Nursing informatics competence profiles and perceptions of health information system usefulness among registered nurses: A latent profile analysis

Aims: To identify different nursing informatics competence (NIC) profiles in nurses, examine the factors associated with profile memberships and examine the associations of the derived profiles with the nurses' perception of the usefulness of a health information system (HIS).Design: A cross-sectional study.Methods: A sample of 3610 registered nurses responded to a nationwide survey in March 2020. A latent profile analysis was performed to identify NIC profiles based on three competence areas: nursing documentation, working in digital environment, and ethics and data protection. A multinomial logistic regression was carried out to examine the associations of demographic and background variables with the profile membership. Linear regression analyses were carried out to examine the association between the profile membership and perceived HIS usefulness.Results: Three NIC profiles were identified and labelled as low, moderate and high competence groups. A younger age, recent graduation year, sufficient orientation and high-rated proficiency as an HIS user were associated with nurses belonging to a high or moderate competence group relative to a low competence group. Competence group membership was associated with perceived HIS usefulness. The high competence group consistently expressed the highest usefulness of the HIS and the low competence group the lowest.Conclusion: Tailored training and support should be provided for nurses with different levels of informatics competence, thereby facilitating their ability to respond to increasingly digitalized work. This could contribute to higher usefulness of the HIS in terms of supporting the nurses' work tasks and promoting the quality of care.

Automated summary

This study aimed to identify different nursing informatics competence profiles in nurses, explore the factors associated with profile memberships, and examine the associations between the derived profiles and nurses' perception of the usefulness of a health information system (HIS). Three different NIC profiles were identified, classified as low, moderate, and high competence groups. The membership in different competence groups was associated with the perceived usefulness of the HIS. Therefore, tailored training and support should be provided to nurses with different levels of informatics competence to enhance the usefulness of the HIS.