Exploring the different aspects of choosing a career in health informatics

The healthcare profession is not only meant for students who pursue a healthcare career path. It is a hub for a set of professions and health care attracts many non-healthcare individuals. People who are interested in helping society at large but they don’t have a degree in the medical field can also get a chance to follow their hearts into helping others. 

One such example of career paths is to study health informatics. Although this field is going through its infancy and still evolving, it is a great way to enter the healthcare profession and help the community at large. Healthcare Informatics utilizes computers, math, and other IT resources to make complex healthcare tasks easy.

What does a health informatics professional do?

The health informatics job description is to introduce the use of computers and IT in the completion of different tasks that might be too hard to do without it. To save time in healthcare is to save lives and there’s no better alternative than the use of different health informatics principles to make that ideology come true.

The daily tasks in a healthcare facility such as a hospital require technology and without it, they can’t be performed efficiently. Taking patient history to create a medical profile, collecting patient information for billing, prescription writing, prescription filling, and carrying out reimbursement procedures are the tasks for which health informatics is necessary.

Is it the right career path for you?

The purpose of this writing is to help you decide whether a health informatics career is something that you should pursue and if it’s right for you. Before you decide whether you should go for this career, you need to answer a few questions that can help you make an informed decision.

How does improving patient care sound to you?

Every single staff member in a healthcare facility dreams to help and heal the patients. Sometimes they successfully reach that goal and sometimes they can’t due to some technical restrictions. This is where a health informatics professional comes in. 

As a professional, you will not be involved in taking care of patients directly but you can help doctors, nurses, and other healthcare providers by providing them with the necessary information about patients, their past medical history, and any other record that might prove useful. Keeping patient charts up-to-date, providing all the team members complete information that is necessary for better treatment, and training them to use technology is what health informatics stands for.

Do you prefer a less stressful job?

As a health informatics professional, mainly you will be required to do an office job. Unlike other healthcare providers such as doctors and nurses, you don’t have to watch people suffer which can affect your efficiency and services if you are not up for that kind of stress. In some cases, stressful circumstances might motivate you to perform your duties in a better and productive way. Either way, you will get what you want with this job.

Are you a problem-solver?

If your answer is yes to the question and you have a knack for healthcare then health informatics jobs are exactly what you need as a career. If you have decision making, problem-solving, as well as organizational skills, then you are the perfect candidate for this job. Healthcare professionals and patients suffer a lot when a simple error happens in the prescription making, record keeping, or any other aspect. 

As a health informatics professional, you can find solutions to all these problems by introducing the use of computers in every way possible. Computerizing everything will decrease the chances of errors and will lead healthcare providers to success, a great satisfaction on your part, right?

Do you want a good salary and job growth?

Different job categories fall under the broad field of health informatics which includes informatics nurses, health informatics consultants, clinical informatics specialist and other health informatics entry-level jobs. Starting from $50,000 and going as high as $100,000, salaries for these professionals are the most desirable feature of this job. 

Career growth is another factor that might help you form a decision. Getting a Master’s degree in health informatics will brighten your chances of growth. You will get promoted to a post such as clinical informatics manager where your salary will be increased substantially and you will be able to enjoy a lot of other benefits.