ANI launches professional development program that pairs nurses with mentors
Two nurses have won recognition as emerging leaders in the field of nursing informatics, selected by the Alliance for Nursing Informatics (ANI) to participate in a jointly supported Nursing Informatics Emerging Leaders Program. The two nurses recognized as emerging leaders are Ellen Makar, RN-BC, MSN, of Yale–New Haven Health System, Connecticut and Sandra Ng, RN-BC, MSN, UCSF Medical Center, part of the University of California, San Francisco.
ANI and its Nursing Informatics Emerging Leaders Program are jointly supported by the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS). To fulfill their commitment to the program, each Emerging Leader is expected to:
- complete a nursing informatics leadership project
- attend meetings of the ANI governing directors
- participate in the HIMSS Annual Conference and Exhibition (March 1-4, 2010), including its Nursing Informatics Symposium, and
- participate in the AMIA Annual Symposium (Nov. 13-17, 2010).
Makar and Ng were selected through a process based on multiple criteria:
- holding a mid-level position in informatics in a health care setting
- holding a current license to practice as a registered nurse
- demonstrating the ability to make a difference as a leader in the field of informatics.
This inaugural program aims to develop leaders capable of assuming national leadership positions in an informatics-related organization. Ellen Makar currently serves as a clinical coordinator in the decision support department at Yale–New Haven Health, where she retrieves and analyzes administrative health data for projects that require operational, clinical, and financial decision-making. She is also a doctoral student at Goldfarb School of Nursing at Barnes Jewish College in St Louis, Missouri.
She will be paired with two mentors: Bonnie Westra, Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota School of Nursing; and Carol Petersen, Manager, Perioperative Informatics, at the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses. Westra formerly served as clinical advisor to CareFacts Information Systems, the home care and hospice software vendor headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Sandra Ng is currently responsible for operating trials of ground-breaking hardware and applications in a clinical setting, redesigning workflow processes, and evaluating impact of these innovations on various clinician workflows during routine patient care. During her involvement in the two-year leadership program, Ms. Ng will be mentored by HIMSS Vice President of Informatics Joyce Sensmeier and Curtis Dikes, National Director, Clinical Informatics Technology Integration at Kaiser Permanente.
“Clinical workflow design and processes are the foundation of quality patient care with nurses focused on providing both effective and efficient care to their patients,” said Ms. Sensmeier. “Through this mentoring program, nurses are introduced to the benefits of care collaboration and clinical informatics in nursing so that they can step in as the future leaders of the nursing profession.”
ANI is co-sponsored by AMIA and HIMSS to represent nursing informatics with a unified voice, while providing synergy and structure needed to advance the efforts of nursing informatics professionals in improving delivery of patient care. ANI represents more than 5,000 nurses, brings together 26 distinct nursing informatics groups, integrates nurses from a broad swath of academia, practice, industry and a variety of specialty areas, working collaboratively with nearly three million nurses practicing in the United States.
About HIMSS
The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society is a comprehensive healthcare-stakeholder membership organization exclusively focused on providing global leadership for the optimal use of information technology (IT) and management systems for the betterment of healthcare. Founded in 1961 with offices in Chicago, Washington D.C., Brussels, Singapore, and other locations across the United States, HIMSS represents more than 23,000 individual members, of which 73% work in patient care delivery settings. HIMSS also includes over 380 corporate members and nearly 30 not-for-profit organizations that share its mission of transforming healthcare through the effective use of information technology and management systems. HIMSS frames and leads healthcare public policy and industry practices through its educational, professional development, and advocacy initiatives designed to promote information and management systems’ contributions to ensuring quality patient care.
About AMIA
The American Medical Informatics Association is a member-supported professional association of leaders advancing biomedical and health informatics in the United States. AMIA supports the development and application of informatics in patient care, public health, human life sciences, education, research, administration and health care-related policy. AMIA’s 4,000 members advance the use of health information and communications technology with the ultimate goal of improving health and healthcare systems.
February 3rd, 2010 at 2:17 pm
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