Learning Objectives

Nursing informatics is a part of nursing that is still highly misunderstood. Most people think that nursing informaticists work only with computers and computer systems and have no interaction with the people part of nursing anymore. However, a big part of nursing informatics is being able to educate nurses on the computer systems that will help them to be able to work more efficiently on the floor. In educating the different nurses on EHR systems, it is important for the nursing informaticists to keep in mind different learning objectives that they wish to accomplish within the informal classroom setting. 

Bloom's taxonomy is a great way for the nursing informaticist to guide the class and make sure to keep in line with the information that needs to be shared. Each level on Bloom's taxonomy scale helps to identify the different levels of learning that can happen for each newly identified piece of information. To help make a successful learning environment, the nursing informaticist should choose to create three learning objectives. One learning objective can come from knowledge. In this learning objective, the nurses in the class should be able to recall, recognize, and reproduce the information that has been given to them. A second learning objective can come from comprehension, where each student grasps the information that has been presented to them. For comprehension, the student should be able to describe, decipher, and locate the information and parts of the programs that they will need in the future. A third learning objective can come from application. In application, the student should be able to operate and carry out the actions needed to work within the program so that they can apply the information while in the field.

Choosing learning objectives for a course can seem like a daunting task, especially since the information spans the course of ten weeks. In trying to make sure that everyone is understanding all of the information without becoming too overwhelming, the number of learning objectives should be kept to 1-2 a week. A big part of education is then assessing the outcomes of the learning objectives; as assessing different levels of taxonomy is important to make sure that higher learning for any specific topic is being met.