Course: Nursing Informatics: What it is, Impact, and Pivoting

An introduction to nursing informatics as a specialty, covering role definitions, career pathways, and the transition from bedside nursing to technology-focused healthcare roles that impact patient care on a larger scale.

Course Description

If you’re passionate about nursing and technology, this course is perfect for you. It focuses on nursing informatics, a dynamic, non-clinical role crucial in enhancing safe, high-quality patient care, improving outcomes, and optimizing the experience of technology end-users throughout healthcare. Nursing Informatics is a shift from bedside care to an impactful practice for caring for patients on a larger scale across the care continuum.

This specialized field within health information technology impacts every aspect of patient care, operations, and administration in the healthcare sector and beyond. By gaining insights into nursing informatics concepts, roles, and responsibilities, you’ll understand its tremendous value and the vast opportunities it presents.

The course knowledge will empower you, whether you are an aspiring or practicing nurse informaticist, to excel in this specialty, influence current practices, and help shape the future of healthcare. Learn how the combination of your nursing skills and technological expertise will allow you to make a significant impact on individuals, patients, and caregivers and enhance your career through decreasing burnout, increasing continuous learning, and experiencing growth throughout the next phase of your nursing journey.

Learning Objectives

1. Recognize “Good Fit” indicators for entering Nursing Informatics
2. Define Nursing Informatics
3. List Nursing Informatics roles and responsibilities
4. Understand the impact of Nursing Informatics on processes and people
5. Describe the essential value of Nursing Informatics
6. Discuss how Nursing Informatics influences the future of healthcare
7. Identify how to enter the Nursing Informatics specialty
8. Navigate career pivots in Nursing Informatics
9. Apply ways to thrive while practicing in Nursing Informatics

Once you finish this program, you’ll be equipped to impact healthcare delivery on a broad scale by enhancing the experience of health technology end-users and streamlining processes for people and healthcare professionals. You’ll understand the value of how your essential clinical skills and technology optimize individual, patient, and caregiver outcomes. Plus, you’ll have the foundation knowledge needed to transition from point-of-care nursing, flourish in the Nursing Informatics specialty, and improve what’s next in healthcare.

Instructor Bio

Whende M. Carroll, MSN, RN, NI-BC, FHIMSS

Whende’s inspiration is the immense difference nurses make in healthcare; since her first years as a practicing nurse, she felt called to blend that passionate core with the possibilities of technology to transform practice. After Whende started her career at the acute-care practice, she quickly realized how inefficient processes impacted patient outcomes and saw opportunities for improving care delivery. That awareness led her on a journey from hands-on clinical roles to quality improvement, nursing informatics, and data science. She realized the ease of transitioning from clinical to non-clinical roles to transform nursing practice and impact the broad health industry. In her career, embracing nursing informatics was a natural step, allowing Whende to leverage her love for technology and nursing expertise to optimize clinical workflows, enhance safety and quality, and drive critical innovation. Today, as a nurse informatics leader, educator, and published author, Whende’s deep purpose is to empower fellow nurses to embrace informatics and learn its underpinnings to evolve nursing practice and positively impact healthcare broadly. She has mentored aspiring and practicing nursing informaticists to transition into the specialty, pivot in their work settings, and guide nurses in technology to thrive in their practice. Whende’s mission is to ensure that every nurse feels equipped and confident to embrace technology, improving safe and quality care, as well as the experience of health professionals with technology in our ever-evolving profession.