Presented By: Mikhol Andro Jhon C. Yap, R.N

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

 The use of Technology has visible tendency in: Health Nursing Education Nursing Practice Nursing Research Administration

 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 world’s highest for 20 years

 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.

 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.

 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.

 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.

 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.

 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.

 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.

 Other issues to be considered: A. Reimbursement B. Policies C. Cost containment D. 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.

 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.

 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.