[student79]

Hello guys. I just graduated Nursing School last week (woo-hoo). Anyway, prior to Nursing School, I had a Bachelors in Computer Information Systems and had several years IT experience. What I wanted to do was work in Nursing for a few years to get experience and then delve into Informatics. Anyway, I applied to 3 RN jobs and 1 informatics job. Well, now I have offers from all 4! The informatics position is with Epic Systems. They make nursing and medical software used in hospitals for CPOE, MAR's, Nursing Charting, etc. So the position is as a Project Manager, travelling all over the country, implementing the software and training the nurses, physicians on the software, etc and generally implementing the projects for clients. They have offered me a salary of $70,000 per year. The other jobs are RN I positions (1 in Critical Care, 1 in Cardiovascular, and 1 in Med-Surg). They pay about $26/hr (work nights). That comes to like $50,000 per year. Anyway, I feel like it would be to my benefit to work as an RN before going into these other things. Won't it? I'll gain an understanding of clinical workflow and see the nurse's perspective. Also, another reason I wanted to work as an RN first is becase I get bored easily. So in the future I may get tired of working long 50 or so hour weeks with only 2 weeks off vacation per year. So I may want to go back to working just 3 days a week or PRN/Part Time at a hospital, and without RN experience, I would not be able to find a job even though I would be a licensed RN. They would take the fresh graduates over me, because after nursing school I never got experience. So these are my concerns. Advice?????

[caliotter3]

Ahhhh! What a dilemma! Four job offers!!! Since your reasoning sounds logical, I would go for one of the nursing jobs for the reasons you stated. But that traveling job in informatics sure sounds enticing! Like I said, what a dilemma! (My former background was in the computer industry. Miss it.)

[NYDreamer]

what made you decide to apply for the informatics job if you wanted to work bedside first? ...Anyhooo! I think only you know that answer. If informatics is ultimately what you want to do, go for it...honestly, I thought you needed a masters to get into it..I think it's great that you get to use both degrees...if anything, you can apply for a bedside position later. Either way, congrats and good luck in making your decision.

Originally Posted by student79

Hello guys. I just graduated Nursing School last week (woo-hoo). Anyway, prior to Nursing School, I had a Bachelors in Computer Information Systems and had several years IT experience. What I wanted to do was work in Nursing for a few years to get experience and then delve into Informatics. Anyway, I applied to 3 RN jobs and 1 informatics job. Well, now I have offers from all 4! The informatics position is with Epic Systems. They make nursing and medical software used in hospitals for CPOE, MAR's, Nursing Charting, etc. So the position is as a Project Manager, travelling all over the country, implementing the software and training the nurses, physicians on the software, etc and generally implementing the projects for clients. They have offered me a salary of $70,000 per year. The other jobs are RN I positions (1 in Critical Care, 1 in Cardiovascular, and 1 in Med-Surg). They pay about $26/hr (work nights). That comes to like $50,000 per year. Anyway, I feel like it would be to my benefit to work as an RN before going into these other things. Won't it? I'll gain an understanding of clinical workflow and see the nurse's perspective. Also, another reason I wanted to work as an RN first is becase I get bored easily. So in the future I may get tired of working long 50 or so hour weeks with only 2 weeks off vacation per year. So I may want to go back to working just 3 days a week or PRN/Part Time at a hospital, and without RN experience, I would not be able to find a job even though I would be a licensed RN. They would take the fresh graduates over me, because after nursing school I never got experience. So these are my concerns. Advice?????

[sdizzle]

could you take the infomatics job and then pick up shifts as an RN PRN some place?