School of Nursing to Offer First Informatics Program in the State

The Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) School of Nursing will offer the first Texas-based Nursing Informatics Master of Science in Nursing (MSN). This program fills a critical gap for advanced nursing education to provide expertise in informatics, which is essential in today’s technology-driven health care environments.

The program is an online track that requires occasional travel to the Lubbock campus for field experience.

“The MSN in Nursing Informatics will prepare nurses to be leaders in information technology, experts in data management and clinical analytics and project managers for technology development,” said Barbara Cherry, DNSc, MBA, R.N., NEA-BC,department chair for Leadership Studies in the TTUHSC School of Nursing.

Master’s-prepared nursing informatics specialists will be equipped to step into interprofessional teams to address patient safety and quality supported by technology, said Program Director Susan McBride, Ph.D., RN-BC, CPHIMS. This master’s degree will prepare graduates to focus on clinical informatics in a quality improvement model of care.

“In addition to these roles, key competencies in adoption, implementation and evaluation of electronic health records will be emphasized,” McBride said. “Core concepts of this program will be point of care technology, quality, safety and interprofessionalism integrated with intense clinical field experience in the later stages of specialty courses.”

The first class will begin in spring 2014.

For more information, email the TTUHSC Student Affairs Office at songrad@ttuhsc.edu or call (806) 743-2573 or (806) 743-2762.

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