Everything You Should Know About Nurse Informatics

• Learn the ways to become a nurse informatic, including necessary certifications and skills that help analyze a patient’s clinical data.
• Review job locations interested in nurse informatics, such as schools, universities, healthcare product companies, military facilities, etc.
• Understand the benefits of nurse informatics, a dynamic career with stable growth, job variety, and competitive salary. 

To start, let us define the word informatics. The American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) defines informatics as “the science of how to use data, information, and knowledge to improve human health and the delivery of health care services.” 

As a nurse informatics, you serve the patient through efficient data management and technical systems that keep the work flowing.

The nursing informatics try to prevent errors that may occur in the clinical setting and hinder treatment, such as the following: 

• The patient needs to repeat the test because the previous results cannot be located.  
• The healthcare provider must retake the patient’s medical history because it is lost.  
• The patient has to bring their previous test results because there is no track of them.  

The nursing informatics staff works on these issues and resolves them through efficient communication among the departments and ensuring that the electronic medical records (EMR) systems that they have implemented are working well.  

How To Become a Nurse Informatic  

To practice as a nurse, you must have a bachelor’s in nursing. To become a nurse informatic, you can pursue your bachelor’s in other subjects such as health information management, health information technology, or health informatics.  

You can get employed after getting a bachelor’s degree. But nowadays, some employers prefer those with a master’s degree.  

To become a nursing informatic, the following steps are required: 

Become A Nurse 

Before you become a nurse informatic, you must become a nurse by completing a BSN – bachelor’s in nursing. ADN-prepared nurses can complete their bachelor’s degree or enter an accelerated program of RN to MSN to meet the requirements of becoming nurse informatics.  

Pass The NCLEX  

To practice as a nurse in the US, you need to pass the NCLEX exam. Once you have completed your studies to become a registered nurse, you have to pass the NCLEX exam.  

Gain Bedside Experience  

Working as a bedside nurse will give you an insight into the equipment, how electronic medical records (EMR) systems work, and how essential they are in clinical practice. However, it is not mandatory to have a bedside experience to become a nurse information. 

Earn Certification  

To work as a nurse informatic, you must gain technology and systems experience. Earning some certifications, such as RN-BC, CAHIMS, or CPHIMs, can be beneficial. You can get any of them to showcase your skills and advance your career, which makes you a good choice for the nurse informatics job.  

Traits And Skills  

Health informatics nurses have different roles compared to traditional nurses who look after the patient. Mostly, they have to analyze the clinical data.  

The traits and skills required to become a nurse informatic include: 

• Project Management – nurse informatics looks after the entire data management cycle, such as clinical research, data analysis, software development, and informatics tools. They can improve patient outcomes and keep data flowing. Data management cycle informatics must be able to detect loopholes in the system as there is constant room for betterment. To excel in this regard, being a critical thinker can help.  

• Problem-Solving – various problems occur in data flow time by time. As a nurse informatic, you should have the potential to deal with problems, whether it be about the system or any other problem that hinders workflow.  

• Interpersonal Skills – being a nurse informatic, you are not playing one person’s role. Instead, you are a nurse, a clinician, a researcher, an educator, and a specialist, all simultaneously. Therefore, you need to have efficient interpersonal skills to execute different jobs simultaneously.  

• Computer Skills – health informatics deals in depth with technology and data management. Therefore, nurse informatic professionals need to have great computer skills. If you need to improve at it, you can do so. In order to be an efficient nurse in informatics, one needs to have adequate computer skills. This way, you can serve in data construction and collaborate with software engineers to drive a productive outcome and design the systems.  

• Communication Skills – nurse informatics are educators at various levels. They have to communicate with other health professionals. Having efficient communication skills is a must for nurse informatics in order for them to make a difference by filling in the gaps of the healthcare system and devising the perfect public health policies.  

• Data Analytics – as a nurse informatic, you must also be good with numbers. You have to analyze data, interpret results, run statistical tests, and do calculations. It is a mix of healthcare, math, and computers. Therefore, you need to develop various skills.  

Where Do Nurse Informatics Work? 

Nurse informatics can work at technological companies or healthcare organizations. However, they can work at various places, such as: 

• Ambulatory care centers 
• Counseling centers 
• Healthcare product companies 
• Hospital or health systems 
• Research facilities 
• Schools  
• Universities 
• Urgent Care Clinics 
• Electronic medical record companies 
• Government or military facilities 

Nurse informatics can also work in the office or even remotely – a big perk that you can not get as a traditional nurse.  

What are the Job Responsibilities of Nurse Informatics? 

The job responsibilities of nurse informatics are diverse and vary from place to place, depending on where they work. However, the general responsibilities of nurse informatics are as follows: 

• Make advancements and improvements in public health policy by evaluating and implementing new ones. 
• Contribute to producing and protecting the data infrastructure. 
• Contribute to efficient information workflow by communication and improving information technology. 
• Use various and new methods of easy patient data retrieval. 
• Use new methods to improve patient safety.  
• Make sure health information records remain updated and safe. 
• Inform and educate staff on new changes in electronic health records.  
• Manage the conversion of paper charting to electronic medical record charting. 
• Work with government agencies and policymakers to ensure laws support healthcare technology and are compatible with provider and patient needs.  

What Are The Benefits of Working in Nurse Informatics? 

Dynamic Profession  

Nursing informatics is a dynamic profession that is evolving every day. You use your multifacet knowledge and implement it for the betterment of the healthcare sector. At the same time, you use the knowledge of nursing, and computer skills combined with information sciences to organize workflow. If you enjoy doing various jobs and get bored by doing the same thing every day, nurse informatics can be a good fit for you.  

Career Satisfaction  

According to a survey conducted by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) 2020, employees working as nurse informatics have high satisfaction levels. Out of 4, every 3 people are highly satisfied with their job. That means, the chances of burnout are low, and the job is enjoyable.  

Strong Outlook  

The job outlook for nurse informatics is strong as the demand for electronic health records (EHR) is increasing day by day, and to operate and manage it, managers are required. According to the Department of Labor, job growth for medical and health services managers is projected to grow 28% between 2021 and 2031, much faster than any other profession. This number shows you will have job security and no time of joblessness.  

Diverse Work Settings 

Nurse informatics can work at various places such as hospitals, physician’s offices, technological companies, and other places. It makes the working environment diverse, making the job less boring and enjoyable.  

Job Variety   

Nurse informatics is a broad term for nurses working with technology. You can work with various job titles as a nurse informatics, such as: 

• clinical analyst 
• informatics nurse specialist 
• telehealth clinical coordinator 
• informatics administrator 
• electronic health record system integration specialist  
• informatics consultant 
• faculty member 
• researcher 
• perioperative informatics nurse 

Salary  

According to the Glassdoor data, the average annual median salary of nurse informatics is $155,023. However, Payscale reports an average wage of $83,780 per annum or $36.63/hr. 

According to the ZipRecruiter, nurse informatics that work in the following states receive high salaries: 

• Wyoming – USD 107,978 per annum 
• Arizona – USD 107,895 per annum 
• Tennessee – USD 105,354 per annum 
• New Jersey – USD 104,785 per annum 
• Hawaii – USD 104,703 per annum  

The more experienced you become as a nurse informatics, the more you get paid. So keep working, and your pay will keep rising. Your continued education CE hours can also make a difference in your salary; therefore, keep up with that as well.  

The Bottom Line

Being a nurse informatic means working in a diverse environment and playing different roles simultaneously. If you are a registered nurse who loves working with computers and technology, can manage data flow efficiently, and enjoys organizing data, nurse informatics can be a good fit for you.  

The job demand for nurse informatics will keep increasing in the future. Therefore, you can get a secure job with other benefits. Moreover, the working environment is less stressful compared to traditional nursing, with a more work-life balance and a handsome salary.  

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