Abstract
Background:
Nursing informatics competency is crucial for reducing information system usage time and nursing errors, as well as ensuring patient safety and service quality. However, current research often overlooks individual differences, focusing on overall competency levels and associations between nursing informatics competency and different factors for the overall sample.
Objective:
This study aimed to identify distinct latent profiles of clinical nurses’ informatics competency and analyze population characteristics and influencing factors of different profiles to provide the theoretical basis for improving nursing informatics competency.
Methods:
This study used a general demographic questionnaire and the Nursing Informatics Competency Scale to investigate 733 nurses from different-level hospitals in a Chinese city. The nursing informatics competency profiles were explored by latent profile analysis, and the population characteristics and influencing factors of profiles were explored by univariate and binary logistic regression analyses.
Results:
Nurses were classified into 2 latent profiles: the “high informatics competency profile” (58.7%) and “low informatics competency profile” (41.3%). Low informatics competency nurses were predominantly technical secondary school nurses, working at primary hospitals, in contract employment, and with a monthly income of ≤¥3000 (approximately US$412). Salary satisfaction, career satisfaction, department, and education level significantly influenced the latent profiles of nursing informatics competency (P < .05).
Conclusions:
This study highlights 2 distinct latent profiles in nursing informatics competency. Nurses with higher salary and career satisfaction, education levels, and department informatization were more likely to exhibit higher informatics competency. These findings provide a foundation for targeted interventions to improve clinical nurses’ informatics competency.
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