Turley. Turley2 analyzed previous nursing informat-
ics definitions and then proposed a new nursing
informatics model. Although he did not propose a
new definition1 in this paper, by focusing on model
development, he continued a conceptual approach to
the definition of nursing informatics.
Turley’s major contribution was the addition of cog-
nitive science to a model comprising the original
three sciences proposed by Graves and Corcoran.4
Cognitive science includes such topics as memory,
problem solving, mental models, skill acquisition,
language processing, and visual attention.2 These
concepts can help informatics nurse specialists
understand the decision-making and information
processing done by nurses and, subsequently, assist
in the creation appropriate tools to support nursing
processes. Therefore, cognitive science is most help-
ful to informatics nurse specialists concentrating on
informatics issues related to users, such as decision
making and the construction of computer interfaces
for nurses.