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As the professions within health informatics develop, the ability for individuals to find career support is becoming more necessary. Informing Healthcare, the Welsh Assembly Government programme set up to improve health services by introducing new ways of accessing, using and storing information is spearheading professional advancement for health informatics in Wales.
Historically in health informatics across the whole of the UK and beyond, there has been no clear entry point, no established career pathways and a lack of visibility. It's essential all those working in the profession have the opportunity to develop and show how they contribute to the delivery of a modern healthcare service.
That opportunity can lead to more than just staff satisfaction and pride. It also demonstrates to other healthcare professionals and the public that the right people with the right skills are in the right job.
The Health Informatics Career Framework (HICF) is one step toward achieving those goals. The idea behind the framework is that climbing the professional ladder or moving into a different informatics area is much easier when you can see where you're going.
The framework offers a comprehensive map for careers in health information within the healthcare environment, bringing together competences, underpinning knowledge, training and qualification routes and a database of job descriptions across nine career levels and more than 100 job roles in a user friendly, interactive format. Informing Healthcare has led the framework's development for use across the UK, with collaborative input from Connecting for Health (the English health IT programme) and Skills for Health (the Sector Skills Council for healthcare).
According to my colleague John Meredith, IT service manager for Cardiff and the Vale NHS Trust: "The emphasis on informatics has changed quite dramatically over the past few years, and is only being capitalised in areas where the importance of what the field can provide to a service is recognised. The HICF is part of that by providing a framework from which to build on, and acting as a guide to the sorts of roles and expectations that can be derived form a field as diverse as health informatics."
The framework is more than just a guide. It firmly plants health informatics as fundamental cogs in the engine driving the NHS. It places health informatics in the mainstream of healthcare.
Besides the framework, Informing Healthcare's 'HI-Profile' professional development programme provides online access to career information, personal support and professional development for Health informatics including ways of accessing education and training. It offers advice and information for those interested in a future career in health informatics and points the way toward opportunities for improving the IT and information management skills of the work force throughout the UK.
The programme also establishes bursaries for appropriate academic and for vocational qualifications. It also offers a number of courses which are free to all health informatics staff in the NHS in Wales. The courses cover project and programme management, service management, statistical analysis, benefits management, facilitation, presentation and writing for publication.
Informatics are contributing to modernising the NHS, improving the skill levels of workforce. As information and IT tools are moving increasingly centre stage, it's important the health informatics profession expands in stature, knowledge and rewards.
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