Dee McGonigle - Editor in Chief Meet Our Editorial Team!

Dee McGonigle received her baccalaureate degree in nursing from Penn State University, a master's degree in nursing from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and her doctorate in Foundations of Education from the University of Pittsburgh. She is the Editor-in-Chief of the Online Journal of Nursing Informatics Corporation (OJNIC), an Associate Professor of Nursing and Information Sciences & Technology (IST) at Penn State University, and the President of Educational Advancement Associates. She is actively involved in integrating active and collaborative learning strategies into traditional as well as on-line courses. Dr. McGonigle is interested in the educational impact of the human-technology interface. She is committed to the insightful analysis of ethical dilemmas brought on by this volatile information age. Dr. McGonigle's current area of interest is in the ethical implementation of the care management process and healthcare informatics.

Jack Yensen - Editor in Charge Jack is in Charge of E-learning Topics!

Jack YensenJack Yensen has been involved in online education ever since 1970, when he first experimented with simulations on mainframes. When personal computers arrived he abandoned (almost) mainframes and time sharing and immersed himself in programming and databases. When networking started to happen, he got involved in very early email and telnet applications, and then realized in 1992 that he could enhance classroom courses and reach students globally using an FTP server to simulate a Web server, when the web first started. Now he has courses and servers and websites all over the place. Every year he visits many campuses and gives presentations and workshops on online or eLearning and shows faculty and staff how to extend courseware functionality (like WebCT and Blackboard), using Java, Flash, HotMedia, streaming audio and video and collaboration or groupware like Teamwave, Webex, & Placeware. He is also a management consultant in healthcare, assisting corporate clients to design and implement virtual universities. Jack has been involved in health and nursing informatics since 1975.

eLearning

I am totally fascinated with trying to understand the complex processes of learning in order that I can apply any insights to the equally complex field of teaching. Since the early 90s I have been tracking and experimenting with eLearning and instructional objects, employing multimedia and interactivity as essential aspects of online learning and understand that this whole spectrum of web enhanced and web delivered learning will completely change the way we think about learning and teaching. We are looking forward to generating a hotbed of discussion and articles and instructional objects to support the evolving discipline of nursing informatics.

June Kaminski - Editor in Charge June is in Charge of Virtual Nursing Practice and Culture Topics!

Jack Yensen I began my education in Nursing Informatics through various upper level and graduate courses in Computer Programming and Applications in Education. These were done as a minor to my Masters of Science in Nursing at the University of BC from 1987 to 1991. In 1986 I served as the Medical-Surgical ward trainer for nurses being orientated to the new Hospital Information System at a Vancouver hospital where I worked as a staff nurse. Helping nurses learn to integrate computer use into their nursing practice became a fascination of mine which I have continued to indulge in ever since. Ii currently teach third and fourth year BSN students at Kwantlen University College in British Columbia (since 1989). I am also a PhD Candidate in the Faculty of Curriculum Studies and Technology Education at the University of British Columbia. My doctoral dissertation is focused on how nursing faculty perceive the dis/allowing of a cuilture for nursing informatics within nursing education.

I have developed and offered integrated curriculum related to Nursing Informatics for all BSN students at Kwantlen since the early 1990s using both paper based manuals and online delivery modes. The web version of this work is viewable at nursing-informatics.com/kwantlen I am also Editor in Chief and Designer of the Canadian Journal of Nursing Informatics. I just assumed the President role with the Canadian Nursing Informatics Association (after 5 years as Director of Communications and 2 years as President-Elect), and Vice President of Programs for Sigma Theta Tau Honor Society of Nursing, Xi Eta Chapter

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I have also developed a web environment to promote professional development in nursing informatics competency for practicing nurses, viewable at nursng-informatics.com As well, I engage in freelance web design work - her portfolio is available at hygeia-design.com as well as research and curriculum design in First Nations Pedagogy.

Virtual Nursing Practice and Culture

The virtual environment is evolving into a context for professional collaboration, content exchange, mentorship and creative endeavors. Cyberspace is becoming an accessible place for the building of intellectual assets, where knowledge can be effectively identified, distributed and shared with peers. Nursing professionals are joining this growing evolution in a number of different ways. Nursing research and experiential papers focused on the use of virtual environments in these contexts provide insight into this developing phenomenon. Communities can amplify innovation when groups become aware of what they can do online, they go beyond problem-solving and start inventing together. Nursing informatics is advanced by exploring the ways that nurses are shaping and contributing to the virtual environment as professionals, peers, disseminators of health information and client education, researchers, advocates and activists. This focus also illuminates the culture that permeates and fuels these activities, and supports ways to identify, describe and cultivate a culture of nursing informatics using the online environment as a context.

The use of the virtual environment for actual nursing practice is another aspect of nursing informatics. Client teaching, assessment, interdisciplinary care collaboration, project design and management, counseling and other forms of delivering nursing related activities are all relevant. As well, the application of nursing knowledge to online health information, illustrating how nurses can function as authors, web designers and accountable conveyors of accurate online health information all contribute to the application of nursing informatics to the virtual environment.

MEET THE REST OF THE TEAM!