Kimberly Elenberg, RN, originally wanted to go back to school to become a pediatric nurse practitioner, but a graduate program that let her continue to work full time allowed her to advance her career even before she completed her studies.

The graduate program she chose was one of the country's only programs in nursing informatics, at the University of Maryland's Baltimore campus. "I've always had an interest in computers," Elenberg said. While at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Elenberg built an education center, a cluster of computers linking hospitalized children with cancer to their families and friends around the world. Seeing the success of this project sparked a passion for computer technology that led her to UM.

After being promoted from staff nurse at Walter Reed to head nurse of the pediatrics, hematology and oncology clinic there, Elenberg entered the UM graduate school. Meanwhile, she switched her day job to research nurse in pediatrics and oncology at the National Institutes of Health, then came to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, after her deployment for the response to the anthrax scare after the Sept. 11 attacks.

By this time, Elenberg, a full-time, active-duty nurse, had moved from the Army branch of the U.S. uniformed services to the United States Health Service Commissioned Corps (USPHS), under the auspices of the U.S. surgeon general. She now holds the title of consumer compliant monitoring system (CCMS) program manager in the Human Health Sciences Division of the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS).

As an outgrowth of her role as CCMS program manager and with the skills gained from this program, Elenberg is participating in the development of a universal information technology system that will augment public health responses to naturally occurring and intentional outbreaks, as a member of a National Science Foundation working committee. "I want to help people, and the program at Maryland has increased my skills so that they are applicable on a more national and international level vs. just at the bedside," Elenberg said.

Elenberg, who holds the rank of lieutenant commander in the USPHS, says the master of science degree she will be awarded next year at UM "definitely has implications for promotion, but the bottom line is I'm really honored to be in public service."

Graduates of the UM nursing informatics program are trained to analyze nursing information requirements, design system alternatives, manage information technology, identify and implement user training strategies and evaluate the effectiveness of clinical or management information systems in patient care.

"Informatics is just a tool," said Kathleen Charters, Ph.D., RN, an assistant professor at UM who coordinates the nursing informatics program. "Most students want to apply it to a particular field of study." It's not unusual for a grad student in the program to have a dual concentration in informatics and in administration or managed care or health policy, she said.

At present, 150 students are enrolled in the school of nursing's master's program, 15 in the doctoral program and 15 to 20 students in a post-master's certificate program. Students can complete a master's program in two years, but many take classes part time and have up to five years to complete the master's. Doctoral students theoretically can complete their work in four years, "but that would be getting their dissertation done in an extraordinarily short time," Charters said. Doctoral candidates are strongly encouraged to have a master's degree in nursing already, she added. Preference is given to Maryland residents, but a fair number of out-of-state students are enrolled, she said.

After its initial blossoming some years ago, the number of graduate schools offering nursing informatics programs has shrunk, Charters said. "A lot of programs migrated into what I call health informatics, where they were looking at training multidisciplinary teams," she said. "There [are] a lot of those programs out there today. There are pros and cons to each approach, but we've remained focused on nursing informatics, teaching our people to be part of a team, but speaking up for what nurses need."

"Hospitals have realized the necessity for the informatics nurse, and there simply have not been enough out in the field with the broad IT education and experience needed," said George Harbeson, MSN, RN, president of the American Nursing Informatics Association, based in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. "Enter forward-thinking nursing schools that have introduced IT at both the undergraduate and graduate levels in their curriculums and have gone on to offer informatics as a graduate program."

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