Health information systems are being implemented in countries by governments and regional health authorities in an effort to modernize healthcare. With these changes, there has emerged a demand by healthcare organizations for nurses graduating from college and university programs to have acquired nursing informatics competencies that would allow them to work in clinical practice settings (eg hospitals, clinics, home care etc). In this paper we examine the methods employed by two different countries in developing national level nursing informatics competencies expected of undergraduate nurses prior to graduation (ie Australia, Canada). This work contributes to the literature by describing the science and methods of nursing informatics competency development at a national level.