A Computer Science student is interested in becoming a Nursing Informaticist.

wtrang · May 20, 2012

I'm looking into nursing informatics too.

You'd have to:

- Finish most of nursing prerequisite classes.

- Take the TEAS test

- Apply for BSN programs

- Get accepted

- 4 years of nursing school

- Pass NCLEX

- Apply for a nursing informatics program in Graduate school, its about 40 credits

Good luck!

ikarus01 · May 21, 2012

posted twice, see response below.

ikarus01 · May 21, 2012

Hello everybody. Forgive me if there's already a topic about the similar title.
FYI, I'm now a sophomore college student.
I've always wanted to be a physician assistant, but I decided to change my path for personal reasons. Since I've heard a little more about nursing informatics, I've became strongly interested in it. But...the problem is, I am majoring in Computer Science (loving it). Suppose I still want to get my CS degree, what should I do in order to be a nursing informaticist? Majoring in Nursing for another four years?
Any help/tips would be greatly appreciated.

It could be said that nursing informatics falls under the general of umbrella of healthcare informatics, and therefore, you could be working in the informatics field under another 'field.'

Nursing informatics just happens to be specific for those who have a nursing background, but there is also dental/dentistry informatics, medical informatics, biomedical informatics, clinical informatics, and probably some more...

What this means for you is that you could go out and work in informatics, but you don't have to go out and get a nursing degree, unless of course, you want to do that.

As I have said in other posts, vendors specialize in hiring non clinical staff and training them to go out and implement their applications.

Some vendors like Siemens, Cerner, (possibly Epic), offer internships, and thus, it would be a good idea to enquire about doing an internship for vendors; and since you're a student, now is the time to look them up and apply for their internships.

Also, you could look into internships at local hospitals; one of the hospitals I worked at, had a couple of internships in the IT department for college students, although, these might not be as easy to find.

Once you graduate with your computer science degree, one thing you can do is apply for jobs with vendors and hospitals.

Of course, if you want to go to nursing school and do all those requirements, then that's another way to get into nursing informatics, but be aware that if you are not thinking of becoming a nurse, plenty of other ways to work in the informatics field.

I also want to add that I have met some CS students who have actually done EMT work, and even nursing assistant work to make their resumes prettier. Getting a nursing assistant license doesn't take that long and not a bad way to make some extra money while being a college student, and definitely a good way to add some clinical background to your CS degree, and also a good way to network with the IT department at a hospital.

yeng_27 · May 21, 2012

Hello there i am a nursing grad with bsn degree with less than a year of experince in the hospital setting and want to specialize in nursing informatics im planning to take an associate degree in IT would that be a good start?

rninformatics, DNP, RN · May 22, 2012

Greetings Yeng_27,

I would not suggest getting an associate degree in anything if you already have a bachelors degree. I would suggest #1 continuing with your clinical nursing practice as you need that foundational knowledge and experience before you move into ANY spcialty. #2 Before you spend additional money and time in another degree why dont you first learn about the speciality of nursing and clinical informatics and see what exactly it within this speciality you think you want to do. #3 Volunteer at your hospital to be a super user or with some clincial IT project or initiative going on. #4 Join a nursing informatics networking and educational grouup such as AMIA-NIWG, ANIA or HIMSS NI Task force as another way to both learn about the specialty and network with those who are actually practicing within.

Please read the numerous posts under numerous subjects on this forum related to nursing, medical and clinical informatics and utilize this forum as one of the most valuable resources for learning about this speciality from the actual clinical informaticists who currently practice within.

Good Luck!

Hello there i am a nursing grad with bsn degree with less than a year of experince in the hospital setting and want to specialize in nursing informatics im planning to take an associate degree in IT would that be a good start?

mariafh · May 23, 2012

For the CS college student

I am a nurse and a computer scientist working in R&D for an HIT vendor. Just so you are aware, you do not need a nursing degree or a healthcare background to work in healthcare IT. For certain positions, it is preferred/required, but there are many many positions in Healthcare IT that do not require a healthcare background. In the hospital, many of the people that work in the IT department are not clinicians. In the HIT vendor area we have software developers, business analysts, software quality test engineers, support engineers, and learning products members who are not clinicians, although they work very closely with the clinicians on the team and very closely with the customers. As mentioned in the previous posts - if you are interested in the education aspect, then many vendors will train you to do customer implementations/installations. An informatics nurse is first and foremost a nurse. Unless your real passion is to first be a nurse, then an informatics nurse may not make sense. Those in nursing informatics are often required to have clinical nursing experience before taking on NI positions. That means years of doing bedside nursing. Again, nursing needs to be your first and foremost passion, not IT. There are some schools that will give you MS degrees in healthcare IT that are geared towards non-clinicians. Here is a link to one program that provides this, but is only an example, there are others. http://www.healthinformatics.neu.edu/ If you are in CS and love it, then maybe it is healthcare IT doing software development that would be a better fit. Many of the HIT vendors are looking for software developers. Some are also looking for CS student interns for summers which may be a great option for you. Going the nursing route is long and very clinical. The typical informatics nurse, especially in the hospital area, does no software programming (meaning writing C, C#, C++, Java, etc code) and programming is not seen as a strong requirement for the profession, at least no where to the level that a CS professional has.