MS in Nursing: Health Care Informatics

Health care informatics is a rapidly emerging discipline that offers new frontiers requiring innovative leadership. As health care reform begins to impact all areas of the health care system, greater attention is being focused on the value of health informatics in reducing health care costs, increasing access to health care, and improving the quality of health care services. Health care informatics is quickly becoming vital to the growth and security of the United States' health care system. The integration of information technology into health care and the continuous changes in patient-care systems require professionals and leaders with training in clinical operations, data management systems, health care system operations, project management, decision making, and quality assessment.

Graduates of the Master of Science in Nursing with an Emphasis in Health Care Informatics program may perform a variety of functions for the organization, such as automating clinical care, building new operational data systems, training health care workers in the use of computer systems, collecting and analyzing data to improve patient care, etc. Depending on their areas of strength and focus, graduates may serve as project managers, project designers, researchers, systems analysts, or administrators and executives at all levels of the organization.

Graduates may work in a variety of settings, including hospitals, primary care facilities, doctor's offices, insurance companies, pharmacies, technology suppliers, consulting firms, and more. Potential employers for graduates of this program include the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health, clinical data exchange insurance sites, the government's Military Health System (hospitals), Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, state health care organizations, and informational technology vendors.