Graduate StudentsÆ Experiences in Web Site Development
The information age empowers human capabilities by removing traditional barriers of time, cost, and geography. Like it has with numerous aspects of daily life and business, information technology (IT) is having a significant impact on healthcare delivery and practice. From forming closer relationships with patients to increasing patient education opportunities, todayÆs nurses are compelled to seek training in informatics as a means of improving online skills and technological literacy. Likewise, the increasing use of technology in the healthcare industry places additional burdens on nursing schools to ensure that nurses have such skills. As Kim (2003) maintains: ônursing schools are faced with the need to ensure that students have basic informatics skills and computer literacy so they are prepared to practice in todayÆs technologically advanced societyö (144).
Nurses who lack such training and skills will not remain competitive in the contemporary healthcare industry. This is particularly true in Korea, where nursing informatics is a ônew disciplineö and a ôdiscrepancyö exists between the use of technology and the education and training of nursing professionals, (Kim 2003). Nursing informatics (NI) pertains to four areas of nursing that involve the use of information technology: education, administration, practice, and research (Kim 2003). To better prepare nurses for the use of information technology in nursing, the National Advisory Council on Nurse Education and Practice (NACNEP) has developed five strategic areas to enhance such development: 1) include core informatics consent in nursing curricula; 2) prepare nurses with specialized skills in informatics; 3) enhance nursing practice and education through informatics projects; 4) prepare nursing faculty in informatics; and 5) increase collaborative efforts in nursing informatics, (Kim 20
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