Duke's program philosophy for Nursing Informatics admits students who have solid clinical expertise, pre-requisite proficiency with basic computing, and good critical thinking skills; these are fundamental to bring to an informatics role.   Training expert nurses in project management, systems analysis, domain modeling, applications design and development, and systems lifecycles prepares them to be excellent translators and advocates for improving information systems in health care, and always with a goal of improved patient outcomes. Nursing Informatics is a specialty that requires at least 3-5 years of clinical experience (more experience is preferred) as a foundation for translating informatics solutions for clinical practice problems.

Duke’s philosophy adopts a 'Guide on the Side' attitude for the faculty role, understanding that true learning takes effort, participation and involvement on the part of the learner.   The faculty role of providing the structure, the resources, and the environment for learning is crucial to the process and is the most appropriate role for a constructivist learning paradigm.  But students who have spent most of their academic careers in old paradigm classrooms may sometimes find that they grow frustrated with their 'Guide on the Side' and desperately want the 'Sage on the Stage' to just tell them what they need to know. This minimizes immediate frustration but rarely improves true lifelong learning.  Make NO mistake -- Duke's program is rigorous and you will work harder than any academic pursuit in your history!   But you will be very well prepared for your next informatics job.

Dr Goodwin's teaching and learning philosophy guides the Duke Nursing Informatics program.