An Overview of Nursing

Informatics

“NURSES
lifting spirits
touching lives.”
 Computer Literacy
• Computer - An electronic
device that can accept
data input, process it
according to some
specified instructions,
output the information,
and store the results for
further use.
 Functions
• Input – “How to tell it
what to do”. The
procedure of feeding data
into the computer is called
information.

Scanner mouse keyboard

• Process – This is the
operation of manipulating
and transforming data into
something useful.

• Output – “How it shows you

what it is doing” This is the
result of the processing
function.

Monitor printer speakers

• Storage – “How it saves
data and programs”.

• Computers can save

data so that it can be
used at another time.
• Hardware – the electric,
electronic, and mechanical
components that make up
a computer.

• Software – the series of

instructions that tells the
hardware how to work.

Hardware + software = a
working computer system
• System Unit – the
rectangular case that
houses the electronic
component inside the
computer.

• Peripheral – any
external device that
attaches to the
system unit.
Computer
 Technologies Today

• Technology is the
usage and knowledge
of tools, techniques,
crafts, systems or
methods of
organization in order
to solve a problem or
serve some purpose.
Computers and
Nursing….

•“…… it is where
caring and
technology
meet…..”
 Informatics Theory
and Issues
• One question that arises
is, do nurses control
these benign information
technology tools, or do
the “tools” shape the
activities, decisions, and
attention of the nurses as
users of technology?"