Health Informatics Specialists

Explore Healthcare
$103,800 Median Wage (2023)
37,300 Projected job openings (2023-2033)
10.7% Projected growth (2023-2033)

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.

Experience Requirements Overview

  • Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed
  • Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience are needed for these occupations. Many require more than five years of experience. For example, surgeons must complete four years of college and an additional five to seven years of specialized medical training to be able to do their job.
  • Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).
  • Employees may need some on-the-job training, but most of these occupations assume that the person will already have the required skills, knowledge, work-related experience, and/or training.

Education, Training and Experience

Required Level of Education: Master's Degree

Related Work Experience: Over 2 years, up to and including 4 years

On-Site or In-Plant Training: Over 6 months, up to and including 1 year

On-the-Job Training: Anything beyond short demonstration, up to and including 1 month

Detailed Work Activities

  • Test computer system operations to ensure proper functioning.
  • Evaluate utility of software or hardware technologies.
  • Design healthcare-related software applications.
  • Provide technical information or assistance to public.
  • Communicate project information to others.

Work Values

Achievement

Occupations that satisfy this work value are results oriented and allow employees to use their strongest abilities, giving them a feeling of accomplishment. Corresponding needs are Ability Utilization and Achievement.

Working Conditions

Recognition

Relationships

Support

Independence

Tasks

  • Translate nursing practice information between nurses and systems engineers, analysts, or designers, using object-oriented models or other techniques.
  • Use informatics science to design or implement health information technology applications for resolution of clinical or health care administrative problems.
  • Develop or implement policies or practices to ensure the privacy, confidentiality, or security of patient information.
  • Analyze and interpret patient, nursing, or information systems data to improve nursing services.
  • Identify, collect, record, or analyze data relevant to the nursing care of patients.
  • 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.
  • Develop, implement, or evaluate health information technology applications, tools, processes, or structures to assist nurses with data management.
  • 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.
  • Disseminate information about nursing informatics science and practice to the profession, other health care professions, nursing students, and the public.
  • Analyze computer and information technologies to determine applicability to nursing practice, education, administration, and research.
  • Develop strategies, policies or procedures for introducing, evaluating, or modifying information technology applied to nursing practice, administration, education, or research.
  • Read current literature, talk with colleagues, and participate in professional organizations or conferences to keep abreast of developments in informatics.
  • Develop or deliver training programs for health information technology, creating operating manuals as needed.
  • Design, conduct, or provide support to nursing informatics research.
  • Inform local, state, national, and international health policies related to information management and communication, confidentiality and security, patient safety, infrastructure development, and economics.
  • Provide consultation to nurses regarding hardware or software configuration.
  • Plan, install, repair, or troubleshoot telehealth technology applications or systems in homes.

Work Styles

Achievement/Effort

Job requires establishing and maintaining personally challenging achievement goals and exerting effort toward mastering tasks.

Persistence

Initiative

Leadership

Cooperation

Concern for Others

Social Orientation

Self-Control

Stress Tolerance

Adaptability/Flexibility

Dependability

Attention to Detail

Integrity

Independence

Innovation

Analytical Thinking

Data Source: This page includes information from the O*NET 28.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. This page includes Employment Projections program, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.