Unlock Careers in Nursing Informatics: A Guide 2024

Careers in Nursing Informatics

Table of Contents

The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) calls nursing informatics professionals the “unique hybrid heroes of healthcare.” Nursing informatics is a critically important field that blends technology and patient care to improve patient outcomes. If you’re in the nursing field or are planning a career as a nurse, these health informatics roles offer advanced career opportunities and growth.

Nurse Informatics (Nurse Informaticist)

Nurse informatics professionals work in highly technical roles integrating nursing with data and technology tools, including EMR and EHR systems. Nurse informaticists play a critical behind-the-scenes role in utilizing technology to improve every area of patient care. This role involves developing and/or implementing patient care technologies.

The role of nurse informaticist is an ideal one for individuals who are inspired by technology and want to work in patient care but would like to step away from a more traditional nursing care role and into one where they can not only improve patient care outcomes but also serve as a patient advocate by improving the technical and data aspects of the healthcare system.

Primary Tasks of a Nursing Informaticist

Implement informatics systems
Assess the effectiveness of informatics systems in nursing environments
Collect and analyze key patient data
Generate data insights to share with clinicians for improved patient outcomes
Train nursing staff and other key staff members on using new informatics systems
Serve as an intermediary between nursing staff and IT departments in medical settings

Educational Paths

A bachelor’s degree in nursing (BSN) is the minimum requirement for a position as a nursing informaticist. A master’s degree and additional certifications are typically preferred for executive positions in the nursing informatics field.

A survey on educational levels of nursing informaticists shows those who fill most positions with a bachelor’s of nursing degree.

This is followed by those with a master’s in nursing degree and a master’s in nursing informatics. There are positions in nursing informatics for those with an associate’s level degree and LPNs, but those positions are more limited.

Distinct Salary Insights

As expected, advanced education is associated with a higher average income in nursing informatics. Other factors, including geographical location and workplace setting, also affect average salaries in the field. Only a few nursing informaticists with a degree higher than ADN or LPN earned less than $50,000.

Most of those working in the field earned between $100,000 and $150,000 annually. A Ph.D., Doctorate, or NP level of education greatly increases the chances of breaking past this income threshold.

According to ZipRecruiter, these are the average annual salaries in the nursing informatics field. [1]

Nursing Informatics Analyst – $98,000
Health Informatics Specialist: $67,500 – $98,500

Unique Career Paths and Opportunities

The majority of nursing informaticists work in a hospital or health system setting. Additional opportunities are available with the US government, long-term care facilities, ambulatory care, and the academic environment.

Certified nurses are eligible for one or more specialty certifications in nursing informatics. These certifications can open up new career opportunities for nursing informaticists.

Nursing Informatics Certification (RN-BC)
Certified Associate in Healthcare Information and Management Systems (CAHIMS)
Certified Professional In Healthcare Information and Management Systems (CPHIMS)

Clinical Informatics Nurse

The role of a clinical informatics nurse is very similar to that of a nurse informaticist, but there are subtle differences. Clinical informatics nurses perform nursing roles within informatics settings. Clinical informatics nurses utilize the “application of informatics and information technology to deliver healthcare services.” [2]

Primary Tasks of Clinical Informatics Nursing:

Analyze technical applications as they apply to nursing
Work with EHR systems and patient classification systems
Use their knowledge of nursing and apply it to how to leverage healthcare technical systems best
Works as an intermediary between healthcare providers and IT departments
Work mostly in hospitals or multiple facility health systems

Education specifics

Becoming a clinical informatics nurse begins with becoming an RN (registered nurse). This isn’t an easy career to jump right into fresh after becoming an RN. Most employers are looking for candidates with at least a few years of clinical experience.

Salary range

The salary range for clinical informatics nursing is influenced by education, clinical experience, and geographical location. These careers are comparable to nurse informaticists, earning an average of $67,500 – $98,409. [3]

Career opportunities

Many career opportunities for this role are located in the hospital setting, with magnet hospitals leaders in pioneering healthcare informatics technology.

Becoming a clinical informatics nurse opens the door to advancement opportunities, including becoming a clinical informatics specialist or director of informatics. Someone interested in these positions should consider earning a medical degree.

Title Interchangeability and Role Overlaps

Those looking at careers in nursing informatics as part of the larger scope of health informatics may notice one key detail – in some areas, there is a significant overlap of roles and responsibilities with other areas of focus.

For example, the role of a nursing informaticist isn’t that different from that of a clinical informatics nurse or health informatics specialist. Each role requires the knowledge of utilizing patient health data for improved outcomes. The key difference is that a nursing informaticist has a background in nursing and a deeper understanding of frontline patient care.

What does this mean for those entering the field? It means there are great growth opportunities and you don’t need to feel confined to one sub-specialty. Often, all that’s required to switch roles is a new certification or a couple more years of experience.

Conclusion

For nurses who want to work behind the scenes to influence patient care and provide improved outcomes, the growing field of health informatics has many opportunities for you. A degree in nursing opens the doors to these exciting health informatics careers. We encourage you to learn more about the specific areas of nursing informatics and discover which is best suited for your talents, skills, and education.