Development and evaluation of a competency-based nursing informatics curriculum guided by the NMBI digital health competency framework: a cross- sectional comparative study

Background The rapid digital transformation of healthcare requires nursing students to develop strong digital health competencies. However, existing course designs often lack alignment between learning objectives, teaching strategies, and assessment methods. This study aimed to design and evaluate a competency-based nursing informatics course guided by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland (NMBI) framework. Methods A cross-sectional comparative study was conducted among two cohorts of second-year undergraduate nursing students (course group vs. non-course group). The course was developed based on the five NMBI domains: digital professionalism, leadership and advocacy, data and information quality, information-enabled care, and technology—guided by principles of Competency-Based Education (CBE). The NMBI Digital Health Competency Scale was translated, adapted, and tested for reliability and validity. Independent t-tests and Cohen’s d were used to examine group differences and effect sizes. Results The course consisted of nine modules, each corresponding to one or more NMBI domains. A total of 194 valid questionnaires were collected. The scale demonstrated excellent reliability (Cronbach’s α = 0.968), and confirmatory factor analysis provided support for good construct validity. Students who completed the course scored significantly higher than those who did not (175.6 ± 18.9 vs. 159.3 ± 20.0;p < 0.001). Significant improvements were observed across all five domains, with the most essential effects in “Information and Data Quality” (d = 0.86), “Information-Enabled Care” (d = 0.82), and “Technology” (d = 0.77). Fourteen of the fifteen subdomains showed significant improvement, particularly in the use of appropriate technology, data management, and information sharing. Conclusions A nursing informatics course aligned with the NMBI framework is feasible and effective in enhancing nursing students’ digital health competencies, especially in data quality, information-enabled care, and technology application. Incorporating such competency-based informatics education into core nursing curricula is recommended to prepare the future workforce for healthcare digitalisation.