Nursing Informatics Career Viability Analysis Nursing Informatics
The first position which was examined is that of Nursing Informatics Principal offered by the Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, Washington (Jobmine, 2013). The responsibilities listed by the employment ad include the ability to provide genuine leadership, the development and implementation of strategies and polices which support the corporate mission, a genuine willingness to collaborate with nursing, information technology, medical and other operational leaders define and pursue clinical nursing informatics initiatives pertaining to relevant inpatient and outpatient clinical areas (HIMSS, 2013). In order to qualify for this position applicants must have earned a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) degree – or an equivalent level of education in science, humanities, or business administration – and attaining certification by the Washington state RN licensing body is also required. Virginia Mason's administrative staff also prefers candidates for the Nursing Informatics Principal position to have between seven and 10 years of experience working with the inpatient or clinical setting, five years of experience in a managerial capacity, and three years working directly in informatics. Although exact salary information for this position was not provided, a comprehensive study of statewide averages for this specialized industry indicates that "with regards to Washington, you will find that the median average salary hovers around $77,038, and the highest salary averages around $95,829" (Nursing Informatics for All, 2013), meaning this particular job is likely to fall somewhere within this range.