Nursing Informatics Shadow Experience
Students will arrange to spend time with a nursing informatics specialist, medical informatics specialist,
or an equivalent information manager/officer at their place of employment, internship, or online.
Ideally, students will interview and/or shadow the informatics specialist for approximately 2 hours. For
virtual encounters, this might include an initial discussion, followed by sitting in on a departmental or
team Zoom meeting, and a final follow-up discussion.
Guidelines for shadowing: The goal is to gain an understanding of the day-to-day activities of the
informatics specialist, their role in the organization, and how they interact with the APNs and other
nursing staff who use the informatics technology. A secondary goal is to gain an understanding of how
the priorities of the HIT staff align with those of the clinical staff and other end users. Plan your
interview questions beforehand, keeping in mind the following guidelines:
• Describe the activity, i.e., how you spent your time. Is this similar to how the informatics
specialist typically spends his/her time?
• Describe typical roles and responsibilities of the informatics specialist and his/her relationships
with others in the organization.
• Discuss the utility and significance of the informatics technology used by the organization and
how it serves the purpose or mission of the organization.
• Discuss how the priorities of the HIT department align with staff priorities and the barriers and
challenges facing staff as new technologies are implemented.
• Discuss how what you learned relates to (or could relate to) the use of advanced technology in
your current or future role as an APN. Was this activity valuable for you? If so, how? If not, why
not and how would you change it?
Shadowing reports will be submitted in the form of a brief scholarly essay (350–500 words) and should
address all the points listed above. Reports are due before the start of Week 14 live session. There will
be no group presentation for this activity.
Attached is a sample interview the professor (David ) had with an Informatic nurse, please use that for information if needed. Also there are interviews on YouTube that may help too.
