Anyone Certified As An Epic Analyst?

I have been offered the opportunity to take on the role of Nurse Informatics and will be sent to Wisconsin for Epic training if I accept the position. I wanted to find out more information as to what the job and training entails. I have been a bed-side nurse for 10years and love what I do. But I am starting to get bored and feeling unchallenged with the daily routine. Can you tell me what some of the pros and cons of the job entails? I don't want to leave the bed-side all together.

Thanks for any information you might give me.

Greetings Piamia,
The best person(s) to ask these questions would probably be the hiring manager who interviewed you at Epic along with someone at Epic who is current in the role you interviewed for. I'm going to take an educated guess knowing that Epic is a HIS software vendors. Your role will probably have responsibililities of systems analysis, design and building once a Hospital, OutPt facility or Physicians Practice has purchased one or more Epic applications. You may be training analysts who work for the healthcare organization, training end users who will use the systems, performing system testing, assisting with process redesign, developing/designing training curriculum and or project management. As I wrote earlier the best source of information for exactly what a role entails are the hiring organization and the people/persons who have held the exact role for which you are interviewing for. See the Forum Board for additional quesitons you may want to ask during an interview. Additionally - in answer to whether or not you can continue your bedside nursing practice I would think that would depend on whether or not you can fit shift work into the hours and days the Epic position will require of you. Perhaps you can pick up shifts on the weekends?? Traditionally positons with HIS vendors are 9-5; M-F but that will depend on if the role requires you travel or not. Whether or not the travel is regional, national or international. Such a vendor based role in and of itself will not include hands on bedside nursing, may require you travel Su-Th, work remote, on call or are located onsite at the client's site/location. You also may be required to work off hours, on call and 12-16 hr shifts when a project is in full swing or during a Go Live.

Good Luck!

I have a Question....HOW DOES a nurse that is interested in IS get trained and certified, say in Epic. Our hospital bought it and we are using it in the clinic totally with no paper charting anymore. They say we are going live for inpatient and the whole hospital this summer.
I've always wanted to go into IS and I LOVE the travel part of it as well as the training and teaching part of it. I worked for Meditec for a few months in 2000 when they had the big Y2K thing going on. I taught nurses in a Vet's Home on making care plans and charting. I loved it. Great money as well. Can anyone tell me how I'd get certified on my own if I wanted to pay for my own training OR what is the best way to transistion into this FROM BEDSIDE nursing. I've been a nurse for 26 yrs. and I am working in L & D right now.

Peggy to my knowledge in order to obtain certification in a particular vendor's product (like Epic) you would need to be employeed by an organization that is willing to pay for and send you for the training. Hospitals, and other healthcare organizatins send their project managers, analysts, and other's you have roles within the organization currently building, testing or in some way working with or planning to work with the vendor product. I have never heard of an independent clinician or person obtaining Epic certification............but hey you may be the first. Be proactive and contact Epic directly and give it your best shot! As my Grandmother use to say Nothing beats a failure but A TRY!
To my knowledge neither Meditech, Cerner, Eclypsys or McKesson offer "certification" in any of their clinical applications.
Good Luck!

I'm not/wasn't an analyst, but I did do abstracting in EPIC and thought it was a great product. Apparently our facility led them to add LOTS of extras to other places' packages. Woo!

What is nursing informatics? How do you get a job in that field? What are required who gives the training? Thanks