What Do Informatics Nurse Specialists Do (including Their Typical Day At Work)

Job Description

Informatics Nurse Specialists apply knowledge of nursing and informatics to assist in the design, development, and ongoing modification of computerized health care systems. May educate staff and assist in problem solving to promote the implementation of the health care system. They also translate nursing practice information between nurses and systems engineers, analysts, or designers using object-oriented models or other techniques.

Other tasks include:

• Apply knowledge of computer science, information science, nursing, and informatics theory to nursing practice, education, administration, or research, in collaboration with other health informatics specialists.
• Design, develop, select, test, implement, and evaluate new or modified informatics solutions, data structures, and decision-support mechanisms to support patients, health care professionals, and their information management and human-computer and human-technology interactions within health care contexts.
• Analyze and interpret patient, nursing, or information systems data to improve nursing services.
• Develop, implement, or evaluate health information technology applications, tools, processes, or structures to assist nurses with data management.
• Identify, collect, record, or analyze data that are relevant to the nursing care of patients.
• Use informatics science to design or implement health information technology applications to resolve clinical or health care administrative problems.

We asked Informatics Nurse Specialists how satisfied they are with their job. Here is what they said.

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70% of them said they were satisfied with their job and 46% said they find that their job makes the world a better place or helps to make someone else’s life better.

Typical Day At Work

On a daily basis, Informatics Nurse Specialists analyze and interpret patient, nursing, or information systems data to improve nursing services. They provide consultation to nurses regarding hardware or software configuration.

A typical day for an Informatics Nurse Specialist will also include:

• Develop, implement, or evaluate health information technology applications, tools, processes, or structures to assist nurses with data management.
• Translate nursing practice information between nurses and systems engineers, analysts, or designers using object-oriented models or other techniques.
• Apply knowledge of computer science, information science, nursing, and informatics theory to nursing practice, education, administration, or research, in collaboration with other health informatics specialists.
• Identify, collect, record, or analyze data that are relevant to the nursing care of patients.
• Read current literature, talk with colleagues, and participate in professional organizations or conferences to keep abreast of developments in informatics.

We asked some Informatics Nurse Specialists a few questions to find out what else does their work day look like. Here is what we found.

	Do you have telephone conversations everyday in this job?	95% said yes
	How important is it to work in a team in this job?	85% said very important
	Do you have group discussions everyday in this job?	65% said yes
	Do you talk or work with customers everyday in this job?	20% said yes
	Do you have to deal with angry customers everyday in this job?	5% said yes
	Do you have to make decisions everyday in this job?	25% said yes

Other responsibilities

Besides their typical day, Informatics Nurse Specialists also develop strategies, policies or procedures for introducing, evaluating, or modifying information technology applied to nursing practice, administration, education, or research. They may also develop or implement policies or practices to ensure the privacy, confidentiality, or security of patient information.

On a weekly to monthly basis, Informatics Nurse Specialists Disseminate information about nursing informatics science and practice to the profession, other health care professions, nursing students, and the public. They might also Develop, implement, or evaluate health information technology applications, tools, processes, or structures to assist nurses with data management.

In addition, they Provide consultation to nurses regarding hardware or software configuration.

Although specific duties may vary, many of them Analyze computer and information technologies to determine applicability to nursing practice, education, administration, and research.

To some Informatics Nurse Specialists, it is also their responsibility to Translate nursing practice information between nurses and systems engineers, analysts, or designers using object-oriented models or other techniques.

Working life

More than 40 hours per week

Regular schedule like a 9 to 5

In a typical work week as an Informatics Nurse Specialist, you can expect to work more than 40 hours per week.

Is this right for me

People who are suitable for this job tends to like working with, communicating with, and teaching people. They like helping or providing service to others..

They also like working with ideas, and require an extensive amount of thinking. They like searching for facts and figuring out problems mentally.

You can read more about these career personality types here.

Explore other careers

http://www.bls.gov/OOH/computer-and-information-technology/computer-systems-analysts.htm

http://www.acm.org/

http://www.computer.org/

http://www.ncwit.org/