Winter 2025 Issue

Informatics: Keeping Up With the Times
By Elizabeth S. Goar
For The Record
Vol. 37 No. 1 P. 5

Nursing informatics education adapts to modern demand.

As analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), automation tools, and other advanced health IT become more deeply embedded into every facet of the health care system, we’re seeing a corresponding increase in demand for experienced nurse informaticists. According to US Department of Labor (DOL) statistics, with 37,300 projected job openings each year, the United States needs more than 56,500 new informaticists to enter the workforce over the next decade to meet the demand.

“Given the rise of AI, big data, clinical decision support systems, electronic health records, and a wide array of health care technology, nurse informaticists are in high demand across the health care system. These specialists combine an understanding of the nursing process with the skills needed to design systems and lead innovations focused on solving problems related to patient care,” says Robert Rosseter, MBA, MS, FAAN, chief communications officer with the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN).

In fact, demand for nurse informaticists is expanding faster than many other areas of health care. The DOL projects that demand for health informatics specialists, which includes nurse informaticists, will grow by 11% through 2033. It is a trend that demonstrates the impact of a role that the HIMSS 2023 Nursing Informatics Workforce Survey calls “the driving force behind health innovation and technology to realize the full health potential of every human everywhere.”

Nursing Informatics by the Numbers
The HIMSS survey paints a statistical portrait of a career that has become integral to successful health IT operations in every shade of health care organization.

Today’s nurse informaticists do the following:

• most often hold the title of nursing informatics specialist (17%) or clinical informatics specialist (12%), but also carry titles such as clinical analyst, director or manager of clinical informatics, nurse educator or instructor, and chief nursing informatics officer;

• work primarily for a hospital or multifacility health system (62%) or vendor and payer organizations (12%);

• report to either information science/IT (34%), informatics (33%), or nursing (30%), with most reporting to two departments; and

• are responsible primarily for systems implementation (41%), system optimization and utilization (35%), project management (30%), systems development (29%), and quality initiatives/reporting (26%).

Not only are nurse informaticists in high demand but they also are happy with their careers. Seventy-six percent of HIMSS’ respondents say they are highly satisfied with their career choice, although more than 40% indicated plans to change jobs within the next three years in pursuit of a promotion or expanded role (43%) or better compensation (38%). They are also highly educated, with 40% holding a Bachelor of Nursing, 28% a Master of Nursing Informatics, and 19% a Master of Nursing.

Tammy Kwiatkoski, MBA, CAE, senior director of informatics operations and implementation at HIMSS, says the most recent survey shows a slight shift in advanced degrees among nurse informaticists that coincide with greater job mobility and higher status. Nearly 6 in 10 have a new role postcertification. Among those with a certification, 58% have moved to a new role since becoming certified, increasing from 41% in 2020.

“I would say overall, the shift in advanced degrees and the high rate of role changes postcertification reflect the increasing importance of nursing informatics in health care and the desire of professionals to acquire the specialized skills and knowledge needed to excel in this field,” Kwiatkoski says.

The Education Evolution
Advances in and the broader adoption of health IT and the rising influence of nurse informaticists on its use in all facets of health care are driving a boom in both enrollment rates and the number of postgraduate nursing informatics programs available, Rosseter says.

AACN data shows that the number of students enrolled in master’s level informatics programs increased by 12% since 2014, from 2,867 to 3,209 students, with 2.5% of all master’s level nursing students majoring in informatics. The number of students enrolled in doctoral-level (Doctor of Nursing Practice or DNP) informatics also increased from 29 to 53 students over the last 10 years.

“The number of master’s level informatics programs increased from 45 to 52 since 2014, and the number of DNP-level informatics programs increased from 11 to 18 programs during that same timeframe,” Rosseter says. “Over the last 20 years, we have [also] seen an increasing focus on informatics in nursing education, given the rapid rise in the use of technology to guide health care delivery and clinical decision-making.”

He adds: “Driven in part by the need to ensure consistency among graduates of entry-level and advanced-level nursing education programs, one area receiving special emphasis in nursing’s new competency standards—called ‘The Essentials’—is nursing informatics. As we considered how best to prepare professional nurses to thrive in the future, the need for providers to ‘use information and communication technologies and informatics processes to deliver safe nursing care to diverse populations in a variety of settings’ was affirmed as a key competency expectation.”

Kathleen Morouse, DNP, RN, NI-BC, CCRN-K, past president of the American Nursing Informatics Association, notes that nursing education programs in general have also recognized the need to boost informatics content. As such, many graduate programs have integrated informatics into almost every class, in addition to offering focused informatics classes.

She points to revisions made in 2021 by the AACN to “The Essentials: Core Competencies for Professional Nursing Education and the National Academy of Medicine’s Future of Nursing Report 2020–2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity” as key reasons for greater emphasis on informatics. Both “stressed the importance of informatics in nursing education and need for informatics competencies,” she says. “Students must be presented with the tools to easily identify social determinants of health that are potential barriers to health as well as technology used to improve patient outcomes.”

Like Morouse, Rebecca Freeman, PhD, RN, FAAN, vice president for health informatics at The University of Vermont Health Network, points to AACN’s revisions to “The Essentials” as one of the most significant changes to nursing informatics curriculum in recent years.

“The process of educating nurses is a continuum,” says Freeman, who is also a member of the HIMSS Nursing Informatics Community. “On the academic side, nursing schools have accreditation standards to meet. … ‘The Essentials’ include a significant emphasis on informatics and technology; faculty are working to revise curricula to include a focus on those new competencies.”

Evaluation and Selection Tips
As options for nursing informatics education expand, the selection process becomes more challenging for prospective students. There is consensus that the top criterion is accreditation by one of the three organizations that accredit nursing informatics programs:

1. AACN’s Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education;
2. Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing; and
3. National League for Nursing’s Commission for Nursing Education Accreditation.

“An accredited nursing program assures you that the student will be entering a high-quality, comprehensive training program that provides the skills and knowledge to practice nursing at the full professional level,” Morouse says.

She also suggests looking for faculty who are experienced, certified, and active in the field of informatics. “Do they stay current by being a member of professional organization and attending conferences. Do they present at conferences? Are they published?” she says.

Rosseter suggests prospective students also focus on the faculty experience. Specifically, he recommends looking for programs with faculty who specialize in shared areas of interest. For example, “If your passion is virtual reality or augmented reality, be sure to find programs where this is an emphasis,” he says. “Prospective students are encouraged to … contact programs directly to find out more about expectations, opportunities, and where program graduates are finding employment.”

Freeman encourages undertaking a bit of introspection before embarking on an evaluation of program options. When someone asks her advice about a master’s-level program, she probes them about why they are interested in an advanced degree. Is it required for a position? Are they working in a noninformatics role and want the degree to help them get a foot in the door for an informatics role?

“Once we talk about future career plans and the reason for focusing on an informatics degree, then we proceed towards evaluation of programs,” she says.

Freeman says she tends to steer “longtime or superstar super users” toward a noninformatics degree. “Something more focused on data/analytics or leadership,” she says. “If they are working in a health system and plan to stay within the health system, they likely know a lot about informatics’ form and function from their super-user duties. If they are seeking a degree for a specific job, we look at programs that meet the requirements of that role.”

Regardless of their motivation, Freeman recommends most focus on accredited, flexible programs that are reasonably priced. For those already working in bedside roles, “the key is to learn as much as they can on the job while ensuring that the attainment of the degree causes as little upheaval of their life as possible,” she says.

“My exception is when I find a candidate who wants a nursing informatics degree, and I think they are a candidate for a PhD focus,” Freeman adds. “That’s an entirely different conversation that doesn’t apply to all that many people. The ‘cheap, fast, flexible, accredited’ mantra goes out the window a little bit when talking about PhD-level work.”

— Elizabeth S. Goar is a freelance health care writer in Benton, Wisconsin.