Competencies for Leadership in Nursing Informatics: Transforming Mentorships through Innovation

Competencies to include nursing informatics leaders based on TIGER, ANIA, and ANA best practices is the focus for this abstract.

COVID-19 provided insight to continuing informatics leader competencies in an academic safety net community hospital. Current strategies for competency development for leadership roles in informatics have existed for many years. A consensus on core domains remains a challenge due to local and global changes within healthcare environments. The guiding question for this abstract is “What core domains will influence and strengthen leadership roles in informatics?” In addition, facilitating knowledge, research, innovation, and global reach in today’s dynamic, constantly changing healthcare environments needs consideration.

The objective of this abstract was to define and assess competencies for leadership roles within nursing informatics. A review of current best practice guidelines with the development of a leadership competency tool resulted in a fluid and dynamic tool focusing on user, modifier, and innovator domains with self-assessment and evaluation domains to encompass testing, verbal, demonstration, simulation, and interactive/virtual classroom methods of evaluation-based on novice to expert theory, while continuing to provide mentorship throughout the leaders’ growth within the organization. Innovation domains utilized TRIZ problem-solving theory for tool development. Additional research to include tool validity and reliability is necessary. An analysis of addressing leader needs identified in utilizing the tool with a structured process to address local and global impact is also a limitation. Further research and innovation in predictors for leadership also requires further inquiry.