SON: Certificate Program in Health Informatics

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Program Description
General Description of the Program

The Department of Medical Education and Biomedical Informatics of the UW School of Medicine provides integrated Informatics Certificate programs for several of the Health and Information Sciences graduate programs at the University of Washington. The first of these interdisciplinary programs is within the UW School of Nursing.

Students enrolled in the UW MN graduate degree program will enroll in the Nursing Informatics Certificate curriculum much like an undergraduate pursues a minor in addition to his/her major area of interest. The certificate courses are recognized by the School of Nursing as fulfilling the electives portion of the MN degree.

Generally speaking, the Certificate is earned with the Masters in Nursing student successfully completing a focused set of 4 courses and an independent capstone project. This set of courses and projects are designed to provide the student with a strong foundation of knowledge, skills and attitudes in applied nursing informatics. The sequence of courses and project work is designed to fit within the existing MN curriculum, and can be completed within the two years it takes to complete the MN degree. Certificate students receive both the MN diploma and a Nursing Informatics Certificate credential.

Program Philosophy

As with all disciplines of biomedical informatics, there are several levels at which trained nurses can work. In the current healthcare environment, all nurses need a basic level of information technology literacy to successfully perform their jobs. At the other end of the spectrum are those nurses who have pursued advanced degrees (Masters and PhD) in informatics and who work in research in the field of nursing informatics theory. Between these two levels are nurses defined as nursing informatics "specialists", nurses who serve in their organizations as liaisons between these two levels.

For an in-depth discussion of the program Philosophy, please click here.