Nurse Magazine, June 12, 2007 DALLAS -- RNs are informally gravitating toward roles in informatics because nursing schools that want to launch such advanced-degree specialty programs are having trouble recruiting qualified faculty, the Dallas Morning News reports. “Only a handful of universities offer doctoral degrees in nursing informatics,” Patricia C. Dykes, RN, DNSc, of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, told the newspaper. “I see wider recognition of the value that nurses with advanced education in informatics bring to system design, implementation and evaluation,” she said in a recent news story. The article said it was estimated that 75% or more of nurse informaticists were developing or implementing clinical information and documentation systems, with the balance involved in consulting and research in areas like patient safety. Poldi Tschirch, RN, PhD, told the paper she combined a master’s degree in nursing and a doctorate in medical humanities to become director of nursing informatics at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. “Many nurses working in nursing informatics roles learn on the job,” she said, “building on their nursing experience with information management.”