Nursing informatics is a specialty whose activities center around information management and processing for the nursing profession. The Division of Nursing of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the National Advisory Council on Nurse Education and Practice (NACNEP) recognized a need to identify initiatives that would more adequately prepare the nation's nursing workforce to use technology to manage information for education and practice and to help patients gain access to health care information. As a result, NACNEP commissioned a panel of experts to advise them in setting the nation's future direction for using informatics in nursing education and practice. This report presents the panel's findings and recommendations. Following an executive summary, the report's contents cover: (1) nursing informatics (building the infrastructure, nursing informatics as a specialty); (2) nursing informatics in education and practice (Division of Nursing informatics funding, informatics education models, student preparation in nursing informatics, faculty preparation in nursing informatics, practicing clinicians' preparation in nursing informatics, summary); (3) national nursing informatics work group (description of members, context for identifying informatics needs and initiatives, method for identifying informatics needs and initiatives, nursing informatics needs, proposed nursing informatics initiatives); and (4) policy issues, goals, and options (educate nursing students and practicing nurses in core informatics content, prepare nurses with specialized skills in informatics, enhance nursing practice and education through informatics projects, prepare nursing faculty in informatics). (Contains 78 references. Appendices list nursing informatics organizations and the work group members). (EV)