HIMSS Nursing Informatics Workforce Survey

HIMSS Nursing Informatics Workforce Survey

Building upon research that began in 2004, the HIMSS Nursing Informatics Workforce Survey continues to show that nurse informaticists are a critical human component to broadly enhancing healthcare. They are the driving force behind health innovation and technology to realize the full health potential of every human everywhere. Specifically, nursing informaticists are healthcare information systems developers and implementors who use project and change management expertise and optimize electronic medical health records, quality initiatives and reporting. The release of the Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity consensus report in May 2021 recognizes the benefit and demand for the nurse informaticist role.

In 2022, the survey formally captured workforce data from a global audience with 5% of respondents reporting that they work primarily outside of the U.S. Just under two-thirds (62%) of the 1,118 survey respondents work for a hospital or multifacility health system. Most of the remaining respondents work for a vendor/payer, government or military, or in a long-term care/skilled nursing facility. Ancillary healthcare nurse informaticists are on the rise with 3% of respondents respresenting this group.

This year saw a slight reduction in the percentage of respondents who have a master’s degree (63%) in nursing (19%), nursing informatics (28%), or another informatics or related field (16%). In comparison, 66% of respondents reported having a master’s level degree in any field in 2020. There is an increase in the percent of respondents obtaining their doctor of nursing practice (DNP) degree with 8% indicating that they hold a DNP in 2022, compared to 6% in 2020.

The roles of chief nursing informatics officer and senior nursing informatics officer continue to be on the rise with 54% of respondents reporting that their organization has one of these roles. In 2022, 12% of respondents reported holding the title of clinical informatics specialists, 9% reported as director of clinical informatics and 8% as manager of clinical informatics. The percentage of respondents who reported as clinical analyst decreased to 8% as compared with 13% in 2020. Still, most respondents (17%) stated their title was nursing informatics specialist, a small decrease from 2020’s 24%. The 2022 survey also showed a significant change in reporting structure, with more nurse informaticists reporting to multiple departments. The top three departments are IS/IT (34%), informatics (33%) and nursing (30%). The category of informatics was a new option in the latest survey.

Updated March 1, 2023

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