Preparing our public health nursing leaders with informatics skills to combat bioterrorism in the United States.

Our public health nursing leaders are practicing in a new world responding to terrorism and other threats to our nation's health. Informatics solutions provide a viable opportunity to respond to new pressures on the public health system, changes in healthcare delivery, and improvements in information technology. Informatics competencies for public health workers in the United States have been developed by a working group sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). These competencies provide the framework in which to design a series of activities prepared exclusively to meet the needs of our public health nursing leaders using contemporary informatics tools and solutions. Many of these leaders graduated during an era where informatics was not recognized as a necessary component of their curriculum The completion of this proposed futuristic curriculum will allow our public health nursing leaders to work more efficiently and provide greater influence on public policy.