Nursing Informatics Career Viability Analysis
Nursing Informatics Career Analysis
As the concept of healthcare delivery systems continues a rapid evolutionary path in order to keep pace with technological advancement, the role of health information technology deployment has become fundamentally important within America's hospitals, community clinics, and private medical practice. The advantages provided by digitally storing massive amounts of patient data -- also known as the electronic health record (EHR) system -- have been empirically established, and even with the passage of federal legislation mandating the eventual shift to EHR methodologies, many healthcare providers have fallen behind in this capacity. Research has indicated that this alarming trend is not does not result from unwillingness on the part of medical center executives to adapt, but rather from the lack of institutional capability to process EHR data effectively and efficiently. In order to address this pressing issue, many major hospitals now employ entire divisions of informaticists, which include informatics experts specializing in nursing and clinical medicine who work to "ensure that important data are captured and aggregated in report formats that support the planning process & #8230; (while) making sure that EHR systems support nursing practice, nor detract from it, and that nurse, not database developers, guide nursing practice" (McLane & Turley). Employees trained in the use of informatics specialists are an essential personnel resource within a progressive health care delivery system because "information management, knowledge management, human-computer interface, cognitive and computer science, and project management skill sets are integral to successful patient outcomes" (McLane & Turley, 2011), which has made nursing informatics a thriving field that provides a steady abundance of employment opportunities. The following review of actual job listings for positions in the nursing informatics industry is intended to illustrate the various educational requirements, skill sets, qualifications and training that applicants must possess, as well as the broad array of duties and responsibilities associated with informatics in the professional setting.
The first position which was examined is that of Nursing Informatics Principal offered by the Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, Washington (Jobmine, 2013). The responsibilities listed by the employment ad include the ability to provide genuine leadership, the development and implementation of strategies and polices which support the corporate mission, a genuine willingness to collaborate with nursing, information technology, medical and other operational leaders define and pursue clinical nursing informatics initiatives pertaining to relevant inpatient and outpatient clinical areas (HIMSS, 2013). In order to qualify for this position applicants must have earned a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) degree -- or an equivalent level of education in science, humanities, or business administration -- and attaining certification by the Washington state RN licensing body is also required. Virginia Mason's administrative staff also prefers candidates for the Nursing Informatics Principal position to have between seven and 10 years of experience working with the inpatient or clinical setting, five years of experience in a managerial capacity, and three years working directly in informatics. Although exact salary information for this position was not provided, a comprehensive study of statewide averages for this specialized industry indicates that "with regards to Washington, you will find that the median average salary hovers around $77,038, and the highest salary averages around $95,829" (Nursing Informatics for All, 2013), meaning this particular job is likely to fall somewhere within this range.
The second position considered, that of Nurse Informaticist, is currently available at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in Valencia, California and according to the employment listing "the Nurse Informaticist functions as a knowledgeable practitioner, and as a consultant, educator, and evaluator to maintain and improve system services, and to mentor clinician users to become better technology consumers" (HIMSS, 2013). The salary for this position was not included in the employment ad, but according to the statistics compiled by the organization Nursing Informatics for All, "with regards to California, the median average salary is around $80,819, and the highest salary averages about $99,660" (2013), which means the state falls on the higher end of the national nursing informatics salary spectrum. In order to equip myself for the requirements of this highly sought after position, it would be advisable to consider enrolling in classes through Kaplan University, a leading online accreditation program that provides students with a wealth of targeted educational opportunities through their Nurse Informatics MSN program. The courses contained in this program cover the "critical concepts and core competencies necessary to become a nursing informatics specialist, the latest innovations in educational and research technologies, integration of informatics into the...
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