EDUCATIONAL ISSUES IN NURSING PRACTICE Nursing informatics competencies: assessment of undergraduate and graduate nursing students Jeungok Choi and Jean E De Martinis Aims and objectives. To report the informatics competencies of students in selected undergraduate and graduate nursing programmes, to examine whether informatics competencies differed between the different programmes and to suggest com- petency-based applications that will strengthen informatics courses and informatics-related content throughout the curricula. Background. Nursing students in undergraduate and graduate nursing programmes have different educational backgrounds and different practice experience. Thus, their informatics preparation is apt to be varied, and nursing curricula must reflect this variation while advancing students towards informatics proficiency. However, studies on informatics competency assess- ment in these nursing students are scarce. Design. A descriptive survey design. Methods. Data were collected from 289 nursing students using a 30-item Self-Assessment of Nursing Informatics Competen- cies Scale via an email sent to students using a LISTSERV mailing list. The email embedded link to the Internet survey pack- age, SurveyMonkey, which included the Self-Assessment of Nursing Informatics Competencies Scale and demographic questions along with an online consent form. Results. Students in both programmes were competent in three subscale areas: basic computer knowledge and skills, clinical informatics attitude, and wireless device skills. Graduate students reported slightly higher mean competency scores than did undergraduate students in three subscales: clinical informatics role, clinical informatics attitude and wireless device skills. Conclusions. Findings indicate specific topics for nurse educators to consider when designing informatics curricula. The com- parison of undergraduate and graduate students indicates similarities in informatics competencies in terms of areas where students were competent and small mean score differences. Further studies are suggested to examine whether there are differences in informatics competencies between undergraduate and graduate students. Relevance to clinical practice. These results assist nurse educators in determining specific areas of informatics content that need greater focus and inclusion in the design of better nursing educational programmes. Examples of integrating competen- cies into existing curriculum or informatics courses are suggested. Key words: accelerated baccalaureate, doctor of nursing practice, graduate nursing students, nursing informatics competencies, RN to baccalaureate, self-assessment of nursing informatics competencies scale, SANICS, traditional baccalaureate, undergradu- ate nursing students Accepted for publication: 10 November 2012 Introduction Establishing a baseline of informatics competencies in nurs- ing students is vital to planning an informatics curriculum and adequately preparing students to use information technologies to promote safe and evidence-based nursing care (Hebda & Calderone 2010). Despite the importance of assessing informatics competencies, there is a dearth of studies to date that have reported informatics competencies of nursing students in undergraduate and graduate pro- Authors: Jeungok Choi, RN, MPH, PhD, Assistant Professor, School of Nursing, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA; Jean E De Martinis, PhD, FNP-BC, Associate Professor, School of Nursing, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA Correspondence: Jeungok Choi, Assistant Professor, School of Nursing, University of Massachusetts, 120 Skinner Hall, 651 North Pleasant Street, Amherst, MA 01003-9299, USA. Telephone: +1 413 545 5689. E-mail: jeungokc@nursing.umass.edu © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 1970 Journal of Clinical Nursing, 22, 1970–1976, doi: 10.1111/jocn.12188