Nurse informaticists continue to play a crucial role in the development, implementation and optimization of information systems and applications in healthcare, according to a study released at HIMSS14.
These information systems and applications in which nurse informaticists play a key role in include clinical documentation, computerized practitioner order entry (CPOE) and electronic medical records (EMRs).
The 2014 HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society) Nursing Informatics Workforce Survey also revealed that the field is growing. Based on the responses of more than 1,000 nursing informatics specialists, 70 percent have titles that specified an informatics position, which is double the amount from the last HIMSS Nursing Workforce Survey conducted in 2011. The survey results further showed that professionals in the nursing informatics field experienced an increase in salaries and interest in pursuing additional training within the field.
New to the 2014 survey, which builds on previous HIMSS research, are questions surrounding the respondents’ job satisfaction with both their current position and their career choice in informatics. Overall satisfaction with jobs and career choices is high amongst respondents, with 57 percent reporting their level of job satisfaction as “satisfied” or “highly satisfied,” and a majority (81 percent) rating a “satisfied” or “highly satisfied” opinion of their informatics career decision. Respondents attributed the top barriers to success to a lack of administrative support and staffing resources.
“The industry demands for more robust clinical documentation and analytics—such as those associated with meaningful use—have increased the need for informaticists across the entire care spectrum,” Joyce Sensmeier, vice president of informatics for HIMSS., said in a statement. “This year’s survey showed a marked growth across the field of nursing informatics, as well as a deeper understanding and recognition of informatics as a nursing specialty.”
