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‡ To present an overview of the development of
Nursing Informatics in South America.

‡ To identify some initiatives in the field,

including discussion on the current user of
terminologies.

‡ To identify imitative to disseminate nursing

informatics resources in the region.
 Y

 
Y
‡ Nursing Informatics in 13 South America
countries has been based more on
ACTIVITIES of INDIVIDUALS than on a
policy established by governments or
national efforts.

‡ Each country has varied levels of

development and deployment of
technological resources.
 Y

 
Y
Technology is visible tendency in:

1. Health
2. Nursing Education
3. Nursing Practice
4. Nursing research
5. Administration
 Y

 
Y
‡ Computers are considered an important tool
to help nurses take care of patients and to
organize nursing service and nursing
education.

‡ The growth of information technology in

Latin America and the Caribbean has been
consistently
£The world¶s highest for 20 years.
£Most developed parts of the country have
better access and ability to implement
services and applications in nursing.
 Y

 
Y
‡ u
  

   
  


     



    
 



 



 
  
 Y

-Nursing has been identified around the

world as an emerging profession for over a
100 years.

-Nurses were considered as the primary

users of technology in healthcare (Safran,
Slack, and Bleich 1989)
  
 Y
‡ 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.
‡ Ô
can represent a unique
instrument to help nurses to face further
challenges and discover how to use its
resources to involve and maybe to design
their way taking care of the people (Marin,
1996).
  
 Y
‡ m 
 is the key element for
decision- making process in the health
care area.

£  

 
 
 

 




 



  
 
    
  
 Y
‡ Ô
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.
£]
]   



   

  
 
 
 


] 
 
   
 
 

£     ] 
   
 
 

 ]
  

 
  
 Y

‡ 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 Caribbean.
  
 Y
‡ Latin America and the Caribbean region rank
third in information technology expenditure.

‡ A study performed by the PAN America

health Organization/ World Health
organization information, computer and
social infrastructure is evolving rapidly.
 Y
YY


Y

 
‡ In South America countries:

£ The initial motivation to develop computer

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

£The hospital sector can be considered the

area better served by information systems.
 Y
YY


Y

 
‡ 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.
 Y
YY


Y

 
‡ National and International software industry
become more represented in South America
health care worker.

‡ They provide a broader range of solutions

with systems that address patient are
documentation.

‡ Most of the computer systems implemented

is intended to control administration data.
 Y !"
‡ Congresses, conferences, workshops, education,
and training programs are being organized in
the countries to share experiences and
information in nursing informatics searching for
solutions that could enhance the delivery of
patient care.
 "#"$%"
"$ &"'" !"Y
 
‡ Technology is transferring not only nursing
practice but also nursing training and education
models.

‡ Nurses became the PRIMARY USERS,

responsible for data input.

‡ They become ³computer- Literate´ in order to

use computer technology in a efficient manner.
 "#"$%"
"$ &"'" !"
Y 
‡ To meet education and training needs, nursing
schools and hospitals initiated programs to
prepare nurses to use computers.

‡ Computer applications in nursing education

from a passive teaching to an active learning
process.
 Y ( Y 

‡ Y
  
      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.
 Y ( Y 
‡ The research ³line´ in nursing informatics is
attended by professionals from different regions
of the country and has been responsible for the
preparation of several master and doctoral
students in nursing informatics.

‡ The student after graduation return to their own

instates to implement education and research
programs and to participate in the development
of patient care systems.
Y
"&"$ "
‡ 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) .
Y
"&"$
 "
‡ CLARK (1995)

£Pointed out that ³communicating 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´.
Y
"&"$
 "
‡ Other issues to be considered:
- Reimbursement
- Policies
- Cost containment
- Technological development in recent years

‡ Nurses¶ responsibility to decide not only what

kind of data is important to describe the
continuous care but also to decide how these
data could be described.
Y
"&"$
 "
‡ 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
settings(Mortensen,1996).
Y
"&"$
 "
‡ In Brazil, the dissemination of the 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.
&$$$)*"$Y
+"
‡ The recommendations from the experts that are
merged into this text book edited by the Division
of Systems at the PAHO.

‡ Was published in English and Spanish and

distributed to universities, professional
organization, and technical cooperation
agencies.
  
,
‡ Nursing Informatics as an integrated part of
health follows the progress that has been made
in the whole sector of health informatics.

‡ Because of the variety among countries and even

inside larger countries, the development of
nursing informatics is conducted on a case-by-
case basis, taking into consideration the specific
requirements of each region.