How to Become a Nursing Informatics Specialist

Interdisciplinary studies have been growing due to the benefits they bring to the world. Students can address individual differences by integrating drastically different ideas and developing comprehensive solutions that synthesize diverse ideas. Nursing informatics is one such field that combines medical science with analytical sciences to offer valuable insights into the field. Individuals who want to pursue a career in this field may wonder how to become a nursing informatics specialist.

Becoming a nursing informatics specialist generally includes completing an accredited nursing program, obtaining experience, and then pursuing certification through organizations such as the American Nurses Credentialing Center or the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society. With the proper education and experience, individuals can pursue a rewarding career in nursing informatics.

Article Navigation: Nursing Informatics Explained | What Does A Nursing Informatics Specialist Do? | Steps To Become A Nursing Informatics Specialist | Informatics Nurse Specialist Education Requirements | Examination, Licensure, and Certification | Career Information | Nursing Informatics Organizations, Societies, & Agencies | To Sum It Up | Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Nursing Informatics Explained

This relatively new field that combines the study of nursing with information technology. Nursing informatics is defined in various ways. People can most simply describe it as using technology to improve patient care. To illustrate, one of the main goals of this field is to use technology to increase communication between patients and their caregivers. Nursing informatics specialists can do this in several ways, such as through electronic medical records, email, or text messaging. By increasing communication, these professionals can help ensure patients receive the best care.

What Does A Nursing Informatics Specialist Do?

A nursing informatics specialist is a professional who uses computer science, information science, and nursing science to help manage and use patient medical data. They are responsible for developing and maintaining systems that store, organize, and analyze patient data. In addition, they work to ensure that these systems are accessible and user-friendly for both patients and healthcare professionals.

Roles and Requirements

Nursing informatics skills revolve around data and technology. To this end, the job will include monitoring data to determine what is working and what isn’t and then suggesting developments in healthcare technology. They may also create new technology and educate other healthcare staff on its usage. As a nursing informatics specialist, you should prepare to step into a highly technical role that requires a keen eye for data information. In this role, the focus is mainly on communication and information technologies that will allow for better information sharing between different professionals.

Benefits of Nursing Informatics

Nursing informatics specialists enjoy several benefits in their careers. They can use their skills to help nurses improve patient care and safety. In addition, they can work with hospitals and other healthcare organizations to help them adopt new technology and improve communication between staff members. These professionals also have the opportunity to earn a competitive salary and enjoy job security.

• Informatics improves patient outcomes by providing nurses with quick and easy access to critical patient data.
• It streamlines communication between nurses and other healthcare team members by providing a central repository for information.
• Informatics reduces medication errors by providing alerts and reminders when medications are due.
• It can help improve documentation accuracy by reducing the need for manual data input.
• Increases efficiency by automating tasks such as charting and medication administration.

Using information technology, a nursing informatics specialist assists various stakeholders and professionals such as patients, nurses, and other healthcare staff. In addition, they improve communication between these different parties by providing them with accurate information that aids them in making better decisions for the sake of the patients. Using specialized technology, a specialist will deal with patient data and reduce the chances of errors, thus opening the space for more accurate data transmission.

Responsibilities & Duties

As a nursing informatics specialist, you will also have other critical responsibilities in developing communication technology. Specialists must also explain the need and usage of new technologies to relevant staff and assist with its implementation. They have a critical role in improving the quality and efficiency of healthcare delivery.

A specialist in nursing informatics will also optimize the hefty amounts of data to derive conclusions from it and utilize it for future purposes. Once the technology has been implemented, they will check in regularly to note its success and implement any required changes.

Health Informatics vs. Nursing Informatics

Health informatics is a much broader field where information technology is applied to improve healthcare. Health informatics has a broader scope, whereas nursing informatics usually refers to data scientists who work with clinical or patient data, which generally includes nursing or operations data. On the other hand, nursing informatics refers to a much more specific patient care arena. The same technologies and data are now utilized for this purpose. Another key difference is that they are healthcare practitioners with the training to deliver patient care directly.

Steps To Become A Nursing Informatics Specialist

While discussing the career, we will also outline the steps students should take to begin a career in this field.

Step 1 – Earn a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN)

A nursing informatics degree is the first step to becoming a specialist in the field. The program should be nationally accredited, and you must have undergone clinical as a necessary part since that is one of the most basic requirements of pursuing nursing informatics.

Step 2 – Take the Licensing Exam

Graduates must pass this exam to begin practicing as licensed nurses, which is essential before you move further in the field.

Step 3 – Consider Pursuing a Master’s Degree in Health Informatics

Not all positions will require this degree, but it can give you more insights and exposure to the field.

Step 4 – Pass the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) Certification Exam

If you fulfill the requirements for the certification, pursuing it can do wonders for your career. It will equip you with the RN-BC Informatics Nurse Certification that will open up new pathways for you. The requirements for this certification include:

• 1,000 – 2,000 hours of informatics nursing experience
• A bachelor’s degree
• Two years of full-time R.N. experience
• 30 hours of continued education in informatics within the last three years

Informatics Nurse Specialist Education Requirements

While this is a relatively lesser-known field, you may need more guidance on pursuing it further. This section will include all the details you need to know about educating yourself in this field:

Nursing Informatics Education Requirements and Training

It generally takes 4-6 years to become a nursing informatics specialist and begin a career. A bachelor’s degree in nursing is a must-have, along with relevant licenses and clinical training. Various universities offer bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral programs, which can be pursued in the future.

What is Nursing Accreditation, and Why is it Important?

Accreditation is the process where an established authority reviews all components of an educational program to determine whether they meet a set of pre-ordained standards. To this end, the accreditation protects all stakeholders: it signifies to students whether a nursing program will open career pathways and offers professional-level graduates to employers.

If a nursing program gets accredited, it means that its graduates are fit to gain a license and practice in the field. Accredited programs also allow you to transfer your credits and receive grants and loans from the government. Licenses gained after accredited programs can also be transferred to other states through reciprocity.

Skills and Competencies Required for a Nursing Informatics Specialist

When you go through the educational pathway to become a nursing informatics specialist, there are specific skills your degrees will instill in you and others you’ll have to learn by yourself. There are three primary technical skills that a specialist in nursing informatics will need to have: the commonality in all of these is that they’ll help you become a better professional in the field.

• Computer skills: Computer technology aids nursing informatics specialists in their work with patient care data.
• Knowledge of informatics: The ability to work with data and pick out valuable insights from it is a crucial part of this job. A nursing informatics specialist must know how nursing data can deliver better patient care.
• Programming knowledge: This is not a must-have, but it will give you an edge as programming knowledge will allow you to indulge in creating information systems yourself.

Other non-technical skills needed for the field are:

• Interpersonal skills
• Communication skills
• Critical thinking and problem-solving ability
• Creativity and innovation
• Ability to work with healthcare systems
• Project management

Examination, Licensure, and Certification

ANCC Certification

The American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) is a well-reputed organization that offers several certifications in the field that are revered across the country. In other words, acquiring an ANCC certification shows your capability and helps you advance your career in the area. The ANCC Informatics Nursing certification is a competitive examination you can undertake after an initial R.N. license. The exam will assess your entry-level clinical knowledge and informatics-relevant skills; after passing it, you will be awarded the RN-BC certification: Registered Nurse – Board Certified. While this accredited certification is valid for five years, it must be renewed based on specific requirements.

How To Get Nursing Informatics Certification?

You must meet the ANCC requirements in this article and pass their nursing informatics exam to get your certification.

Nursing Informatics Certification vs. Masters Degree

A master’s degree will provide better career prospects than a nursing informatics board certification. However, sometimes, a master’s might not be the best choice for a candidate. Below are some comparisons between the benefits of certification vs. a master’s degree:

Nursing informatics certification might be the better choice for you if you wish to gain some exposure to the field before you decide on pursuing further degrees in it. It might also be the right option for those already working in the field of informatics. It’s a particularly good choice for nurses who wish to upgrade their resume or those with a master’s degree in healthcare but want specific skills regarding informatics. According to one analysis, certification in the field rose from 49% in 2017 to 58% in 2020.

For those willing to invest the time that a graduate degree requires and wish to advance their career, an online master’s in nursing informatics can be a great option. A master’s offers a much deeper dive into the subject and turns up better career prospects. For example, it allows you to take leadership, statistics, and advanced strategic planning courses, which will build your healthcare informatics skills.

Career Information

This section will offer a detailed outlook on what careers you can expect to get into as a nursing informatics specialist.

Nursing Informatics Jobs

While pursuing a career in nursing informatics, you may work with healthcare and data in various capacities. Below are some of the titles you may hold; they differ from each other based on detailed job descriptions, but their essential work remains integrated with healthcare data:

• Clinical Analyst
• Clinical Specialist
• Informatics Nurse
• Nursing Informatics Specialist
• Health Informatics Officer
• Chief Nursing Officer
• Chief Information Officer
• Clinical Informatics Nurse

Salary Information

Nursing informatics salaries may vary in different regions. Still, the basic consensus is that nursing informatics specialists in the market earn a decent amount.

As per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, registered nurses earn around $77,600 annually. Still, BLS data does not separately present salaries of different nursing avenues. According to Glassdoor, informatics nurses make $92,284 a year, and according to Payscale, their average base salary is $79,272. There was also a survey in 2020 called the HIMSS 2020 Nursing Informatics Workforce Survey, which suggested that almost 49% of people who partook in the survey earn base salaries of more than $100,000 a year.

Earning a master’s degree to pursue your career as a nursing informatics specialist will offer you a base salary of $82,964 a year per Payscale. This amount will increase even further once you pursue a doctoral program within the field. Adding experience to your years of service will also increase your salary.

Career Outlook

The career outlook for nursing informatics specialists looks bright currently. To illustrate, the Department of Labor predicts the job growth to be 9% by 2028, with 70,000 nursing informatics specialists needed by 2025. This showcases a good chance for those looking to start a career as a specialist in the field.

Career Options For Nursing Informatics Specialists

According to the 2020 HIMSS survey, around 68% of nursing informatics specialists work within health systems. Here are other typical workplaces:

• Academia – Colleges and Universities
• Ambulatory Care
• Hospitals and other Health Systems
• Rehabilitation Centers
• Healthcare Manufacturing Companies
• Consulting firms
• Electronic Medical Record Companies
• Technology Companies

What Careers Are Related To Nursing Informatics?

Nursing informatics is a branch of the broader health informatics field. Therefore, it falls closely with several other fields. A few other titles you might hear in this occupation are:

• Educational health informatics
• Public health informatics
• Clinical informatics
• Research in informatics
• Consumer health informatics

Staying Informed As a Nursing Informatics Specialist

While joining any healthcare-related field, one must be aware that it will require a lifelong commitment to learning and educating oneself. Because nursing informatics is a consistently growing field, it’s essential to stay updated with recent developments to stand out. To this end, HIMSS conducted a survey to ask specialists what resources to use to stay updated in the field. They gave the following options:

• Electronic journals
• Additional certifications
• Association newsletters
• Blogs
• Wiki/knowledge-sharing resources
• Books
• List serve sites
• Podcasts
• Discussion boards
• Webinars
• Websites
• Print journals
• Professional organizations

As per the last point, various nursing-relevant professional organizations allow you to stay connected within the field. Learn more about such organizations in our section below.

Nursing Informatics Organizations, Societies, & Agencies

American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA)

AMIA is an organization that focuses on the critical role of informaticians in delivering healthcare. Over the past few decades, nursing informatics specialists have gathered patient data and utilized it to advance patient care critically. AMIA supports informatics specialists through education, training, accreditation, and certification. Not only do they provide members with growth-oriented career opportunities, but they also create the space for networking with fellow professionals and expanding the leadership opportunities provided to these members.

American Nursing Informatics Association (ANIA)

ANIA’s vision and mission revolve around advancing nursing informatics through education, research, and practice. It is a professional association of nurses who advocate for using informatics to deliver better health solutions and are committed to offering cost-effective healthcare. To this end, the organization works with many nurses committed to personal development and engaging in an all-inclusive community of innovative informatics professionals.

Alliance for Nursing Informatics (ANI)

ANI has been cosponsored by AMIA and HIMSS and is working to become the common ground between individuals and groups associated with the field of nursing informatics. In addition to education and practice, they focus on policy and research within the field. They regularly engage in issues of national importance relevant to health information technology and provide leadership for it. Their key goal is to transform nursing informatics through innovation.

Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS)

HIMSS is working to reform the healthcare ecosystem through information technology systems. They’re a member-based non-profit that uses its deep expertise to advise key stakeholders across the global health arena on best practices. Having been functional for more than 60 years, they have operated across continents and worked with more than 100,000 individuals to foster innovation and creativity in the field.

Fellows of AMIA (FAMIA)

FAMIA was established in 2018 as an applied informatics research program that provides recognition to members based on three factors:

• They have used relevant skills in a professional setting
• Members have demonstrated qualities of personal achievement and leadership
• Lastly, they have showcased their commitment to AMIA

FAMIA has an extensive eligibility criterion that consists of many things, from education and experience to peer recommendation and AMIA engagement.

To Sum It Up

There are many different paths to becoming a nursing informatics specialist. To begin with, a strong nursing and computer science foundation are essential. With these two areas of expertise, you will be able to help bridge the gap between nurses and technology. If you are interested in a career in this field, then start by going to GetEducated.com. Our website showcases the best online programs available.

Once you have a solid foundation in both areas, you can begin to specialize in nursing informatics. There are many different career options for those who specialize in nursing informatics. For example, you can work as a consultant, researcher, or administrator. But no matter what path you choose, you will make a difference in the lives of nurses and patients.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What Does a Nursing Informatics Specialist Do?

A nursing informatics specialist uses patient care data to provide insights and solutions to healthcare providers. They also regularly develop new technology and processes for implementing and educating others. In short, they bring together the fields of IT and healthcare to deliver better results through their integration.

What Are Examples of Nursing Informatics?

Nursing informatics is used to assist nurses in delivering better patient care. Nurses usually develop a close working relationship with patients, in addition to a profound idea of their conditions. In brief, this allows them access to crucial data that specialists can utilize for informatics. The work of nurses is also profoundly affected by any advancements in this field. Here are a few real-world examples of projects nursing informatics specialists have worked on:

• Healthcare workflow management
• Machine learning
• Electronic medical records
• Patient portals
• Computerized provider order entry

What Are the Four Areas of Nursing Informatics?

Nursing informatics is an emerging technological field that requires professional technical skills. Here are four main areas that have been identified as crucial elements of the field through critical assessment:

• Advanced systems
• Healthcare promotion
• Network
• Internet

While other areas such as administration, compliance, and analysis are also essential parts of the field, these are the core components.

What is Nursing Healthcare Informatics?

Healthcare informatics is the broader field, while nursing informatics is a smaller branch. The wider parent field comprises various information technology aspects, but nursing informatics mainly focuses on patient care.

How Does Nursing Informatics Improve the Quality of Healthcare?

It allows nurses to reduce manual errors in their work, along with a reduction in costs. Through best practices, they limit problems with patient care and offer valuable insights on information technology-related queries. Storing patient information becomes more secure with informatics, and its retrieval becomes more accessible.

Is Nursing Informatics in Demand?

While the importance of data-driven technology rises in the modern world, people tend to move toward careers that provide an integration of data for problem-solving mechanisms. Nursing informatics is a career where you can significantly contribute to patient satisfaction and outcomes. Also, the prospects for the field look nice as per data given by BLS, and people seem intrigued by it as well.

What is the Difference Between Nursing Informatics and Traditional Nursing?

Traditional nurses work directly with patients, delivering a hands-on experience. Whereas nursing informatics specialists will know how to provide care, they’ll mainly work behind the scenes on patient data.