Summary Of Nursing Informatics

Judy Murphy wrote the article “The Nursing Informatics Workforce: Who Are They and What Do They Do?” in 2011. She is the Vice President-Information Services at Aurora Health Care in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The article explains how nursing informatics (NI) workforce has changed due to what’s happening with technology and electronic health records. I will summarize the article into the three main issues that Ms. Murphy discusses and then why the article interested me.

First, the article reviews the results of the 2011 Nursing Informatics Workforce Survey. The survey was done to understanding the issues that an informatics nurse tackled each day and the tools that are used. The results of the 2011 survey were compared to previous surveys done

in 2004 and 2007. The results showed changes in seven areas: clinical experience, reporting structure, job responsibilities, application, barriers to success, information, and compensation and benefits. One significate change that was noted was in the base salary of NI. It has continued to increase from the past survey. In 2011 the base salary was $98,702 compared to $69,500 in the 2004 survey and $83,675 in the 2007 survey. Another significate change was in the level of education, with an increase in master degrees and PhDs.
Next is the how the role of the NI is evolving. There is a new senior level position that has been created, Chief Nursing Informatics Officer (CNIO). The CNIO is a usually filled by a nurse who has experience and education in informatics. The role of a CNIO is to be the leader in in health information technology (HIT). The CNIO would be responsible for the selection and implementation of HIT, determining key performance guides, educator, keeping up-to-date on new technologies and communicating to senior executives.
Lastly is achieving “meaningful use” for the adoption of electronic health records (EHR) that will improve patient care and manage care cost. EHR is computer system where a patient data is captured, stored, transmitted and accessed by authorized medical personal. This is where the informatics nurse and chief nursing informatics officer will be important to achieving the “meaningful use” of EHR. They will be the ones to assisting in making changes that will improve health care.
I found this article interesting because it provided a great amount of information on the nursing informatics workforce. The article showed how important nursing informatics and nursing informatics workforce has become to health information technology. Being able to understanding how nursing informatics continues to change. The continued increase in base salary, what clinical experience is needed, understanding the responsivities, how systems have changed, what barriers are encountered and how the internet and websites are valuable to accessing information needed. I liked that as advancements are made in health information technology that new roles are being created. The article gave a better understanding of how important the informatics nurse is to nurses in providing safe and quality care to their patients. That nurses have another opportunity to become an informatics nurse or chief nursing informatics officer.