To boldly go where I had never gone before! So was my entry in to "nursing informatics". Let me tell you about the journey! I have been a nurse for 26 years. Although for many of you that seems like a life time, believe me it is not. It is significant though in relation to my work choices. My early career started like that of many of us. I started on a med/surg unit as a scared and anxious new grad. Six months later, now being a seasoned and confident nurse, I was ready to spread my wings. I had enjoyed my psychiatric nursing clinicals in school and a position became available on the psychiatric unit. I was so excited when 6 months later, I was chosen for the job. I would now be able to impact the lives of my patients in such positive ways. Boy did I have a lot to learn. Although I did make a positive impact on my patients it was nothing compared to the impact they made on me! I learned patience in the face of chaos. I learned to listen even when I didn't like what I was hearing. I learned that there really was more than one way to accomplish a task or look at a situation and that sometimes the most unconventional methods were the ones that worked best. Now I know you are probably asking what that has to do with nursing informatics. I stayed in psych nursing for 20 years before I again felt a need to spread my wings. I decided that I needed to experience other areas of nursing and tried a few. I worked for a family physician and then I worked on a pain clinic. One thing that I noticed was even in these areas much of my work was still psychiatric nursing. I really wanted to do something different. In each area that I worked I was the one that staff came to when they were having charting or computer problems. I had no formal training but computers came easy to me, at least from an "end user" perspective. (Trust me, I didn't even know what an "end user" was at that point.) The joke was always I should be a computer nurse. Well, guess what? In my search for something different I found a position as a "Project Coordinator" and was now a "nursing informaticist." I could barely say the word let alone know what it meant. However, those lessons I had learned from my psych patients about chaos, listening and unconventional methods of completing tasks were all about to become part of my daily tool kit. I love nursing informatics and have learned that chaos allows us to look for oppurtunities for change, listening is the most important tool I can use in trying to assist the physicians, nurses and support staff in finding the best ways to care for patients and unconventional methods really do sometimes work the best. Nursing is a wonderful career that allows many diverse oppurtunities. Never be afraid to test the waters and always use your talents to improve the care of our patients, after all, they are the reason we are here.