Please help me to understand

Specialties Informatics

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Hi everybody.

Looks like it was discussed a lot before but I still can't understand: Is it possible to use my previous computer bacground in nursing???? I have Master's in Computer science and math. Currently I am being prepared for NCLEX-PN (I graduated from LPN school this year), but anybody who ever worked with computer will understand me -- this is addiction. So please give me an advice : are there any ways to mix nursing and computer programming experience.

Thanks in advance.

Thanks guys for your information.

And really painfull question - what is about demand for the specialists in this area?

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Jascraft - what made you decide to get the LPN in the first place? What type of computer background do you have? Do you have any programming experience. People in the healthcare informatics area come from two directions. They are either clinicians with a speciality in informatics or they are technical people who happen to be clinicians. Almost all of the people in nursing informatics are nurses with a speciality (experience and/or education) in nursing informatics. Very few have technical degrees, but many of they have BSN (RN) or higher. This is understandable because they come into this field as clinicians that have assimulated informatics knowledge. The main focus is they are clinicians. Kathleen is right in saying that you need nursing experience to take on their roles. Informatic nurses work for hospitals to implement vendor systems in their organization, working, some, as analysts. Those working for vendors are often in marketing, learning products, or support. Check out the web page from http://www.amia.org in the nursing informatics group for job descriptions and informatics links. But if you are more interested in the technical, then you are coming from the other direction and you could get a technical job working in the hospital IT department or for a vendor. It would depend on your technical experience. Check out http://www.himss.org and their job bank for the type of positions where the technical takes on a greater focus. There is a lot of information out there, and definitely you can combine the two. Good Luck

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Thanks a lot for this information.

Talking about LPN - I have had some experience in caregiving after my ariving to this contry so I new what to expect and I liked that. After computer programming crashed I decided to change an occupation. Talking about my computer experience Mainly I am Oracle/SQL server developer. PLus some experience in web/graphic design. I've been a long time with computers and have classic computer education (Master's in computer science and applyed mathematics).

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The health care informatics field depends heavily on databases such as SQL server and oracle. I guess the main question is whether you want to focus on the nursing or focus on the computer science. Informatic nurses that work in hospitals and for vendors usually don't do programming, but they do use their health care knowledge, their communication skills,and their project management skills to bring information systems to a reality. Clinical practice is a must before you do this. If you want to be more technical such as a DBA, programmer, or write stored procedures/funcions, then clinical experience is less important. Like others suggest, check out the web pages, try to attend a few organizational meetings, check our the local hospital web pages for jobs in the IT departments. Learn what you can and decide what direction makes best sense for you. Finish your LPN in the meantime and get some nursing experience.

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jascraft ~

speaking as a nurse who learned 'the technical stuff', aside from getting some clinical experience, most of the nurses i know that have successfully combined the two fields have another, very important resource: networks (no, not computer networks!).

they have friends and acquaintances that work in and around the field. these nurses have put out the call that they're qualified and interested in an informatics position.

my best advice: go to meetings, join listservs, attend classes, meet people!

good luck! :balloons:

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Hi,

I have a nursing degree; worked as a medical surgical nurse; went back to school got a computer science degree; out of school i interviewed for technical jobs; i landed one, and i kept on working as an RN prn. Now, i finally landed a job that is it/healthcare, and combines my experience. Even with my experience is funny how i had a hard time landing the job because they want people with experience implementing systems in the hospital, and I don't have that experience specifically; however, when the hospital that i work in found out that i was looking to work for one of those it/healthcare companies, they told me to apply to their information systems unit; yet, when i went to their unit telling them that i had experience in IT and i was a nurse on the floor, they weren't interested. Now i get the pleasure to turn them down!!! :)

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Specializes in Informatics, Education, and Oncology.

Congrats on the new position Perseus,

Your scenario is not unusual. Its hard to get your foot in the door if you dont have proven IS/implementation experience. I said "hard" but not impossible. Sounds like the other place was not willing to invest the time it would take to mentor you as you made the transition. Thats not unusual as many organizations want an informaticist who has a proven track record and can (independently and with minimal direction) hit the ground running with a new project. Good Luck. Are you going to HIMSS http://conference.himss.org/ASP/index.asp

or attending the Nursing Informatics symposium?

http://conference.himss.org/ASP/education_nursing.asp

Look me up if you are.

Hi,

I have a nursing degree; worked as a medical surgical nurse; went back to school got a computer science degree; out of school i interviewed for technical jobs; i landed one, and i kept on working as an RN prn. Now, i finally landed a job that is it/healthcare, and combines my experience. Even with my experience is funny how i had a hard time landing the job because they want people with experience implementing systems in the hospital, and I don't have that experience specifically; however, when the hospital that i work in found out that i was looking to work for one of those it/healthcare companies, they told me to apply to their information systems unit; yet, when i went to their unit telling them that i had experience in IT and i was a nurse on the floor, they weren't interested. Now i get the pleasure to turn them down!!! :)

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Congratulations perseus. As a nurse with a CS degree, I know where you are coming from. I actual had an IT head hunter who knew I was a nurse, asking me if I could do programming. This with the CS degree staring them in the face on my resume. Sometimes it is hard to fight the assumptions.

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But How and what am I suppouse to do?

Look for a career in Nursing Informatics.

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I'm new on this nursing informatics arena so I didn't know about the HIMSS events. Now I do. Perhaps for the next event i might try to attend but not sure how my new company handles these type of events. I don't start my new job until a few weeks from now. thanks for all the best wishes!

Congrats on the new position Perseus,

Your scenario is not unusual. Its hard to get your foot in the door if you dont have proven IS/implementation experience. I said "hard" but not impossible. Sounds like the other place was not willing to invest the time it would take to mentor you as you made the transition. Thats not unusual as many organizations want an informaticist who has a proven track record and can (independently and with minimal direction) hit the ground running with a new project. Good Luck. Are you going to HIMSS http://conference.himss.org/ASP/index.asp

or attending the Nursing Informatics symposium?

http://conference.himss.org/ASP/education_nursing.asp

Look me up if you are.

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Specializes in Global Health Informatics, MNCH.

I also have a CS degree and am going into nursing (FNP with NI subspecialty). There are also great nursing informatics jobs outside the hospital setting. Currently, I am working at an MCO where I develop their clinical auditing tools for HEDIS and other regulated audits. I think the opportunties will only expand as the the health care industry adopts more IT technology.

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Specializes in Junior Year of BSN.

You can only be NI with a CS degree or any computer degree? What about a Computer Information Systems degree? I was originally majoring in Health Information Management but changed it to CIS. Will that still apply towards NI? Also, what is the usual median salary of a NI RN?:behindpc:

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