Data Science and Clinical Analytics Workgroup
Co-Leaders: Ann Wieben, PhD, RN, NI-BC, FAMIA; Steve Johnson, PhD, FAMIA
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The Data Science and Clinical Analytics Workgroup continued to advance the NKBDS mission by promoting the use of data science methods and clinical analytics to generate nursing insights and evidence that improve patient and population outcomes. During 2025-2026, the workgroup focused on strengthening data literacy, expanding educational offerings, and supporting hands-on learning opportunities that enable nurses and other health professionals to use data more effectively in practice and research.
A major accomplishment of the workgroup was its transition to the new Google Verily environment within the All of Us Research Program, accompanied by training activities that expanded member capacity to conduct data-driven investigations using one of the nation's largest health datasets. The group also refined its Micro Learning initiative by establishing guiding principles, standardized scripts, and operational procedures while building member expertise in the Canva platform to support educational dissemination.
The workgroup made substantial progress on a Data Literacy Assessment initiative. Members reviewed 25 existing data and artificial intelligence literacy instruments and conducted item-level mapping across four competency frameworks. This work resulted in the development of a grant proposal designed to support future validation and dissemination efforts. In addition, the workgroup delivered Journal Club webinars focused on current advances in data science and informatics and initiated a rapid review manuscript project.
These activities align strongly with the AACN Essentials and NKBDS strategic priorities by educating nurses to use data effectively, promoting data literacy beyond academic settings, and strengthening workforce readiness for data-driven healthcare environments. The workgroup's efforts support both individual learning and broader population health improvement through enhanced analytic capabilities and evidence generation.
Determinants of Health Workgroup
Leader: Kathleen Bobay, PhD, RN, FAAN
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The Determinants of Health Workgroup continued its efforts to support the standardized collection and use of determinants of health data that can improve the health of individuals, families, communities, and populations. During 2025-2026, the group concentrated its work on a scoping review examining adolescent loneliness screening.
Recognizing the growing importance of social and behavioral determinants of health, the workgroup focused on synthesizing evidence related to loneliness assessment among adolescents. Although the project remains in progress, the work represents an important step toward developing evidence-based guidance that can support early identification of at-risk youth and inform future nursing practice.
The workgroup's activities align with the AACN Essentials emphasis on data-informed care and contribute to broader efforts to standardize assessment approaches that can be incorporated into clinical workflows and health information systems. Through this work, the group seeks to strengthen nursing's role in addressing social determinants that significantly influence health outcomes.
Digital Health and Innovation Workgroup
Co-leaders: Kelly Resco-Summers, DNP, M.Admin., RN; Kecia Hayslett, CHWI, HTC, RN (outgoing)
Christie Martin, PhD, MPH, RN-BC, LHIT-HP, PHN (incoming)
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The Digital Health and Innovation Workgroup focused its efforts during 2025-2026 on the development of a national survey designed to better understand practicing nurses' experiences with digital technologies in clinical practice. The project reflects the workgroup's commitment to ensuring that digital transformation efforts are informed by the perspectives of frontline nurses.
The survey was designed to assess nurses' comfort with and use of digital technologies, identify gaps between currently available tools and desired technologies, evaluate perceived impacts on workflow efficiency and time at the bedside, examine trust in digitally generated recommendations, and identify priorities for future automation and digitization. Findings will be disseminated through a peer-reviewed professional commentary intended to amplify the voice of nurses in national conversations regarding digital health innovation.
The workgroup drew upon established nursing informatics frameworks, including the AACN Essentials Domain 8 competencies, AMIA Nursing Informatics Competencies, TIGER competencies, and HIMSS digital health maturity frameworks. REDCap served as the primary platform for survey administration and data collection.
By centering the perspectives of practicing nurses, the workgroup is contributing critical evidence regarding technology adoption, trust, and usability. These efforts support the Future of Nursing priorities related to workforce well-being, technology-enabled care, and nurse engagement in shaping the systems used in practice. The project also lays the foundation for future work examining digital transformation adoption models and the evolving role of nursing across the digital health ecosystem.
Knowledge Modeling and Encoding Workgroup
Co-Leaders: Tess Settergren, MHA, MA, RN, NI-BC; Stephanie Hartleben, MSN, MHA, RN, NI-BC; Kay Lytle, DNP, RN, NI-BC, NEA-BC, CPHIMS, ACHIP, FHIMSS, FAMIA (outgoing); Mischa Sorensen MSN, RN, NI-BC, Informatics Nurse Specialist (incoming)
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The Knowledge Modeling and Encoding Workgroup continued its foundational work to advance nursing interoperability through the development, standardization, and encoding of nursing knowledge models. During 2025-2026, the group focused primarily on pain assessment, head-to-toe assessment content, fall prevention knowledge models, and terminology mapping methodologies.
The workgroup completed major portions of the Pain Assessment Knowledge Model, including LOINC and SNOMED CT mappings and submission of a new Pain Body Site Identification Panel to LOINC. Members also revisited and refined mapping heuristics to address complex patient-reported content. These efforts contribute directly to the representation of nursing knowledge within national interoperability standards.
A second major accomplishment involved comparative analysis of the Head-to-Toe Assessment model and the existing LOINC Nursing Physiologic Assessment Panel. This work identified opportunities for additional content refinement, definition standardization, and closer collaboration with the Transforming Documentation Workgroup and electronic health record vendors.
The group also advanced the development of standardized mapping heuristics and initiated a generic framework for nursing intervention mapping that can be applied across multiple knowledge models. In addition, work resumed on the Fall Prevention Knowledge Model, with all fall-risk assessment scales now represented within LOINC and additional content under review.
Through these efforts, the workgroup continues to advance semantic interoperability, support reusable nursing data, and create the infrastructure necessary for scalable nursing research, clinical decision support, quality measurement, and knowledge generation.
A highlight of the conference was unplanned. After a Wednesday evening conversation, Dr. Alvin Jeffery and Dr. Susan Matney spent the night testing whether a commercially available large language model (Claude) could assist with terminology mapping. By Thursday evening it was connected live to SNOMED CT, and on Friday Jeffery gave a spontaneous demonstration mapping a portion of the Head-to-Toe admission assessment to LOINC and SNOMED CT. This was an exploratory exercise, not tool development — no software was created or is being distributed — and the results are preliminary and pending expert validation. Still, it offered a compelling glimpse of how AI assistance might accelerate the mapping work that underpins nursing interoperability.
Learning Collaborative for Digital Health Workgroup
Co-Leaders: Mary Jane Rivard, DNP, RN, NI-BC; Nancy M. Husson, DNP, RN, CHSE
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The Learning Collaborative for Digital Health Workgroup continued its mission of preparing nurse educators and practice partners to lead the digital evolution of healthcare through the development of knowledge, skills, and attitudes related to health informatics and technology.
During 2025-2026, the workgroup produced four publications and two national presentations focused on advancing informatics education. A significant accomplishment was the development and pilot testing of the Health Informatics Competency Assessment (HICA), a self-assessment instrument designed to help faculty evaluate their informatics competencies and identify educational needs.
The workgroup also contributed scholarship related to artificial intelligence in nursing education and presented its work at national conferences, including ANIA and SINI. A complementary scoping review examined best practices for educating future nurses in informatics and technology-enabled care.
These initiatives support nursing educators and practice partners by providing evidence-informed approaches to competency development and curriculum enhancement. The workgroup's efforts contribute directly to implementation of AACN Essentials Domain 8 and support the broader NKBDS goal of preparing a digitally capable nursing workforce.
Nursing Value Workgroup
Co-Leaders: Elizabeth Swanson, PhD, RN; Greg Clancy, DNP, RN
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The Nursing Value Workgroup continued its efforts to define, measure, and communicate the value of nursing within contemporary healthcare systems. The group's work is grounded in the belief that meaningful demonstration of nursing's contribution requires measurable, comparable indicators linked to patient outcomes, organizational performance, and health equity.
During 2025-2026, the workgroup refined and expanded Nursing Value User Stories, including exemplars related to pain management, fall prevention, stroke care, and rapid response initiatives. The group explored opportunities to use real-world data sources, including Epic Cosmos and organizational datasets, to evaluate nursing contributions and return on investment.
The workgroup also compared multiple conceptual models of nursing value and continued engagement with journal editors and professional stakeholders to support dissemination of emerging work. Collaboration with CoxHealth enabled examination of nursing value measures associated with rapid response initiatives.
By advancing practical approaches for measuring nursing's impact, the workgroup contributes to the broader NKBDS vision of magnifying nursing's value through data, analytics, and evidence-informed decision making.
Policy and Advocacy Workgroup
Co-Leaders: Carolyn Harmon, PhD, DNP; Susan Alexander, DNP, ANP-BC; Dana Bensinger, DNP, RN, NI-BC (outgoing)
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The Policy and Advocacy Workgroup continued to serve as a bridge between NKBDS products and broader policy implementation efforts. During 2025–2026, the workgroup focused on advancing the adoption of the Nursing Head-to-Toe Assessment framework, supporting implementation of the NCSBN Unique Nurse Identifier (UNI), and expanding resources to facilitate nursing informatics advocacy.
A notable accomplishment was collaboration with the Transforming Documentation Workgroup that culminated in an Alliance for Nursing Informatics policy statement supporting adoption of the standardized Head-to-Toe Assessment framework as a strategy to reduce documentation burden and improve data quality. The workgroup also continued advocacy efforts related to incorporation of the NCSBN Unique Nurse Identifier into national standards and health information infrastructure.
To support broader engagement, the workgroup developed a Policy and Advocacy Toolkit intended to guide nursing informatics professionals in policy development and implementation activities. Members also published scholarship related to the Unique Nurse Identifier and engaged with academic organizations, health systems, and EHR vendors to support implementation efforts.
The inclusion of the Unique Nurse Identifier within the United States Core Data for Interoperability (USCDI) represents a particularly important milestone and reflects years of sustained advocacy by NKBDS members and partners. These accomplishments strengthen nursing's visibility within national health information policy and interoperability initiatives.
Transforming Documentation Workgroup
Co-Leaders: Bonnie Adrian, PhD, RN, NI-BC; David Boyd, DNP, RN, CNS, NI-BC, CPHIMS
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The Transforming Documentation Workgroup continued its efforts to reduce nursing documentation burden while enhancing the usefulness, interoperability, and secondary use of nursing data. During 2025–2026, the group expanded its Nursing Admission Head-to-Toe (H2T) Toolkit through the development of an adult critical care addendum that extends applicability across critical care, perioperative, and post-anesthesia settings.
Building on previous work, the group analyzed assessment content from multiple healthcare organizations, identified shared elements, and incorporated additional critical care observations into the standardized toolkit. The resulting resource supports harmonization of nursing assessment documentation and facilitates broader adoption of standardized nursing data elements.
The workgroup collaborated extensively with the Policy and Advocacy Workgroup, contributing to the development of an Alliance for Nursing Informatics position statement supporting the Head-to-Toe Assessment framework. Additional partnerships included discussions with the University of Colorado College of Nursing regarding educational adoption of the toolkit and continued collaboration with the Knowledge Modeling and Encoding Workgroup to advance terminology mapping and interoperability.
The workgroup also explored emerging documentation technologies, including ambient documentation tools, and examined how standardized assessment content may support future implementation of artificial intelligence-enabled documentation solutions.
These activities directly support the Future of Nursing goals related to reducing documentation burden, improving interoperability, enhancing nursing well-being, and creating reusable nursing data that can support quality improvement, research, and precision nursing.