NURSING INFORMATICS

IN SOUTH AMERICA

Nursing Informatics in South America has

been based more on ACTIVITIES of
INDIVIDUALS than on a policy
established by governments or national
efforts

Each country in South America has varied

levels of development and deployment of
technological resources

TECHNOLOGY

The use of Technology has visible

tendency in:
Health
Nursing Education
Nursing Practice
Nursing Research
Administration

COMPUTERS

Are considered an important tool to help

nurses take care of patients and to
recognize nursing service and nursing
education.

The growth of information technology in

Latin America and the Caribbean has
been consistently the worlds highest for
20 years

NURSING

Has been identified around the world as an

emerging profession for over 100 years.

Nurses were considered as the primary

users of technology in healthcare (Safran,
Slack and Bleich 1989)

Historically nurses are used to facing

challenges, adapting new tools in to the
practice to improve their performance.
Creating new models to enhance patient care.

INFORMATION

Is the key element for decision making

process in the healthcare area.

The more specific information in place to

support clinical decisions, the better care
can be delivered to the patient.

TECHNOLOGY

Plays an important role in facilitating

access to the information because for the
information to be useful and meaningful,
it has to be timely. There is a clear trend
in the direction of the computerization of
health records

The Pan American Health Organization

(PAHO) has published guidelines and
protocols to orient the development and
deployment of information and
communication technology in Latin
America and the Carribean

Latin America and the Caribbean region

rank third in information technology
expenditure.

NURSING INFORAMTICS
INITIATIVES IN SOUTH AMERICA

The initial motivation to develop

computer systems in the healthcare area
was driven by financial and
administration concerns.

The hospital sector can be considered the

area better served by information
systems.

Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia,

Chile and Paraguay have clinical
information systems in hospitals or health
institutes.

Patient data that are also used for

nursing administration are integrated in
the systems or nurses have to collect and
analyze nursing data separately

Hospitals have been working to design

their own systems in order to attend to
specific needs and policies.

National and International software

become more represented in South
America health care workers.

They provide a broader range solutions

with systems that address patient care
documentation.

Most of the computer systems

implemented is intended to control
administration data.

Congresses, conferences, workshops,

education and training programs are
being organized in the countries to share
experiences in nursing informatics
searching for solutions that could
enhance the delivery of patient care.

DISTANCE LEARNING AND EDUCATIONAL

PERSPECTIVE IN NURSING INFORMATICS

Technology is transferring not only

nursing practice but also nursing training
and education models.

Nurses became the primary users,

responsible for data input.

Nurses become Computer-Literate in

ordere to use computer technology in a
efficient manner.

To meet education and training need,

nursing schools and hospitals initiated
programs to prepare nurses to use
hospital initiated programs to prepare
nurses to use computers.

NIEn/UNIFESP

Nucleo de Informatica em
Enfermagem at the Universidade
Federal De Sao Paulo was the first
center to offer the specialization degree
certificate in South America.

Provides since 1989, the nursing

informatics discipline in its graduate and
undergraduate nursing programs.

The research line in nursing informatics is

attended by professionals from different
regions of the country ad has been
responsible for the preparation of several
master and doctoral students in nursing
informatics.

The student after graduation return to their

own institutes to implement education and
research programs and to participate in the
development of patient care systems.

Nursing Terminologies &

Documentation

Sharing and communicating information

is essential to make decisions and deliver
care

The language includes an alphabets,

words, phrases and symbols that express
and assign meaning, understood by all
users (PAN America Health
Association/World Health Organization,
1997)

CLARK (1995)
Pointed out that communicating among
ourselves has always been important but
communicating with other people about
nursing has acquired a new urgency since
we are forced to recognize that the value
of nursing is no longer apparent to those
who have the power to influence our
practice.

A.
B.
C.
D.

Other issues to be considered:

Reimbursement
Policies
Cost containment
Technological Development

In 1990, the International Council of

Nurses (ICN) initiated a long term project
to develop an international classification
for Nursing Practice with the objective to
establish a common language about
nursing practice to be used for describing
nursing care for people in variety of
setting (Mortensen, 1996)

In Brazil, the dissemination of the

International Classification for Nursing
Practice (ICNP) started around 1996 when
NIEn/UNIFESP became a sponsoring
partner in the Telenurse Consortium, led
by Randi Mortensen director of the
Danish Institute for Health and Nursing
research.

Home Health Care Classification (HHCC)

developed by Saba 1992 is available on
the internet in Brazilian Portuguese
version.

BUILDING STANDARDS-BASED
NURSING INFORMATION SYSTEM

The recommendations from the experts

that are merged into this text book edited
by the Division of Systems at PAHO.

Was published in English and Spanish and

distributed to universities, professional
organization and technical cooperation
agencies.

SUMMARY

Nursing Informatics as an integrated part

of heath follows the progress that has
been made in the whole sector of health
informatics.

The development of nursing informatics

is conducted on a case by case basis,
taking into consideration the specific
requirements of each region.

Group IV
Christine Ayuno
Darlen Diola
Maureen Piandoro
Armida Verbo