Faculty in the UAB School of Nursing Nursing Informatics specialty bring the experience of practicing nursing informaticians to the classroom, providing students knowledge of the latest trends in health information technology and access to national and international experts.
Jacqueline Moss, PhD, RN, FAAN
Professor and Associate Dean for Technology and Innovation, and senior scientist at the UAB Informatics Institute, Jacqueline Moss, PhD, RN, FAAN, first became interested in informatics as she observed early point of care documentation, where information is documented while in the room with a patient, while working as a bedside nurse.
“I saw that there was all of these data, and thought we should look at that data to see the best way to take care of a patient. I saw mini clinical trials every day in the information we collected,” Moss said. “When I entered my PhD program at University of Maryland at Baltimore, however, I realized it’s not that easy to extract the data you need in the way you want. That’s how I got interested in informatics.”
Moss earned her doctorate from the University of Maryland at Baltimore in nursing informatics in 2002 and joined the UAB School of Nursing faculty the same year.
She has been recognized on multiple occasions for her contributions to informatics research, and in 2010, she was inducted as a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing in recognition of the significant impact her body of work has had on the field of nursing informatics.
Her work testing the draft International Standards Organization (ISO) data model for nursing action resulted in that model becoming an international standard for nursing documentation systems.
The American Medical Informatics Association twice awarded Moss the Harriett H. Werley Award for nursing informatics research, for her research describing the structure and use of narrative documentation in an otherwise structured electronic medical record and again for her work describing the medication administration process in intensive care, which showed that intravenous pumps and electronic med-stations are a major source of error in nursing practice.
Moss has more than 70 publications in informatics, simulation and distance education, and research conducted by Moss has been supported by grants from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the National Library of Medicine (NLM).
Marisa Wilson, DNSc, MHSc, RN-BC, CPHIMS, FAAN
Marisa Wilson, DNSc, MHSc, RN-BC, CPHIMS, FAAN, joined UAB School of Nursing faculty as specialty track coordinator for the MSN Nursing Informatics program in 2015. She is also faculty in the DNP and AMNP programs focusing on informatics content, evidence based practice and the leadership.
She is a board certified informatician with interests in health information technology policy, implementation, and positive patient outcome and clinical efficiency supported by technology. She spent more than 15 years as a nurse clinician working in acute physical rehabilitation, medical-surgical, and telemetry units. In addition, Wilson spent more than 25 years as an epidemiologist, analyst, project leader and manager implementing information systems in public health and acute care settings.
Wilson was inducted as a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing in 2016, an honor that recognizes individuals who have had a significant impact on nursing. She is currently serving on the Board of Directors of The Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management Education (CAHIIM), a non-profit organization that serves the public interest by establishing quality accreditation standards for health informatics and health information management educational programs. Wilson has leadership roles in nursing informatics through the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA), the Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), and the Technology Informatics Guiding Education Reform (TIGER) Initiative. She is currently co-chair of the Nursing Knowledge Big Data Science Initiative Education Workgroup.
Bryan Wilbanks, PhD, DNP, CRNA (DNP 2012, PhD 2016)
Assistant Professor Bryan Wilbanks joined the UAB School of Nursing faculty in August 2016 after earning his Doctor of Philosophy in Nursing. He is a two-time graduate of the School, also earning his Doctor of Nursing Practice in 2012.
After deciding to pursue his PhD in nursing informatics, Wilbanks cited the School’s faculty and the value of the program as reasons for coming to UAB. The School’s program provides a solid foundation for those pursuing a career in informatics, he said.
“I think in the future there is going to be a big demand for people who can explain the stuff that comes from all this information we’re gathering to other people,” Wilbanks said. “Informatics is about turning data, which is basic information, into knowledge, which is decision making based on basic information. Turning data into actions you can take based on the knowledge you get from the data is a big part of informatics, and at the UAB School of Nursing you can get a good, solid foundation in it for the future if it’s the field you want to pursue.”
Wilbanks is a nurse anesthetist with more than 12 years of clinical experience, and his current research is in applied clinical informatics in the perioperative setting focuses on improving the usability of information technology interfaces to improve documentation quality and prevent unintended consequences.
In 2017, Wilbanks was honored by the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA) Foundation, receiving the John F. Garde Researcher of the Year award for his extensive work to improve outcomes for anesthesia patients. He currently serves as treasurer on the Alabama Association of Nurse Anesthetists Board of Directors.
As an assistant professor, Wilbanks teaches pathophysiology II, scholarly writing and informatics. He earned his BSN from the University of Alabama in Huntsville and his MSN from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
Tonya Judson, MSN, RN (BSN 1996, MSN 2017)
Returning to UAB School of Nursing for her Master’s was a natural progression for Tonya Judson, an instructor in the Nursing Informatics MSN specialty.
“UAB has always had a reputation of being phenomenal nursing school. I graduated in 1996 with my bachelor’s in nursing and had a great experience, so it seemed like the natural place to go for my master’s when I decided to go back to school. Coming back to UAB felt like coming home,” said Judson, who joined the SON faculty in 2018. Previously, Judson was an adjunct clinical instructor at the University of Alabama Capstone College of Nursing.
Before earning her MSN, Judson worked with insurance and electronic health record information, but she found it difficult to compile information coming from different physicians’ offices and different systems. She joined a team, evaluating workflow for health care professionals. This provided the inspiration to return for her MSN in informatics, realizing the importance of nurses and health care technology.
She graduated with a Master of Nursing in Informatics in 2017, and the program prepared her for all facets of nursing informatics.
“The UAB School of Nursing Informatics program provides education and latest research on a range of topics from information to implementation to project management. One of the things I didn’t know going into the program, but that I later appreciated, is the fact that the informatics program chair, Dr. Marisa Wilson is a wealth of information and has provided so much expertise to the students and in the construction of the program,” Judson said.
As an instructor, Judson enjoys teaching students the importance of nursing informatics and how technology in health care can improve patient’s outcomes.
“Informatics in nursing starts in the education process,” she said. “I hope as a faculty member, I can get students excited while helping them see the important role they have as BSN-prepared nurse leaders because nurses are a major driving force of technology within health care.”
