As healthcare becomes more data-driven, nurses will increasingly utilize informatics as a powerful tool to support and enhance their professional practice and patient care. From electronic health records (EHRs) to data analytics and telehealth solutions, integrating technology and information management at every point of care can revolutionize how nurses work.
What Is Nursing Informatics?
Nursing informatics is a specialized set of skills that incorporate technology and data to enhance patient care, streamline processes and improve overall health outcomes. Data may be collected and stored in multiple information systems, including EHRs and remote monitoring and supply inventory applications.
Unlike other related fields like biomedical informatics or clinical informatics, which cover broader aspects of healthcare, nursing informatics zeroes in on how nurses use real-time and historical data to enhance their practice and patient outcomes. By integrating nursing knowledge and theory with technology, nursing professionals can make better decisions, tailor interventions and more accurately assess and predict patient progress.
Millersville University’s online Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) – Nursing Informatics program prepares students to apply informatics knowledge and skills to support patient care. Students explore informatics best practices through courses like Nursing Informatics and Healthcare Technology, Advanced Nursing Informatics, and Healthcare Informatics Systems Analysis and Design. An intensive practicum allows them to further develop those concepts in a selected population or clinical setting.
How Do Informatics Inform Approaches to Nursing?
Nursing informatics has the potential to revolutionize care delivery and boost patient outcomes. For example, nurses skilled in informatics were instrumental in deploying virtual care solutions and telehealth-enabled smart devices during the pandemic. These tools, which have only grown more popular, ensure providers and nursing professionals remain engaged with patients outside of face-to-face encounters.
Additionally, the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) in nursing informatics is rapidly driving the field forward, expanding its impact on patient care and nursing standards. AI tools like predictive analytics and natural language processing can aid clinical decision-making and customized interventions and care plans. Thanks to the depth of data aggregated from EHRs and other information systems, AI offers greater insight and assists nurses in providing personalized care for better treatment adherence and outcomes. As the integration of AI technology grows more extensively into the care cycle, it will likely play a more pronounced role in data-informed care decisions.
Informatics can also streamline workflows and tasks like documentation and communication, freeing nurses’ time for direct patient care and more critical tasks. The more efficient care cycle enhances nurse satisfaction and patient experiences, which can improve workplace culture.
Navigating Challenges and Embracing Innovation as a Nurse
Despite the substantial benefits of integrating informatics into nursing practice, challenges remain, including too few nurses who understand how to apply data science to improve patient care.
According to The BMJ, the industry “must urgently create educational opportunities at undergraduate and graduate levels in informatics, digital health, co-design, implementation science and data science,” pairing the learning with opportunities to integrate theory and practice in relevant clinical settings. “[N]ursing will need a critical mass of practitioners who understand how to use data science to inform the creation of nursing knowledge to support practice,” notes The BMJ. “These practitioners will also need savviness and courage to lead the development of new models of patient care enabled by digital technologies.”
As nurses embrace informatics in their practice, other concerns may arise. Data security, privacy and interoperability pose significant obstacles. However, with a solid foundation in informatics best practices, nurses can leverage their skills to adapt accordingly and keep pace with emerging technologies and trends.
Informatics is already modernizing nursing practice and care delivery. As information systems advance, nurses skilled in analyzing data and navigating technology will be better positioned to deliver efficient, personalized, evidence-based care.
Learn more about Millersville University’s online MSN in Nursing Informatics program.
