Informatics in Nursing Research

Computer-Assisted Interviewing

• CASI (Computer-Assisted Self-Interviewing): Research subjects answer questions on a screen by selecting their response with a keyboard.
• CATI (Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing): A telephone interviewer reads each question from a computer screen, and the answer is entered through the keyboard.
• CAPI (Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing): Laptop computers allow interviewers to use automatic branching, insert text, randomize question order, and perform on-line editing and consistency checking.

Advantages of Computer-Assisted Interviewing

• Automatic branching reduces errors from incorrectly followed skip patterns.
• Text can be inserted into later questions.
• Question order and response categories can be automatically randomized.
• On-line editing and consistency checking allow interviewers to check data during the interview.
• Typing is faster than writing for capturing answers to open-ended questions.

Considerations on Using Computer-Assisted Interviewing

• Each question is restricted to the size of the computer screen.
• Provision must be made for nonstandard movement through the questionnaire.
• A major consideration is the upfront cost in time and money to acquire the hardware and develop the software.

Knowledge Discovery in Databases (KKD)

• Offers a step in extracting usable information from large data sets.

Application of Informatics on Research

• Relevance: Speed - faster production of finished work, and greater ease of revision.
• Data collection: Literature of researches, online full-text information services like OVID, and Google Scholar.

Preparation of Research Documents

• Text editing facilities: Standard software packages like Microsoft Word or WordPerfect have become sophisticated and easy to use.
• Benefits of computerized methods: Accuracy - reduced costs and fewer errors resulting from repeated retyping of the manuscript.

Computer-Assisted Data Gathering

• Researchers use technology to manage the data gathering process.
• Facts (or data) originate with the patient.

Computer-Assisted Interviewing

• Three types of CAI: Hardware, software, and organizational.
• Hardware security: Concerned with protective features, including hardware identification, isolation, access control, surveillance, and integrity.

Copyright Law

• Refers to the legal right of the owner of intellectual property.
• WHOIS database: A database that stores domain registration information.
• Netiquette: Network etiquette, including remembering the human, behaving ethically, familiarizing oneself with the technology, and respecting others' time and bandwidth.

Data Analysis

• Data mining: Semi-automatic exploration and analysis of large quantities of data.
• Quantitative analysis: Software packages include BMPD, EPINFO, SAS, MINITAB, SPSS, and DataDesk.
• Five fundamental criteria: Capabilities, portability, ease of learning, reliability, and cost.
• Qualitative analysis: Software applications for qualitative test analysis, including Textbase Alpha and AQUAD.

Graphics

• Pictorial representations greatly assist the investigator's progress in interpreting data.

Information Security

• Definition of terms: Privacy, personal information, controller, personal information processor, and confidentiality.
• Criteria for lawful processing of personal information: Consent, contract, vital interest, and information security.
• Security risk: System penetration, unauthorized users, errors, disasters, viruses, worms, and malicious programs.
• Security mechanism: Software approach, including authentication and auditing, and organizational approach, including policy development and dissemination.

Laws in Nursing Informatics

• Loss of public confidence, question of personal safety, infringement of personal privacy, failure to meet legal obligations, and commercial confidentiality.
• Intellectual property law: RA 8293 of 1998.
• Three approaches to protecting data usage integrity, privacy of personal and public domains.