Big Data and Nursing: Implications for the Future

Abstract

Big data is becoming increasingly more prevalent and it affects the way nurses learn, practice, conduct research and develop policy. The discipline of nursing needs to maximize the benefits of big data to advance the vision of promoting human health and wellbeing. However, current practicing nurses, educators and nurse scientists often lack the required skills and competencies necessary for meaningful use of big data. Some of the key skills for further development include the ability to mine narrative and structured data for new care or outcome patterns, effective data visualization techniques, and further integration of nursing sensitive data into artificial intelligence systems for better clinical decision support. We provide growth-path vision recommendations for big data competencies for practicing nurses, nurse educators, researchers, and policy makers to help prepare the next generation of nurses and improve patient outcomes trough better quality connected health.