Mentors' and supervisors' perspectives regarding newly qualified nurses' practice in digitally enabled workplaces: A qualitative study.

Background: Contemporary healthcare environments are becoming increasingly reliant on digital health technologies, presenting new opportunities and challenges for the nursing profession and nurses across practice settings and roles. Little is known about newly qualified Canadian nurses' experiences as they transition from academic settings to digitally enabled healthcare workplaces.

Objective: To explore (1) perceptions of nurse managers, clinical preceptors and educators regarding newly qualified nurses' practice with digital health, and (2) identify strategies to enhance new nurses' practice with digital health technologies as they transition to the workplace.

Newly Qualified Canadian Nurses' Experiences With Digital Health in the Workplace: Comparative Qualitative Analysis.

Background: Clinical practice settings have increasingly become dependent on the use of digital or eHealth technologies such as electronic health records. It is vitally important to support nurses in adapting to digitalized health care systems; however, little is known about nursing graduates' experiences as they transition to the workplace.

Objective: This study aims to (1) describe newly qualified nurses' experiences with digital health in the workplace, and (2) identify strategies that could help support new graduates' transition and practice with digital health.

Resources to Support Canadian Nurses to Deliver Virtual Care: Environmental Scan.

Background: Regulatory and professional nursing associations have an important role in ensuring that nurses provide safe, competent, and ethical care and are capable of adapting to emerging phenomena that influence society and population health needs. Telehealth and more recently virtual care are 2 digital health modalities that have gained momentum during the COVID-19 pandemic. Telehealth refers to telecommunications and digital communication technologies used to deliver health care, support health care provider and patient education, and facilitate self-care.

Digital Health Education and Training for Undergraduate and Graduate Nursing Students: Scoping Review.

Background: As technology will continue to play a pivotal role in modern-day health care and given the potential impact on the nursing profession, it is vitally important to examine the types and features of digital health education in nursing so that graduates are better equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills needed to provide safe and quality nursing care and to keep abreast of the rapidly evolving technological revolution.

Objective: In this scoping review, we aimed to examine and report on available evidence about digital health education and training interventions for nursing students at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Methods: This scoping review was conducted using the Joanna Briggs Institute methodological framework and the PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews).

Digital health education and training for undergraduate and graduate nursing students: a scoping review protocol.

Objective: The objective of this review is to collate and analyze literature reporting on digital health education and training courses, or other pedagogical interventions, for nursing students at the undergraduate and graduate level to identify gaps and inform the development of future educational interventions.

Introduction: In this era of technology-driven health care, upskilling and/or reskilling the nursing workforce is urgently needed for nurses to lead the digital health future and improve patient care. While informatics competency frameworks serve to inform nursing education and practice, they do not address the entire digital health spectrum.

The Psychometric Properties of Version 2 of the Canadian Nurse Informatics Competency Assessment Scale.

In 2020, we conducted a mixed methods study comprised of a cross-sectional survey in which we applied a modified version of the 21-item Canadian Nurse Informatics Competency Assessment Scale and one-on-one interviews to explore self-perceived nursing informatics competency and readiness for future digital health practice. A total of 221 senior-level students in BScN programs in western Canada participated. This article reports on results related to the factor structure and internal consistency reliability of the 26-item (version 2) of the Canadian Nurse Informatics Competency Assessment Scale.

Are Future Nurses Ready for Digital Health?: Informatics Competency Baseline Assessment.

Background: Research continues to show significant gaps in nursing graduates' preparedness in digital health.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to explore nursing students' self-perceived nursing informatics competency and preparedness in digital health, describe learning opportunities available, and identify perceived learning barriers and facilitators to developing informatics competency.

Methods: A sequential mixed-methods design, using a cross-sectional survey and interviews, was used.

The Dawning of a New Era of Leadership.

This is the final issue of the Canadian Journal of Nursing Leadership (CJNL) for 2021, and the final issue for this editor-in-chief. It is with some reluctance that I step away from this role, but I am a firm believer in knowing when your expiry date is pending. When I took over CJNL from Dorothy Pringle in 2010, the task seemed daunting - what big shoes I had to fill - and almost immediately, imposter syndrome took hold of my psyche.

We Need Not Wait to See What Others Do.

In the last issue of the Canadian Journal of Nursing Leadership, authors provided numerous examples of nurse leaders making efforts to address the mental health of nurses in the midst of the pandemic. I personally thank guest editor Joan Almost for leading the collation of the issue and the authors who took the time to share their strategies and learnings. Unfortunately, we are not out of the woods yet, and I hope this collection of papers will continue to provide guidance to our readers for many months to come.

Digital and informatics competencies: Requirements for nursing leaders in Canada.

The use of health information technologies continues to grow, especially with the increase in virtual care in response to COVID-19. As the largest health professional group in Canada, nurses are key stakeholders and their active engagement is essential for the meaningful adoption and use of digital health technologies to support patient care. Nurse leaders in particular are uniquely positioned to inform key technology decisions; therefore, enhancing their informatics capacity is paramount to the success of digital health initiatives and investments.

Time to Adjust the Sails.

After a year of living a masked, isolated, virtual existence, there is much reflection among healthcare decision makers and providers around the world. What have we done well? What could we have done better? And more importantly, how will we ensure that our learnings inform decisions and actions the next time? In this latest installment of crisis leadership papers, authors address the toll exacted upon our profession thus far. Although profound, the psychological sequelae of the COVID-19 pandemic are directly related to a number of pre-existing conditions that have been festering below the surface for several years.

Creating a Silver Linings Playbook.

The intensity of the COVID-19 pandemic has tested the mettle of political, healthcare and public health leaders over the past year. Amid the unfolding events, healthcare leaders, including many nurses, have been pivoting, innovating, collaborating, safeguarding, inspiring and navigating - all the while informing the creation of an effective playbook to wage a counterassault for all of us. Despite all efforts, this previously unseen opponent has been unrelenting.

A Cockeyed Optimist.

In the 1958 musical South Pacific, the character Nelly Forbush trills a song of optimism and hope amid the darkness of World War II (South Pacific Enterprises and Logan 1958). The chipper message of this fictional navy nurse might well be welcome amid the negative timbre of the pervasive political, cultural and societal upheaval that we are experiencing today - not to mention the burden of a global pandemic. The tune delivers the message of a so-called "cockeyed optimist," staying positive while many are not and being buoyed by the anticipation of brighter, sunny days ahead (South Pacific Enterprises and Logan 1958).

What Do We Need to Do Now?

Over the past few months, in a world closed to face-to-face service delivery and social interaction, we have adapted and, for the most part, realized the importance of being apart to keep us all safe. In the face of the pandemic, we saw emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalizations for all but the most urgent injuries and illnesses drop dramatically. The number of people who failed to seek timely treatment because of fear of exposure to the contagion will never be known.

Live Until You Die.

Amid the profile of Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) and a prevailing interest to support living until death, discussions of appropriate care and care settings for dying abound. The when and how of easing the passage from this corporeal being to a state of other being, whatever you believe that to be, has been focal in healthcare discussions in recent years. I remember a time when the notion of "palliative care" was somewhat novel, in later years when a family member was the recipient of excellent end-of-life care, but still many recent instances in which we, "the system" fail to ensure that that final life journey is aligned (as much as possible) with a person's final wishes.

Let's Get Digital.

The editor-in-chief provides an overview of this issue's focus on nursing leadership and digital health. She encourages nurse leaders to be knowledgeable and engaged in digital health initiatives.

Adapting and validating informatics competencies for senior nurse leaders in the Canadian context: Results of a Delphi study.

Background: Nurse leaders in senior leadership positions in various parts of the world can play an important role in the acquisition, implementation and use of health information technologies. To date, international research related to nurse leader informatics competencies has been carried out in specific healthcare delivery contexts with very specific health information technology environments. In this body of literature, the definition of a 'nurse leader' has not been clearly defined.

Being a Nurse - More Than Just Tasks.

Within Canada, nurses' scope of practice is varied between jurisdictions, often poorly understood and way too often defined on the basis of tasks. Nurse leaders generally recognize that defining the practice of nurses solely on the basis of tasks only serves to devalue the critical thinking and evidence-base of the profession. But nurses themselves have also frequently fallen into the trap of delineating their practice in terms of tasks and time.

Approaches for defining and assessing nursing informatics competencies: a scoping review protocol.

How are nursing informatics competencies defined or assessed in the literature?

Leadership by Design.

The evolving nature of Canada's healthcare system has necessitated a corresponding evolution of leadership informed by contemporary theoretical perspectives. It has long been recognized that the leadership capabilities, knowledge and skills of the past are no longer sufficient to manage and lead amidst the complexities of today's healthcare system. Events of this millennium have challenged the most talented of leaders to thrive and lead in the face of managing: unprecedented critical incidents and technological advances; a multigenerational, multicultural and interprofessional workforce; shifting scopes of practice and spans of control, never-ending fiscal constraints; and new legislative changes to mention but a few.

Who Will Be Culpable?

A registered nurse of questionable professional competence, with a dodgy employment record, a history of mental illness and substance abuse, remains employed and ultimately murders eight vulnerable seniors, attempts to murder four others, and assaults another two over the course of a decade. At least those are the ones for which Elizabeth Wettlaufer offered a confession. Like most nurses and citizens, I was horrified by the revelation of multiple homicides at the hand of one of us.

Quality Bests Quantity.

The editor-in-chief discusses the central theme of this issue of the Canadian Journal of Nursing Leadership - advancing quality and safety in healthcare. As she explains, authors in this issue represent a range of perspectives and highlight nursing leadership strategies, competencies, and obligations to ensure quality and safety in Canadian healthcare organizations.

Are You Culturally Competent?

The practice of nursing today demands that the nurse identify and meet the cultural needs of diverse groups, understand the social and cultural reality of the client, family, and community, develop expertise to implement culturally acceptable strategies to provide nursing care, and identify and use resources acceptable to the client (Andrews and Boyle 2002).

Everybody Knows Somebody.

Over the course of the last two decades, much progress has been made in the approaches to the care of people with mental health and addiction challenges. Yet there is still more work to do in terms of advocacy and the provision of meaningful and effective support for these individuals.

In Conversation with Michael Villeneuve.

Editor-in-Chief, Lynn Nagle, recently talked to the new CEO of the Canadian Nurses Association, Michael Villeneuve about his leadership plans and goals.