Using the Data/Information/Knowledge/Wisdom Continuum
• Review the information in Figure 6–1 in Nursing Informatics and the Foundation of Knowledge.
• Develop a clinical question related to your area of practice that you would like to explore.
Possible clinical questions: A process for how patients navigate through the emergency department is so inefficient that it affects patient outcomes. You are sure that there must be a better way that can improve the quality of emergency care delivered to the patients in your institution or possibly one that can be disseminated for all your fellow emergency nurses to share.
• 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.
o Explore the available databases in the Walden Library. Identify which of these databases you would use to find the information or data you need.
o Once you have identified useful databases, how would you go about finding the most relevant articles and information?
o Consider how you would extract the relevant information from the articles.
o 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?
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.
o Identify the databases and search words you would use.
o 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.
