Nursing Informatics Competencies and Healthcare Quality in Ghana: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

In Ghana’s evolving digital health landscape, nursing informatics competencies (NIC) have emerged as critical determinants of care quality and patient safety outcomes. This research evaluated how NIC affects nursing care and safety among 360 nurses working in Ghana. Despite 35% formal NI training rates and only 25% technology confidence among Ghanaian nurses, the relationship between NIC levels and clinical outcomes remains unexplored. A cross-sectional study involving 360 nurses from three major hospitals in the Western Region of Ghana was conducted using validated instruments between May and August 2025. The research design employed a cross-sectional descriptive approach, analyzing data with Pearson’s correlation and multiple regression. The study revealed significant positive correlations among the informatics skills, computer skills, informatics knowledge, and the nurse’s demographic characteristics (p < 0.001), except for workplace. The combination of predictors demonstrated statistical significance with F_{(3, 353)} = 45.796 and p < 0.001, which proves that the three predictors (informatics skills, computer skills, and informatics knowledge) can predict perceived quality of care. However, informatics knowledge provides the most effective prediction of care quality. The study again found a significant relationship between informatics skills and patient safety (r = 0.529, p < 0.001), which explained 27.9% of patient safety variance (β = 0.529, p < 0.001). The study results show that computer skills and informatics knowledge did not serve as significant predictors of patient safety. The research findings contradict the belief that digital literacy by itself guarantees safe patient care. The research suggests that policy changes should integrate NIC into educational programs and clinical practice while providing specialized training for nurses to apply informatics in their work.