What is Nursing Informatics Definition?

o The definition provided by the American Nurses

Association (ANA) and recommended by HIMSS has become
widely referenced in response to the question, “What is
nursing informatics?”

Nursing informatics "is the specialty that integrates nursing

science with multiple information and analytical sciences to
identify, define, manage and communicate data, information,
knowledge and wisdom in nursing practice."

As a global advisor and thought leader in healthcare information

and technology, HIMSS has focused on this professional field for
decades. Understanding the integral role this specialty plays
today in the healthcare workforce, we’ve worked to amplify
awareness by convening the experts and conducting extensive
research on the topic.

o HealthCare Informatics Is the integration of

information science, health science, computer science
and cognitive science. Is the derivative of the
holistic objective of the medical practitioners such as
the nurse, healthcare providers, physicians, and
healthcare staffs.
 Nursing Informatics

Is a specialty that integrates nursing science,

computer science, and information science to manage and
communicates data, information, and knowledge in
nursing practice. It facilitates the integration of
data, information, and knowledge to support patients,
nurses, another providers in their decision making in
all roles and settings. This support is accomplished
through the use of information structures, information
processes, and information technology

What is the purpose of Nursing Informatics?

o Nursing Informatics is the "science and practice (that)

integrates nursing, its information and knowledge, with
information and communication technologies to promote
the health of people, families, and communities
worldwide." (adapted from IMIA Special Interest Group
on Nursing Informatics 2009). The application of
nursing informatics knowledge is empowering for all
healthcare practitioners in achieving patient centered
care.

Nurse informaticians work as developers of communication and

information technologies, educators, researchers, chief nursing
officers, chief information officers, software engineers,
implementation consultants, policy developers, and business
owners, to advance healthcare. Core areas of work include:

 Concept representation and standards to support evidence-

based practice, research, and education
 Data and communication standards to build an interoperable
national data infrastructure
 Research methodologies to disseminate new knowledge into
practice
 Information presentation and retrieval approaches to support
safe patient centered care
 Information and communication technologies to address inter-
professional work flow needs across all care venues
 Vision and management for the development, design, and
implementation of communication and information technology
 Definition of healthcare policy to advance the public’s
health

AMIA’s Nursing Informatics Working Group serves as the United

States’ representative to the International Medical Informatics
Association (IMIA) Nursing Informatics Special Interest Group.
What Are Nursing Informatics Roles and Requirements?

If you’re looking to venture into this field of informatics,

there are a variety of different skills and qualifications that
can help ensure your success:

 A bachelor’s degree in nursing (BSN), at minimum

 A master’s degree and certifications, particularly for
executive roles (chief nursing informatics officer)
 Experience and/or strong understanding of working in a
clinical setting 
 Strong technical skills; ability to quickly adapt to
emerging technologies and innovation
 Strong project management skills
 An affinity for obtaining, analyzing and strategizing about
data
 Understanding of medical economics
 Strong interpersonal skills
 Leadership experience

Here are a few of the many job titles in use today:

 Nurse informaticist
 Nursing informatics specialist
 Nursing informatics clinician
 Clinical nurse informatics specialist
 Perioperative informatics nurse
 

What is the Nursing Informatics Specialty?

According to the American Nursing Association, “Nursing
informatics (NI) is the specialty that integrates nursing science
with multiple information management and analytical sciences to
identify, define, manage, and communicate data, information,
knowledge, and wisdom in nursing practice. NI supports nurses,
consumers, patients, the interprofessional healthcare team, and
other stakeholders in their decision-making in all roles and
settings to achieve desired outcomes. This support is
accomplished through the use of information structures,
information processes, and information technology” (ANA, 2015)

Nursing Informatics Specialist

Is responsible for providing clinical information and data

analysis for effective patient care and monitoring. Works with
computer systems, data and information analysis systems such as a
statistical information system to ensure optimal healthcare is
provided.

Specific Role of Nurse Information

o Specialist Employs informatics theories, concepts,

methods, and tools to analyze information
and information system requirements.
 o Design, select, implement, and evaluate information
systems, data structures, and decision support
mechanisms that support patients, nurses, and
their human-computer interactions within healthcare
contexts.
o Facilitates the creation of new nursing knowledge.
o Application of Computer to Health Professions
o Automatic searching of parallel records for medically
ill person and critical medical information
o Automatic searching of nationwide database holding
registries or patients with critical problems
o Automated review of similar patients to determine
expected lengths of stay, cost, and rates
of complications allowing better financial forecasting
for the hospital and better information for the patient
and caregiver.
o System will allow the user to very easily pull
information from vast number of patients.
o Improved communication between multiple providers to
reduce the “it slipped through the cracks” syndromes
that plague the smooth running of operating rooms.

What a Nursing Informatics Professional Does

Squarely focused on information, data, and communication, a nurse
informatics career looks closely at how to use numbers to boost
performance, both for patients and for an organization as a
whole. This role’s goals are to “boost efficiency, cut costs,
 and boost patient care quality” (Nurse Journal, 2019). Nursing
professionals within this specialty are positioned at the
intersection of nursing science, computer science, and
information science, where they are able to “better manage and
communicate information, data and knowledge in the practice of
nursing. Nursing informatics specialists facilitate data
integration, information and knowledge so that they provide
better support to patients, nurses and other health care
providers” (Nurse Journal, 2019). One thing on which they spend a
lot of their energy is documentation, because “high quality care
is fully dependent upon strong communication among the wide
variety of health care providers. As health care providers
communicate via notes on a chart, a nurse informatics analyst
wants to increase the speed and accuracy of the charting process.
This means that health care workers have better access to patient
notes, and can mean better decisions about care” (Nurse Journal,
2019).
Where Nurse Informatics Professionals Work
Typical employers for nursing informatics employees include
facilities across the care continuum, from hospitals to medical
practices, as well as a wide range of consulting firms,
universities, and corporations. Job titles that match this
professional competency include:
 Clinical analyst
 Informatics nurse specialist
 Director – clinical informatics
 Clinical informatics coordinator (Nurse Journal, 2019).
 
Nurse Informatics Job Opportunities & Salary Outlook
The demand for nursing informatics isn’t going to abate any time
soon. Not only will the aging U.S. population require more
caregivers, but we’ll need all the help we can get to control
healthcare costs. That’ll require a growing number of nursing
informatics analysts. Nurse Journal cites an American Medical
Informatics Association finding that as many as 70,000 nursing
informatics specialists or analysts may be needed in the next
five years, with the surge in related to data gathering and
analysis required by the Health Information Technology for
Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) of 2009 and the Patient
Protection and Accountable Care Act (PPACA) of 2008.
The Career Path for Nursing Informatics Professionals
A typical route to becoming a nursing informatics expert starts
with being a registered nurse. After a BSN, many get a master’s
degree, either as a master of science in nursing (MSN) or a
master’s in information or computer science. Nurse Journal
advises those considering this direction that the “career is
demanding in terms of project management, critical thinking and
creativity. It is important to be able to work with a vast
variety of people. You also must have skills to resolve demands
that conflict, which can happen as you develop information
systems to meet everyone’s needs” (Nurse Journal, 2019).
What is Nursing Informatics

Nursing informatics is a field of nursing that incorporates nursing,

computer, and information sciences to maintain and develop medical
data and systems to support the practice of nursing, and to improve
patient care outcomes. Technologies that have evolved due to health
care/nursing informatics include:

 Computerized provider order entry (CPOE)

 Electronic medical records (EMRs)
o Test results
o Progress notes
o Nursing notes
o Medication records

There are three "building blocks" of nursing communications - data,

information, and knowledge. Data includes direct observations that do
not need interpretation, such as:

 Patient's name
 Age
 Vital signs
 Disease history

Information is data that has been interpreted. Examples include:

 Prevalence of hospital-acquired infections, by care unit

 Percentage of patient care delays in outpatient clinics, by
specialty

Knowledge is the amalgam of information to identify relationships that

provide further observation to an issue. For example:

 The effect of nurse-patient ratios and patient outcomes

  Developing care protocols (i.e. anaphylactic reaction
protocols, pressure ulcer protocols, etc.)

While nurses incorporate all three communication "building

blocks" in their daily routines, the three concepts are also
stored in computer programs and software to assist health care
providers across the continuum to provide high-quality, safe
patient care.

Nurse informaticists work to develop communication and

information technologies in health care. They also serve as
educators, researchers, software engineers, and chief nursing
officers. Using the "building blocks" listed above, they help
develop evidence-based policies and procedures for organizations.

Interested in nursing informatics programs or perhaps an MSN in

healthcare informatics?

Why is Nursing Informatics so important?

Nurses need information to care for patients safely. They need to

be able to access medical histories, medication lists, lab and
imaging results, and physician/interdisciplinary team notes to
get a complete picture of a patient's clinical status. They use
this information to make decisions efficiently to improve patient
care outcomes.
Nurse informaticists, as well as other health care informaticists
(pharmacists, physicians, etc.), play a critical role in the
continuous development and improvement of health care technology.
Communication is inarguably one of the most important aspects of
patient safety. The contribution of nurse informaticists in
developing and improving technology such as electronic medical
records and computerized provider ordering

has been crucial in reducing medical errors, patient care delays,

and health care costs.

For example, before CPOE, nurses would need to transcribe

provider orders by hand. Hard-to-read handwriting and human error
caused transcription inaccuracies, which in turn led to
medication errors, delays, and omissions.

Today, software exists where providers simply click a button and

the right medication, dose, and frequency is selected.
Additionally, some programs cross-check orders against the
patient's allergies and/or duplicate orders to further protect
patient safety.

Starting a Career in Nurse Informatics

Nurses who have strong analytical and critical thinking skills,

enjoy working with technology, and enjoy problem-solving and
project management make excellent nurse informaticists.

Those considering the specialty of nurse informatics should, at a

minimum, obtain a bachelor's degree in nursing (BSN). While an
advanced-practice degree is not always required, it is highly
recommended. Advanced-practice nurses are those who have
completed a master's program in nursing (MSN) or doctoral degree
program (DNP).
To advance to a master's degree or doctoral in nursing, a student
must complete an accredited nursing program and obtain a BSN.
Successful completion of the NCLEX-RN is needed for licensure.
The length of time it takes to earn an MSN depends on the nurse's
starting point:

 Nursing students enrolled in a BSN program complete in about

four years
 RN to BSN takes about two years
 BSN to MSN takes about two years
 BSN to DNP takes three to four years
 MSN to DNP takes one to two years

There are both online informatics programs and classroom programs

available to accommodate students. Both types have pros and cons
depending on students' needs, therefore researching individual
schools is encouraged.

Nursing Informatics Education Requirements and Training

Some graduate programs require nurses to gain a few years'

clinical experience before enrollment. Some schools allow nurses
to work concurrently during the program. Working as a unit-based
technology support user (also known as a "super-user") or with
the information technology (IT) team allows nurses to gain
necessary technical skills needed to work as an advanced-practice
nurse informaticist.

Educational Prerequisites

Master's degree programs require completion of general advanced-

practice courses, as well as courses specific to nursing
informatics. While courses and practicum may vary slightly,
curriculum for the nursing informatics track may include:
  Statistics for evidence-based practice
 Database management
 Research
 Project management
 Clinical information systems
 Information security and privacy
 Informatics theory
 Leadership

Examination, Licensure, and Certification

Certification in informatics can be completed concurrently within

the MSN/DNP program or obtained via independent study from
the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) or other learning
institutes. Eligibility for certifications obtained outside of an
MSN/DNP program can differ, and students are encouraged to
research requirements when choosing an educational institution.

The ANCC offers board certification for nursing informatics.

Eligibility for certification include:

 Hold a bachelor's degree or higher

 Have practiced as a registered nurse full time for two years
(or part time equivalent)
 Have completed 30 hours of continuing education in nursing
informatics within three years before certification
 Have met one of the following practice hour requirements:
o Have practiced a minimum of 2,000 hours in informatics
nursing within the prior three years
 o Have practiced a minimum of 1,000 hours in informatics
nursing in the last three years and have completed a Minimum
of 12 semester hours of credit in informatics courses that
are part of a graduate-level nursing informatics program
o Have completed a graduate program in nursing informatics
that includes a minimum of 200 hours of supervised practicum

Certification is by exam, and the credential is valid for five

years.

Licensure and certification are different-certification means

nurses are competent to perform in the field of nursing
informatics; licensure means they are legally permitted to
practice in their state of residence. State nursing boards list
the requirements for testing and can vary from state to state.
BSN, MSN, and DNP nurses, after meeting specified requirements,
may apply to their state board for licensure.