In module one, we talked about growing our leadership skills through applying them in service to the greater good. In subsequent modules, we learned more about leadership essentials, the competing values framework and the 12 leadership skills that we can apply as needed in leadership scenarios. Now it's time to envision nursing informatics leadership in action, starting with identifying opportunities to serve and grow as an informatics leader. We will focus on professional organizations as our starting point. I belong to and serve in nursing informatics leadership roles in many nursing and intraprofessional organizations, and I concur with the wisdom of nursing informatics leaders that being involved is a great way to grow your leadership skills. Our learning objectives are to describe opportunities to serve as a nursing informatics leader in formal professional, governmental or health systems organizations to begin planning your next steps in nursing informatics leadership. And to describe which leadership skills best promote connecting with others and how you might deepen those skills to engage in nursing informatics networks, and communities. These are just a few of the many organizations that offer professional nursing informatics leadership opportunities. Key differences among these organizations exists, but you'll note that all of them emphasize supporting other nurse informaticians and advancing the nursing informatics specialty. The International Medical Informatics Association or IMIA-NI is a global informatics organization. With an IMIA, the nursing and informatics special interest group aims to foster collaboration to facilitate development in the field and to share knowledge, experience and ideas about informatics and it benefits. IMIA and the next three organizations have membership dues. Often, there are reduced membership rates for students. The American Nursing Informatics Association, ANIA aims to advance nursing informatics as well and invites nurses and other professionals to join. AMIA is an interprofessional informatics organization with an international membership and strong nursing participation. This is a message from the 2017 Chair of the AMIA Nursing Informatics Working Group, inviting other nurses to join in support and mentor others and make a difference in our profession. NANDA is an international organization that aims to improve healthcare of all people through the use of standardized terminology. There are similar organizations for other nursing and multidisciplinary terminologies, and all are actively promoting the use of standards for knowledge representation, and interoperability. A foundational principle of nursing and healthcare informatics. The Taiwan Nursing Informatics Association has an active community with many events and leadership opportunities, as well as ongoing trainings to support nurses who wish to further their informatics competencies. Next, we'll review some organizations that have free memberships or opportunities. Like NANDA, the Omaha System is a standardized terminology that is used internationally for knowledge representation and interoperability. There's no cost to participate in the Omaha System Listserv or quarterly community of practice webinars. When I purchased software in my health department in 1998, I was not aware that the Omaha System provided the structure for documentation in that EHR. Later, I learned the value of standardization as I began analyzing our nursing data. The Omaha System community became a very important support for me and others who wanted to advance healthcare quality and outcomes using our data. The purpose of the LOINC Nursing Subcommittee is to facilitate the development and use of LOINC codes for nursing assessments, goals and outcomes. There is no cost to serve on the LOINC Nursing Subcommittee. Interested individuals should have a direct and material interest in LOINC. That is you are a LOINC user, be willing to participate actively and demonstrate a commitment to LOINC and you must complete an application for membership. Health Informatics New Zealand is a national organization with a strong nursing presence. That aims to support the growth of digital health in New Zealand. If you are a student, you can join Health Informatics New Zealand for free. Some conditions apply. Social networking also connects nursing informaticians. We can support each other and find networking opportunities through platforms, such as Facebook and LinkedIn. Here's the Facebook page for the European Federation for Medical Informatics, Nursing Informatics special interest group. Let's see how many nursing informatics organizations we can find and like on Facebook. We can see that these organizations offer many opportunities for nursing informatics leaders who seek to serve the greater good. You can join and serve the nursing informatics specialty as a member of your organization or community, then be sure to join in later subcommittee or workgroup within that organization and submit your name as a candidate for an executive committee role. Consider how your leadership skills would be applied differently in various roles On my nursing informatics leadership journey, I have had the opportunity to networks and collaborate extensively, especially within the Omaha System community. In 2001, I was invited by Karen Martin to share my Omaha System data at the first Omaha System International Conference. During my presentation, I was so excited to meet nursing informatics's leaders from so many counties in Minnesota who are also using the Omaha System. I started a Minnesota Omaha System users group together with Linda Olson Keller from the Minnesota Department of Health. Our group grew so much that we renamed ourselves, the Omaha System Community of Practice. We meet by webinar, so that colleagues from all over the world are able to join in. We share important information on several websites. The official Omaha System website provides key information about the Omaha System terminology and related publications, links and conferences. We created the Omaha System Guidelines Initiative with Karen Martin and Amy Liten, and our website is the repository for encoded evidence based guidelines, and their metadata. At the invitation of Dean Delaney, we created the Omaha System Partnership within the University of Minnesota Center for Nursing Informatics which is home to the Omaha System data collaborative. It enables researchers, methodologists, clinicians and community members to collaborate in healthcare quality in population health research using large Omaha System data sets. Finally, our Omaha System Community of Practice website has numerous resources that have been developed and shared. You can see how the seeds of collaboration within the Omaha System community started many years ago by Karen Martin, have provided me and many other nursing informatics leaders with opportunities to serve. Together, we advance research and practice collaboration in nursing and interprofessional informatics. You may find Omaha System opportunities in your area and you're welcome to join, and serve with us in the international Omaha System community. As with many examples on nursing and interprofessional leaders and pioneers, we are sharing courses two and five. We see collaborative and creative cultures, and leadership skills are key to developing new change. Now in our discussion for this module, share your nursing informatics organization stories and journey. What organizations will you join next and how will you serve? Then complete the required readings and take the quiz to test your new knowledge. When you finish the quiz, it's time to move on to course two, Nursing Informatics Leaders with Dr. Bonnie Westra.
