WGU C790: Foundations in Nursing Informatics

What C790 Foundations in Nursing Informatics Actually Covers

C790, Foundations in Nursing Informatics, is the on-ramp to the informatics specialty inside WGU's Master of Science in Nursing – Nursing Informatics program, and it appears in both the BSN-to-MSN and RN-to-MSN pathways. WGU's own course description keeps the scope concrete: how technology gets woven into nursing practice, the role nurses play in informatics, how computer systems carry clinical documentation, communication, and workflow, how a clinical problem gets identified, and how an informatics project actually gets implemented. If you are a working RN stepping into graduate study, this is usually your first structured look at the systems side of the care you already deliver every shift.

Direct answer: C790 is a 2-competency-unit course assessed by a proctored objective assessment. Learn the two things WGU says it measures — information technology concepts (system life cycle, workflow, roles, project management) and standardized clinical terminologies, taxonomies, and decision support tools — then confirm your readiness with the pre-assessment before you schedule. The exam rewards recognizing those concepts inside nursing scenarios, not reciting definitions.

Two competency units is WGU's lightest course weighting, and that tells you something useful about how to plan: C790 is a foundations course, not a marathon. What makes it feel bigger than its size is vocabulary density. Informatics arrives with its own dictionary — life cycle phases, taxonomies, decision support categories, role titles — and much of it describes things you already do at the bedside under names you have never used. The work is mostly translation, not new clinical learning.

It is worth knowing what C790 is not. The profession treats informatics as a nursing specialty rather than an IT job, and the course follows that framing. You are assessed as a nurse who understands technology, not as an analyst or a programmer. There is no coding, no software to install, and no database to build — that work comes later in the specialty, in courses like Informatics System Analysis and Design and Data Modeling and Database Management Systems.

The Two Competencies C790 Is Built Around

WGU publishes exactly two competencies for this course, and nearly everything on the objective assessment maps back to one of them. Reading them closely is the highest-value thing you can do before you open a single chapter.

• Applying information technology concepts — life cycle, workflow, roles, and project management. This is where the system development life cycle lives: planning, analysis, design and development, implementation, and evaluation and maintenance. Expect to be handed an activity and asked which phase it belongs to, or handed a project situation and asked whose job it is. Workflow analysis and the informaticist's position between clinical staff and technical teams sit here too.
• Applying standardized clinical terminologies, taxonomies, and decision support tools to identify problems, needs, and opportunities for improvement. This is where you learn why shared clinical languages matter for interoperability, data quality, and making nursing's contribution measurable — and how decision support tools such as alerts, reminders, and order sets turn evidence into safer bedside practice.

Around those two pillars the course builds the conceptual scaffolding the wider field runs on: how data becomes information, then knowledge, then wisdom in a clinical setting, and how informatics work connects to the widely taught aims of care that is safe, timely, effective, efficient, equitable, and patient-centered. Those frameworks belong to health informatics generally rather than to WGU specifically, so any solid graduate informatics reference will reinforce what your course materials say about them.

How Heavy Is C790, Really?

Lighter than most of what surrounds it. At 2 CUs it sits at the bottom of the credit range in the informatics specialty, the material is conceptual rather than mathematical, and nurses with real EHR experience walk in with a genuine head start on the documentation and workflow content. A focused week or two of part-time study is a realistic planning target for most students, and people who already work near a clinical informatics team often move faster than that.

Do not mistake light for skippable, though. Two places catch students out. The first is the life cycle, because the exam asks you to place activities rather than list phases. The second is terminology, simply because there is a lot of it arriving at once. Put your extra hours there. And treat the pre-assessment as your real signal: clear it comfortably, work through every weakness on the coaching report, and the proctored attempt should feel like a repeat performance rather than a first draft.

A Study Plan Shaped by the Way C790 Asks Questions

Because the assessment is scenario-driven, passive rereading is the least efficient preparation available. Try this sequence instead.

1. Days 1–3 — map the terrain and start a glossary. Skim the whole course of study before you read anything closely, so you know the shape of the units. Then read with one question running in the background: what does a nurse informaticist actually do? Capture every acronym, role, and framework in a running glossary from the first page onward.
2. Days 4–7 — own the system development life cycle by active recall. Close the book and write the phases in order, with the activities and the people involved in each. Then invert the drill: take real projects from your own workplace — a barcode scanning rollout, an EHR upgrade, a new sepsis screening tool — and sort each activity into its phase. That is precisely the mental move the exam asks for.
3. Second week — pair every tool to a quality aim. For decision support, practice saying out loud how one specific tool improves one specific dimension of quality: this allergy alert supports safety, this order set supports effectiveness and efficiency. Making the pairing explicit converts vague familiarity into an answerable question.
4. Throughout — ten minutes a day on terminology. Self-made flashcards covering terminologies, taxonomies, and role definitions, spaced across the whole course, beat one heroic weekend. The spacing is doing the work here, not the volume.
5. Final step — pre-assessment, then targeted repair. Sit it under exam-like conditions. Use the coaching report to name your weak domains, restudy only those, and retest yourself before you book the OA.

The habits you build here — a working glossary, scenario drills, planning early rather than at the deadline — transfer straight into the rest of your nursing coursework. If you are browsing ahead or filling out other terms, you can find guides for other WGU nursing courses such as D445 Intermediate Nursing Skills and D160 Nursing Leadership and Management Field Experience in our Leavitt School of Health hub, or search the full guide index.

Mistakes That Cost C790 Students Their First Attempt

• Studying it like an IT course. Students with technology backgrounds often over-index on technical detail and miss that every question is framed through nursing practice, patient safety, and the informaticist's role.
• Memorizing life cycle phase names without their contents. The exam rarely asks you to list the phases. It describes an activity and asks where it belongs. Learn what happens inside each phase, not just the labels on the outside.
• Treating terminologies as background trivia. Standardized clinical terminologies and taxonomies are half of the published competency set, which makes them core material. Know why a shared language matters, not just that one exists.
• Under-planning because it is only 2 CUs. Low credit weight does not mean low vocabulary volume. The students who give it three flat days are usually the ones scheduling a retake.
• Booking the OA on a marginal pre-assessment. A squeaker on the practice attempt usually predicts a stressful real one. Repair the weak domains first; a few extra days of review is a far better trade than a second sitting.

C790 Exam Readiness Checklist

• Can you define nursing informatics in your own words and describe the main roles a nurse informaticist fills?
• Can you name each phase of the system development life cycle, say what happens in it, and correctly place a described activity into the right phase?
• Can you explain how data, information, knowledge, and wisdom differ, with a clinical example of each?
• Can you name a specific clinical decision support tool and explain which quality aim it improves, and how?
• Can you explain why standardized clinical terminologies and taxonomies matter for documentation, interoperability, and measuring nursing's contribution to care?
• Can you walk through how a workflow problem is identified, analyzed, and addressed with an informatics solution?
• Do you know who is involved at each stage of an informatics project, and what change management looks like during a rollout?
• Have you passed the pre-assessment comfortably and closed every gap flagged on your coaching report?

C790 FAQ

Is WGU C790 an OA or a PA?

C790 is assessed through a proctored objective assessment — a multiple-choice style exam rather than a written task. WGU revises course versions periodically, so check the assessment section of your own course page to confirm the current structure before you plan your term.

How many competency units is C790 worth?

Two. WGU's published MSN Nursing Informatics program guide lists Foundations in Nursing Informatics at 2 CUs, which puts it among the lightest courses in the specialty. Weightings can differ between program versions, so your own degree plan is the authority for your term.

How long does C790 usually take?

Plan for a focused week or two of part-time study; the 2-CU weighting reflects a foundations-level scope. Nurses with regular EHR and workflow experience often move faster, because much of the course formalizes work they already do under different names.

Do I need a technical or IT background to pass?

No. C790 treats informatics as a nursing specialty rather than a technology role. You need to understand concepts — life cycles, workflow, decision support, terminologies, project roles — not write code or configure systems. Clinical experience is at least as valuable here as technical experience.

What should I prioritize if I am short on time?

The two published competencies, in that order. First, information technology concepts: the system development life cycle, workflow, and project roles. Second, standardized clinical terminologies, taxonomies, and decision support tools. Nearly every scenario question traces back to one of those two.

Is the C790 exam proctored?

Yes. Like WGU's other objective assessments, it is taken under online proctoring with identity verification and a room scan. Test your webcam, microphone, and internet connection ahead of time, clear your workspace, and review the current requirements on your assessment page at wgu.edu.