IT, HIM, NI? Different sides to the same Coin...

rninformatics, DNP, RN · Nov 6, 2009

https://allnurses.com/nursing-informatics/health-information-mgt-380211.html

Mission · Nov 22, 2009

Hi,

I'm not sure if this will help you but I'll share my own personal experiences transitioning from IT to nursing informatics. Before getting my BSN I worked 8 years as a software/web applications developer in various healthcare settings. My first (and still current) nursing informatics job is doing application development for a nursing informatics professor at a school of nursing. This job was perfect for me since it made use of my programming skills and my nursing knowledge is helpful in the application development. Now that I am also doing my PhD in nursing informatics I can really see the difference in how I develop programs both as being a nurse and with my continued education.

From talking to other people and from other jobs I've interviewed for the value of previous IT skills will really depend on the job. Programming and database skills are really in high demand in any kind of research setting, such as a teaching hospital. On the other hand, I once interviewed for a nurse informaticist position at a hospital, the job mainly entailed doing workflow analysis. While my previous project management skill would have been helpful, they really need a nurse with hospital floor experience. Vendors really seem to need people who speak both languages (IT and nursing). HIM is probably not the area where you'd leverage and IT and nursing background, at least in my opinion, unless your interested in terminologies.

I think what is confusing is the language often used on web sites to describe HIT, HIM, NI, biomedical informatics etc. is sometimes similar but they are really distinct fields. They are also very broad on their own. I'm sure you know people in IT who mostly do networking, a skill that probably has limited use for NI. I can tell you, in my program, students research has really varied from analysis of public health informatics infrastructure; hand-off communication in the ICU; information seeking needs and behaviors of breastfeeding mothers, development and evaluation of a nursing documentation system, etc. All of that falls under nursing informatics and requires little to no IT skill. I think it would probably be helpful to you to spend some time reading literature published by AHIMA, AMIA, ANIA, HIMSS, etc. to understand the differences between these fields so you can make a more informed decision about what you want to do and how to best leverage your skill set.

Olivia

Mijourney · Nov 23, 2009

I agree with the responders so far and would add that some HIM professionals and schools cross the line into HI especially at the graduate level. In fact, there are graduate programs that combine health informatics with information management. These programs also skim the surface of IT. There are also a fair number of people that come into HIM with an IT background just like with nursing, medicine, and public health. A growing number of IT specialists come into HIIM at the graduate level.

I've discovered that HIM is very much like the three aforementioned disciplines in that it has its own body of knowledge and right now everything seems to be centered on most aspects of the EHR and the forth coming ICD/PCS 10. Just so you know, there is a skimming of health informatics in HIM in some of the RHIT/RHIA programs today. However, I would say that HIM is not a different side to the same coin. It's not clear to me that the focus in HIM is the same as IT or necessarily NI.