Informatics Nurses Impact Health IT

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

According to the 2015 HIMSS Impact of Informatics survey, informatics nurses are positively affecting the health IT landscape.

Officials released results of the 2015 HIMSS Impact of Informatics Nurse Survey at HIMSS15 and, according to it, nurse informaticists have a crucial impact on patient safety, user acceptance, and workflow.

Health Data Management reports HIMSS surveyed more than 575 informatics nurses; 79 percent of which were informaticists. iHealth Beat explains others included in the survey were CIOs, chief medical information officers, and chief nursing officers.

Respondents said nurse informaticists have a great effect on patient safety, user acceptance, and workflow. Sixty percent of respondents agreed that informatics nurses have a high degree of impact on the quality of care.

“The 2015 Impact of the Informatics Nurse Survey showcases the positive influence informatics nurses are having on improved quality and efficiency of patient care,” said Joyce Sensmeier, Vice President of Informatics for HIMSS on the website.

“We are going to continue to see the role and use of technology expand in healthcare and the demand for nurses with informatics training will grow in parallel. As clinicians further focus on transforming information into knowledge, technology will be a fundamental enabler of future care delivery models and nursing informatics leaders will be essential to this transformation.”

Also, 70 percent of respondents said informatics nurses provided assistance in medical device integration. More than 50 percent said informatics nurses assisted with smart devices and 21 percent said informatics nurses helped with predictive modeling.

HIMSS stated, “It is clear that informatics nurses will continue to be instrumental players in the analysis, implementation, and optimization of advanced information systems and emerging technologies that aim to improve the quality of patient care, while reducing costs.”