Informatics Nurse Salary + Outlook - [2024]

Written By: Pattie Trumble, MPP, MPH

Informatics is the application of data processing within the life sciences. It’s an interdisciplinary science that builds upon a foundation of computing to support modeling, simulation and experimentation across a wide spectrum of calculations that largely focuses upon modeling the behavior of biological populations.

In the medical context, informatics, which is sometimes called “Health Information Systems,” is the organization and analysis of healthcare records to improve healthcare provider efficiency and patient outcomes. Health informatics got a tremendous boost from the passage of the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA), which mandated the use of electronic health records. Real-time, patient-centric records allow the instantaneous retrieval, analysis and use of healthcare information, which can improve the delivery of healthcare immeasurably.

Nursing informatics is the place where nursing and technology intersect. Nursing Informatics is increasingly offered as a master’s level degree at many top U.S. universities. The field appeals to many nurses who are looking for a new direction in their careers. How much does an informatics nurse make? The average informatics nurse salary is $102,230 a year.

Starting Salary for Informatics Nurses

The starting informatics nurse salary is $35.77 an hour on average, which works out to monthly earnings of $6,200 and a yearly income of $74,410. This is a relatively high salary for an entry position job, but after all, this job incorporates two highly remunerated skill sets: IT and nursing.

Nursing informatics demands more-or-less the same skill set as computer system analysis for which the median salary, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, is more than $80,000 annually. Additionally, most nursing informatics specialists have worked as clinical nurses for at least five years, and according to Glassdoor, the employer review site, nurses with two to five years of experience earn an average of $55,000 annually.

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What Is the Average Informatics Nurse Salary?

The average informatics nurse salary is $102,230 a year. This means that on average, informatics nurses make $49.15 an hour and $8,520 a month. Of course, this salary amount will vary according to a number of factors that include the location where the nurse is working, his or her education, the type of facility at which he or she is employed and the specific responsibilities of his or her job.

Income for informatics nurses continues to trend upwards. HIMSS, which is the premier professional organization for practitioners of this career, performs regular surveys of the nursing informatics community. In 2014, just one third of the survey’s respondents reported receiving more than $100,000 a year in compensation. By 2020, just less than one-half of all respondents earned $100,000 or more.

Salaries track with higher education. More nurses with PhDs or equivalent degrees are high earners than nurses who lack those qualifications. Even if they don’t have a graduate degree in the informatics field, nurses with baccalaureate degrees in nursing tend to make more money that nurses without.

Informatics Nurse Salary by Years of Experience

As with any other professional career track, the more experience you have working as an informatics nurse, the higher your income is likely to be. As a newly hired nurse informaticists, your informatics nurse salary over the course of a year will be about $35.77 an hour, which works out to $6,200 per month or $74,410 a year.

With one to four years of experience, a nurse in this specialty can expect his or her salary to increase by approximately 12.5 percent to $40.78 an hour, which is the equivalent to $7,070 a month or $84,820 a year. Informatics nurses who’ve been working in the field between five and nine years command earnings of $48.26 an hour, which works out to $8,370 a month or $100,380.

If your employment in the nursing informatics field continues for between 10 and 19 years, your earnings will increase to $55.82 an hour, which is $9,680 a month or $116,110 a year. Veteran nurse informaticists with 20 years or more under their belts can expect to make $66.87 an hour, which is he equivalent to $11,590 a month or $139,090 a year; this amount is nearly twice their entry-level earnings.

What Additional Benefits and Perks Do Informatics Nurses Get?

As highly valued professionals, informatics nurses can command an impressive array of benefits, including medical and dental insurance, plenty of paid leave, employee-matched contributions to your retirement savings, life insurance and other non-salary compensation.

An even greater perk may be the fact that your job is unlikely to disappear. Nursing informatics is a relatively new occupation, and as yet, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) does not collect information about it. However, the BLS does track the demand for medical and health services managers, which is the broad category that nursing informatics falls into, and demand for these professionals is expected to increase by 32 percent between 2019 and 2029.

How Can an Informatics Nurse Make More Money?

As noted above, the nursing informatics occupation is transitioning from one in which the majority of training is acquired on the job to one which is dominated by graduate degree-prepared professionals. If informatics is a field that appeals to you, earning a masters or PhD will definitely boost your earning capacity.

Myriad opportunities for certification as a nurse informaticist also exist. Certification credentials are offered by the American Nurses Credentialing Center as well as by many universities.

Specialists in this field can also boost their informatics nurse salaries through membership in professional organizations that offer networking opportunities. The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) may be the best known of these because its Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model is the industry standard. Other professional informatics organizations include the American Medical Informatics Association, the Alliance for Nursing Informatics and the American Health Information Management Association.

How Does Informatics Nurse Salary Compare to Similar Jobs?

Though nursing informatics is a specialty, it is not a clinical specialty. Specific job functions like teaching and quality assurance checks fall within the purview of nurse management rather than the area of patient care. Thus, the average informatics nurse income falls in the midrange for nurse managers.

With a median income of $85,465, informatics nurses make slightly more than nurse executives ($83,128) but slightly less than Directors of Nursing ($88,078.) They make more than 20 percent less than clinical nurse specialists or nurse practitioners who earn $106,407 and $109,025 respectively.

20 Best States for Informatics Nurses – Based on Average Salaries, Career Opportunities & Outlook

1. California:

California is home to Silicon Valley, the birthplace of the digital tech revolution, so it should come as no surprise that there is a high demand for informatics nurses throughout the state, particularly in the urban corridors around San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles and San Diego. The informatics nurse salary in California is $48.32 an hour, which comes to $100,503 a year.

Per Hour	$48.32
Per Year	$100,503

2. Texas:

Texas has the third-highest Medicaid enrollment of any state in the nation, which means it has a great need for efficient healthcare delivery solutions. Informatics nurses are in a unique position to help with these solutions because they’re able to study patient charts in aggregate, which means they can identify the greatest areas of inefficiency so these can be eliminated. The average salary for an informatics nurse in Texas is $90,580 annually or $43.55 hourly.

Per Hour	$43.55
Per Year	$90,580

3. Florida:

Twenty percent of Florida’s population is 65 or older. Senior citizens are typically among the highest utilizers of healthcare services, and this makes the analysis of healthcare records to pinpoint the most efficient and cost-effective delivery systems a valuable exercise. This kind of data crunching is an informatics nursing specialty. The typical informatics nurse salary in Florida is $41.52 an hour or $86,365 a year.

Per Hour	$41.52
Per Year	$86,365

4. New York:

The salary of an informatics nurse in New York is higher than practically any other place in the nation: $53.91 an hour or $112,133 annually. This high-income figure reflects that fact that New York City houses some of the most famous hospitals, medical schools and medical research centers in the world who rely upon informatics data for quality assurance and course correction. The demand for informatics nurses in the upstate parts of the Empire State are not as high as they are in the Big Apple.

Per Hour	$53.91
Per Year	$112,133

5. Pennsylvania:

Philadelphia is known for its pharmaceutical research and development as well as for its excellent healthcare delivery system, and nurse informaticists are in high demand in both industries. The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, which generates revenues of $21 billion a year, also employs numerous informatics nurses. The salary for informatics nurses in Pennsylvania is $46.64 an hour or $97,009 a year.

Per Hour	$46.64
Per Year	$97,009

6. Illinois:

Wherever you find large numbers of hospitals, you’ll find large numbers of informatics nurses, so it should come as no surprise that in Chicago and nearby Joliet, Aurora and Naperville, the demand for nurse informaticists is high. There are fewer job opportunities for these specialists in other parts of the state. In The Prairie State, informatics nurses earn $89,599 annually or $43.08 hourly.

Per Hour	$43.08
Per Year	$89,599

7. Ohio:

The salary of informatics nurses in Ohio comes to $45.87 an hour or $95,412 a year. The Buckeye State is home to four of the nation’s top-ranked healthcare delivery systems, and you can be confident that these providers pay close attention to mortality statistics, patient safety, average length of stay and other indicators, which are metrics that informatics nurses know how to track.

Per Hour	$45.87
Per Year	$95,412

8. North Carolina:

Healthcare is North Carolina’s number one private industry, so informatics nurses have many career opportunities in The Tar Heel State. Economists project that North Carolina will add as many as 90,000 new healthcare jobs in the next few years, particularly in the urban strongholds of Durham/Chapel Hill and Winston-Salem. Informatics nurses in this state have incomes of $82,238 a year or $39.54 an hour.

Per Hour	$39.54
Per Year	$82,238

9. Michigan:

Healthcare services have expanded so rapidly over the past year in Michigan that the sector is now the state’s biggest private employer. The rise of electronic health records has generated significant workplace changes for clinical nurses, which informatics nurses are helping them adapt to. Michigan nurse informaticists make $43.34 an hour, which works out to $90,155 a year.

Per Hour	$43.34
Per Year	$90,155

10. Massachusetts:

Massachusetts has a number of medical research centers, particularly within the greater Boston metropolitan area. The amount of data generated by these research centers and other parts of the healthcare system make nursing informatics a highly prized specialty. Nurse informaticists can earn $111,072 a year in The Bay State, which breaks down to $53.40 an hour.

Per Hour	$53.40
Per Year	$111,072

11. New Jersey:

In 2017, New Jersey’s healthcare industry generated more than $37 and employed almost half a million individuals. With those kinds of numbers at stake, it’s vitally important to streamline The Garden State’s healthcare industry as efficiently as possible, and informatics nurses are one of the keys to doing that. In New Jersey, nurse informaticists can make $46.92 an hour or $97,600 a year.

Per Hour	$46.92
Per Year	$97,600

12. Georgia:

The Centers for Disease Control are headquartered in Atlanta, and this increases the demand for nurse informaticists who make $91,632 annually or $44.05 on an hourly basis in The Peach State.

Per Hour	$44.05
Per Year	$91,632

13. Minnesota:

The United Health Foundation has consistently ranked Minnesota as one of the nation’s healthiest states. Minnesota’s Medical Alley is the top-ranked tech cluster in the world with more than 1,000 participating healthcare providers and companies that have a real need for the types of services that informatics nurses provide. Minnesotan nurse informaticists are looking at incomes of $96,419 a year or $46.36 an hour.

Per Hour	$46.36
Per Year	$96,419

14. Missouri:

In Missouri, the number of healthcare providers is highest in the densely populated urban centers of St. Louis and Kansas City, but there is a broad base of providers and innovators across all parts of the state, which reinforces the demand for nurse informaticists. Specialists in this field can make $42.49 an hour, which rounds up to $88,375 a year.

Per Hour	$42.49
Per Year	$88,375

15. Indiana:

In Indiana, informatics nurse make $94,377 a year, which breaks down to $45.37 an hour. The Hoosier State spends more per capita on healthcare than the U.S. does on average, thanks to recent expansions of the ACA. This heightens the need for professionals like nurse informatics who can analyze healthcare records to see where the inefficiencies lie.

Per Hour	$45.37
Per Year	$94,377

16. Virginia:

The healthcare industry has a major impact on Virginia’s economy, so analysts like informatics nurses are in high demand. Central Virginia is the area that has the highest concentration of major hospitals, nursing homes and health insurance companies. Nurse informaticists earn approximately $100,056 a year or $48.10 an hour.

Per Hour	$48.10
Per Year	$100,056

17. Tennessee:

The average salary for an informatics nurse in Tennessee is $46.20 an hour or $96,104 a year. The Hospital Corporation of America, which is the largest operator of for-profit medical networks in the world, is headquartered in this state along with 50 other well-known health services corporations, so the demand for talented data analysts is high.

Per Hour	$46.20
Per Year	$96,104

18. Wisconsin:

Wisconsin’s healthcare system is committed to making evidence-based and cost-effective patient care to the state’s residents, so professionals who can create and develop the technology that supports these ends are highly prized. Nurse informaticists in The Badger State earn $95,184 a year or $45.76 an hour.

Per Hour	$45.76
Per Year	$95,184

19. Washington:

The Evergreen State’s numerous hospital networks and health services corporations create plenty of employment opportunities for informatics nurses. The largest concentration of these employers can be found in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metropolitan area. Washington nurse informaticists make around $53.03 an hour or $110,297 a year.

Per Hour	$53.03
Per Year	$110,297

20. Arizona:

The healthcare industry leads all other industries in new job growth in The Grand Canyon State, accounting for nearly 20 percent of the state’s jobs. One of the great drivers of this phenomenon is the number of Arizonans who are 65 years of age or over. Informatics nurses make about $45.67 an hour, which calculates out to $94,986 a year.

Informatics Nurse Salaries by State in Alphabetical Order

Work Hours

Informatics nursing is an office job, so you can count upon working a standard 9-to-5 schedule. Although many nursing informatics jobs are associated with hospitals and other healthcare provider environments, for the most part, the job is not a front-line job. Three out of four respondents to HIMSS’s 2020 survey stated that they didn’t spend any time on clinical care. Just under half of the respondents reported they were allowed to work remotely from time to time. Consequently, even though the healthcare facility at which you work might be open 24 hours a day, you will not be expected to work outside an eight-hour-a-day, weekday schedule.

Job Satisfaction

In its 2020 survey of nurse informaticists, HIMSS looked at job satisfaction and found that 51 percent of respondents described themselves as “highly satisfied” with their career choice. An additional 40 percent described themselves as generally satisfied. Fewer than 10 percent of respondents described themselves as “unsatisfied.”

Informatics Nurse Salary Outlook

Informatics nursing represents the intersection of two of the most rapidly growing career sectors in the U.S. today: digital technology and IT, and healthcare. Although the BLS does not collect data on nursing informatics as a separate career track, job opportunities within the related fields of healthcare and information technology are projected to grow by 18 percent and 13 percent respectively within the next five years. Is it any wonder that nursing informatics is a hot career track right now?

Conclusion

If you’re a clinical nurse with an aptitude for numbers and computers, and you’ve been mulling over making a career change, nursing informatics is definitely a field to investigate. How much do informatics nurses make? The basic informatics nurse salary may not be an enormous amount more than what you are making as a clinical nurse working with patients, but the benefits are very attractive, the hours far more regular and the job satisfaction high.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ANSWERED BY OUR EXPERT

1. What Does an Informatics Nurse Do?

General healthcare informatics primarily deals with administrative tasks such as medical billing. Nursing informatics, on the other hand, uses data to improve the delivery of patient care. An informatics nurse analyzes trends and clinical statistics, tracks the success of quality initiatives and makes sure that technical tools and procedures are sufficiently user-friendly. The informatics nurse is often put in charge of training when new technology is introduced onto a unit. He or she acts as a liaison between IT and the clinical nursing staff.

2. What Career Opportunities Exist for Informatics Nurses?

The majority of informatics nurses are employed at facilities that provide direct patient care. A survey of informatics nurses conducted in 2020 by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) found that more than two-thirds of respondents were employed by hospitals or multi-facility systems. Smaller clinics and community health programs hire a growing number of nurse informaticists as well.

Employment opportunities also exist with contractors, suppliers and other healthcare vendors that provide the healthcare industry with services and products. Staffing agencies use informatics nurses to project the demand for agency services while local, state and federal government agencies deploy them for systems development and quality assurance. Informatics nurses can also pursue careers at universities, insurance firms and consulting firms.

Wherever they may work, nurse informaticists often end up as project managers, bridging the gap between the hands-on nurses and ancillary staff who will use software applications and the technicians working on the development and rollout of these applications.

3. What Education Do You Need to Become an Informatics Nurse?

Quite a few informatics nurses get their training at their workplaces. Increasingly, however, nurses who want to enter this career specialty are pursuing masters or doctoral degrees, or completing postgraduate certificates. The American Nurses Association recognizes two standards of practice: informatics registered nurses gain their expertise from on-the-job experience while informatics nurse specialists augment that experience with a master’s or doctoral degree.