To the Editor:
I have been a nurse for over 20 years and will be completing my BS-nursing this December. After a number of years in clinical nursing, I recently took a position at a medical software company as a software quality assurance specialist. I work in the development division.
I found the article 'The Nursing Informatics Workforce: Who Are They and What Do They Do?' very informative (Murphy, 2011). I have considered pursuing a nursing informatics career. I am eager to learn about what a nursing informatics nurse does and how to begin a career as an informatics nurse. The article's information on history and development of the informatics nurse is excellent. It is interesting how in a very short period of time, the role of the informatics nurse has evolved. It is also impressive how health care, in general, has become dependent on the information technology industry.
I agree with the author that federal regulation and reimbursement are key reasons why institutions are pursuing electronic health records. However, I think nursing and health care in general see the benefits of health information technology when it is related to patient safety, benchmarking, and health care tracking. This is supported by a previous article in Nursing Economic$. 'A solid partnership can lead to better practice, better care, and better patient outcomes. Correspondingly, this leads to better data, better research, and potentially shortened research cycle' (Francisco, 2011, p. 101).
The article by Murphy shows that nurses who are interested in information technology have an entirely different career path available now and it also shows how nursing informatics has evolved to an important and respected career path.
REFERENCES
Francisco, P. (2011). The quest for quality: Turning data into information. Nursing Economic$, 29(2), 101-103.
Murphy, J. (2011). The nursing informatics workforce: Who are they and what do they do? Nursing Economic$, 29(3), 150-153.
