways to solve such issues. Additionally, legal issues arising can be anticipated and resolved. Leadership means leading the rest of the health practitioners including nurses, in maneuvering the ethical and legal issues that come with use of technology.

Most of the health information accessed by consumers is from the internet. However, some of these online sources are not credible hence the information cannot be relied on by consumers. It is therefore important to determine credibility. Knowledge on areas to look at has provided the ability to assess credibility. Some of the issues to address include accuracy; to determine appropriateness, it should be possible to ascertain the authority i.e. who runs the site and what are the  credentials of the author or authors, coverage i.e. how the citations have been used if at all and objectivity which includes source of funding and conflict of interest. Timeliness; is the site up to date? How often and what is the last review date. This is important to ensure that the information is current as health information is continuously updated as research is carried out. Accuracy is determined by evaluating how the site determines the type of content to add and the availability of the author or authors for clarification.