Nursing Informatics: Integrating Healthcare with Information Technology
What is Nursing Informatics?
Nursing Informatics is the integration of clinical nursing with information management and computer processes. It is a relatively new approach to health care that combines nursing skills with information technology expertise. Nursing informatics specialists manage and communicate nursing data and information to improve decision-making by consumers, patients, nurses, and other health care providers.
The nursing process has four main steps: planning, implementation, evaluation, and evaluation. However, since information management is embedded in nursing process and practice, some nursing communities identify a fifth step in the nursing process: documentation. Documentation and patient-centered care are central components of the nursing process. Automated documentation is vitally important, not just for nursing, but for all patient care. Up-to-date and accurate information at every step of the nursing process is the key to safe, high-quality patient-centered care.
Successful implementation of nursing and health information systems requires the following: First, there is a need for well-designed systems that support the nursing process within an organization’s culture. The second requirement is to have the acceptance and integration of information systems in the regular workflow of the nursing and patient care process. Finally, it is important to have resources that can support the aforementioned factors. One of the most effective and valuable resources a healthcare organization can add is a nurse informatician.
Specialists in Nursing Informatics
Nursing informatics specialists are medical experts with extensive experience in clinical practice. These people have experience in the use and implementation of the nursing process. These nurses have excellent analytical and critical thinking skills. They also understand the workflow of patient care delivery and the integration points for automated documentation. Having additional education and experience with information systems is also important for this occupation. Finally, Nursing Informatics are excellent project managers due to the similarity between the project management process and the nursing process.
To be competitive in this field, one must become familiar with relational databases by taking a class on database structure. They should also be proficient and comfortable with MS Office, especially Excel, Access, and Visio.
Why are these jobs important to healthcare?
Nursing and health informatics bring great value to patients and the health care system. Some examples of how they provide value include:
- Provide support to nursing work processes using technology
- Increase the accuracy and completeness of nursing documentation
- Improve nurse workflow
- Automating the collection and reuse of nursing data
- Facilitate clinical data analysis
- Provide nursing content to standardized languages
HIMSS and RHIO
To provide some background in the field of healthcare/nursing informatics, there are a few governing bodies for this field. The Society for Health Information and Management Systems (HIMSS) is the primary governing body for informatics and nursing professionals. This group, formed in 2004, has the following four goals: NI awareness, education, resources (including websites), and RHIO (Regional Health Information Organization).
RHIOs are also known as Community Health Information Networks (CHINs). These are the networks that connect doctors, hospitals, laboratories, radiology centers and insurance companies, all sharing and transmitting patient information electronically through a secure system. Those organizations that are part of the RHIO have a commercial interest in improving the quality of health care that is delivered.
Steps for a job in this field
To enter the field of nursing informatics, you generally need a minimum of a four-year degree. Specific health informatics degrees are available. Earning your Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) is also a requirement before taking the ANCC certification test for Nursing Informatics. Some people start with just a two-year degree or diploma, but go on to earn their BSN before becoming certified. Although there are a number of different routes to enter the field, the most favored way is to earn a Masters in Nursing Informatics early on, however, most people start their career before earning their masters.
Most nurses who are in the informatics field start out in a specialty area, such as Intensive Care Unit (ICU), Perioperative Services (OR), Med-Surg, Orthopedic Nursing, or Oncology, just to name a few. , and they work in that specialty for an extended period. Working in a specialty area helps nurses learn about normal work processes and routines, as well as understand the process of caring for patients in their specialty. They are usually experts in their specialty and later develop interests in computerized documentation or some other technological approach to healthcare. They then tend to gradually move into a clinical information systems support role.
If you are interested in nursing and technology, this could be a career that can combine both skills in a rewarding job.