Healthcare institutions, especially hospitals, deal with massive amounts of data. This includes health records, patient information, and other information vital to both care and medical research. Nurse informaticists — also known as nursing informatics specialists or clinical informatics specialists — can have a range of responsibilities. This includes anything from implementing new systems that better organize and protect clinical data to connecting doctors, nurses, and other healthcare staff with the latest technologies.
The data in this report is based on the numbers from a 2022 Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) survey of 1,118 nursing informaticists. Source: Nursing Informatics Workforce Survey. HIMSS. March 2023. PDF here.
Role and Responsibilities
The top responsibilities of a nurse informaticist, according to the HIMSS survey, include:
- Systems implementation
- System optimization/utilization
- Project management
- Systems development
- Quality initiatives/reporting
- Informatics education
These responsibilities can come in the form of:
- Training, nursing practice support/redesign
- Applying data to support clinical care
- System design
- Information retrieval
- Data interpretation and visualization
- System analysis
- Fostering innovation
- Change Control
- Strategy
- Applying technology for health equity and access to care
- Enhancing digital platforms
- Artificial intelligence in nursing care
A nurse informaticist typically does not provide as much direct patient care as a traditional nurse, and in some cases, does not provide direct care at all. About 6 in 10 nurse informaticists did not perform clinical care at all in 2022. Among those who did interact with patients, 65% responded that they either assisted or provided direct patient care. Another 20% did not provide direct care but assisted with administrative tasks, such as scribing.
Where Do Nurse Informaticists Work?
Most nurse informaticists (62%) work in hospitals or health systems. Other primary workplaces include the government/military, vendors or payers, nursing facilities, and academic settings.
How Do I Become a Nurse Informaticist?
There are several important first steps: attaining a bachelor’s degree in nursing, getting a nursing license, and gaining clinical experience. The vast majority of nurse informaticists had a bachelor’s in nursing or higher. Nearly 70% of informaticists had more than six years of