Evaluation and improvement of nursing undergraduates' informatics competencies using a hybrid multi-criteria decision-making model

Abstract

Background: Nursing staff need to be constantly exposed to information systems at work and encounter patients who share medical data obtained from the internet; this was widely observed during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Hence, nursing staff should have the necessary skills and education that can help them develop nursing students' informatics competencies. However, research on assessing and improving nursing students' informatics competencies remains scarce.

Objective: This study aimed to provide nursing educators with a refined evaluation model and targeted improvement strategies tailored to enhance undergraduate students' informatics competencies.

Design: A cross-sectional study.

Methods: This study constructed a hybrid multiple-criteria decision-making model. The analytical hierarchical process was applied to obtain criteria weights; thereafter, the Visekriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje with Aspiration-level (VIKOR-AS) method was used to assess undergraduate nursing students' informatics competencies of in the case hospital.

Participants: Data were obtained from 22 clinically experienced nurses with experience in supervising undergraduate nursing students at a secondary public hospital in Zhejiang Province, China.

Results: According to the weighted results, "Skill (C₂)" is an important dimension with the highest weight ranking. The corresponding highest-ranking criteria for each dimension are "Knowing how to explain the information management strategies to ensure patient safety (C₁₂)," "Applying information technology tools to support patient safety management (wristband scanning to identify patients, patients' electronic orders, etc.) (C₂₁)," and "Paying attention to the importance of information technology in clinical decision-making and preventing errors or facilitating patient care coordination (C₃₂)." In the case of the undergraduate nursing students' performance assessment, Student E was the best overall performer from the perspective of overall utility value. The remaining students ranked as follows: Student C $\succ$ Student D $\succ$ Student F $\succ$ Student A $\succ$ Student B.

Conclusions: This study model remedies the shortcomings of previous studies on evaluating undergraduate students' informatics competency dimensions, provides a reference for nursing colleges to develop nursing informatics-related curriculum content, and helps train nursing instructors to assess and train specific students. The results indicate that information skills are an important factor in the development of nursing students' informatics competencies; hence, nursing educators should prioritize the development of nursing students' informatics competencies, followed by information knowledge and attitudes.

Keywords: Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP); Educational measurement; Multi-criteria Decision-making (MCDM); Nursing informatics; Visekriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje with Aspir-level (VIKOR-AS).