How can we improve informatics education for German nurses? Statements derived from the first German nursing informatics summer school.

For German nurses it is difficult to join training in health informatics besides their professional activity. The authors have successfully established a German nursing informatics summer school in shape of a 5 day intensive curriculum which they offer to German nurses during the summer holidays. The summer school introduces nurses into health informatics and nursing informatics. It targets interested nursing staff, nurse executives, and nurse teachers. It promotes self learning abilities for continued self education of the participants. One of its goals is to enable participants to formulate their own requirements in health information processing and to influence system design and system introduction. The paper presents the curriculum, talks about first experiences, and demonstrates the results of an evaluation among the participants. Conclusions are drawn in a set of statements on informatics education of nurses.