Masters in Nursing Informatics

Students who wish to complete a Master of Nursing Informatics degree must enroll in a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) program and opt for an area of concentration in Nursing Informatics. It's a good choice for RNs with an active nursing license who want to complete the master's program online. Nursing Informatics is one of the MSN majors that is offered by many of the nursing schools with a distance learning division. It's also an excellent career choice, because health informatics has moved to the very center of health systems operation and nursing informatics is a crucial component of the data that every health services institution generates.

Because all MSN programs require that their applicants be licensed RNs, it is not a huge challenge for those who are pursuing a Master of Nursing Informatics to find a clinical environment where they can gain the training exposure they need. That is one of the reasons why this particular specialization in advanced practice nursing is available as a distance learning option. Students will need a certain amount of background in statistics and database administration, but in many schools that can be picked up in prerequisite classes that are offered with the master's program.

Nursing is expected to be one of the fastest growing professions in the U.S. over the next decade. As the use of information technology continues to accelerate, so will the need for nursing informatics administrators. The job does not generally involve a lot of contact with patients; what it does require is keeping up with the constant changes in data technology and the use of it in medical diagnostics. Computers are a basic tool for daily exchanges of information among doctors and nurses today; that will only intensify as technology advances. The median salary for this position is currently just over $80,000.