Assignment: NURS 6051 Using the Data/Information/Knowledge/Wisdom Continuum
Have you ever gone online to search for a journal article on
a specific topic? It is amazing to see the large number of journals that are
available in the health care field. When you view the library in its entirety,
you are viewing untapped data. Until you actually research for your particular
topic, there is little structure. Once you have narrowed it down, you have
information and once you apply the information, you have knowledge. Eventually,
after thoughtful research and diligent practice, you reach the level of
wisdom—knowledge applied in meaningful ways.
Are there areas in your practice that you believe should be
more fully explored? The central aims of nursing informatics are to manage and
communicate data, information, knowledge, and wisdom. This continuum represents
the overarching structure of nursing informatics. In this Assignment, you
develop a research question relevant to your practice area and relate how you
would work through the progression from data to information, knowledge, and
wisdom.
To prepare:
Review the information in Figure 6–2 in Nursing Informatics
and the Foundation of Knowledge.
Develop a clinical question related to your area of practice
that you would like to explore.
Consider what you currently know about this topic. What
additional information would you need to answer the question?
Using the continuum of data, information, knowledge, and
wisdom, determine how you would go about researching your question.
Assignment: NURS 6051 Using the Data/Information/Knowledge/Wisdom Continuum
Explore the available databases in the Walden Library.
Identify which of these databases you would use to find the information or data
you need.
Once you have identified useful databases, how would you go
about finding the most relevant articles and information?
Consider how you would extract the relevant information from
the articles.
How would you take the information and organize it in a way
that was useful? How could you take the step from simply having useful
knowledge to gaining wisdom?
By Day 7 of Week 4
Write a 3- to 4-page paper that addresses the following:
Summarize the question you developed, and then relate how
you would work through the four steps of the data, information, knowledge,
wisdom continuum. Be specific.
Identify the databases and search words you would use.
Relate how you would take the information gleaned and turn
it into useable knowledge.
Can informatics be used to gain wisdom? Describe how you
would progress from simply having useful knowledge to the wisdom to make
decisions about the information you have found during your database search.
Your paper must also include a title page, an introduction,
a summary, and a reference page
