Advice needed on job choices

[jlao]

Hello everyone,

I am stuck currently between two job offers that I am trying to figure out that is best for NI. Some background on me is that I am an RN from NJ, none BSN, currently in school to bridge to MSN in NI. I worked 3 years in long term care, and currently 1.5 to 2 years in subacute care. I recently had just received a job offer at a hospital for a med surg floor for a floor nurse. I figure getting acute care experience would be needed. Just as I put in my 3 weeks notice for the subacute facility they offered me a job rolling out the EMARs to their other facilities, as well as other types of jobs once everything is in motion. They said they wanted an RN/IT. The company itself that offered the RN/IT position, I know I wouldn't look to stay in forever because of the fact that the benefits are horrible/next to none and pay is not that great. My thinking is that it is an opportunity to get some experience in to work with a team on projects. I'm trying to think what would be the best move in advancing in NI. Go to the hospital for acute care experience and try to make my way up to an NI position, or take the new position as an RN/IT at the subacute for the experience knowing I would most likely not stay because of the benefits/pay.

[lhflanurseNP, APRN]

If you want to get into NI, I would opt for the position that will lend itself to helping you gain experience. I did NI work and loved the challenge, but missed patient contact. I did it just before schools started offering programs and still had job offers coming in 2-3 years AFTER I left and started back to school for my BSN then NP school.

[jlao]

Thanks for the reply! I would like to get an NI job at a hospital or a company. The subacute facility is just basically starting up their IT team so I think they are still trying to comprise and sort out what is need to form their team. The company is not big and like previous stated, the pay and benefits is not great. I would be doing it more so for the experience. I am trying to weigh out if acute floor nurse experience is better than RN-IT experience in a subacute facilities when looking for an NI position in a hospital or company.

[ikarus01]

Believe it or not, in today's market for candidates with no experience in informatics, this is a no brainer decision: take the RN/IT job, like yesterday! No joke here. I get emails from people who say they can't find jobs because they have no experience, and they already have their master's in informatics. You're being given an opportunity that many out there would kill for! You have no idea what a shame it would be if you decline the IT position. So yea, get the experience, get a better paid job later. But you want that experience, which is getting extremely competitive to get right now.

And your question about which is better---acute floor nurse experience or RN-IT experience----given the fact that you already worked as a nurse for so many years, the IT experience would be much better. In fact, the acute floor nurse experience given your background already, irrelevant for a vendor, maybe of some significance if you're being hired by an anal retentive informatics manager, and i wouldn't like to work for one of those!

[jlao]

Thanks for the response ikarus, that kind of helps with decision making process. I'm curious on what you do now and your background since you mentioned people where emailing you about not being able to find jobs with their masters.

[ikarus01]

Thanks for the response ikarus, that kind of helps with decision making process. I'm curious on what you do now and your background since you mentioned people where emailing you about not being able to find jobs with their masters.

Started as an RN, worked for around 8 years, then got my computer science degree, then worked for an IT company, and then switched over to a healthcare IT vendor. Now, I do consulting.

A while back I created a blog with basic information about informatics so I get emails sent there. And the people who couldn't find jobs are those who had zero experience in the field. They had never been super users, or done any other type of "volunteering" job in informatics while working as a nurse.

As I've worked with many hospitals, I've seen that maybe in the past year (haven't really kept track, just my impression), hospitals get many resumes for informatics jobs and many candidates have a master's degree, but no experience; and obviously, you get those with a master's who have been super users or have done something else related to informatics, and hospitals choose these candidates for an interview over those with zero experience, which makes total sense. That's why I tell people, before you start a master's, better get some type of experience in the field as it is getting very competitive out there. Just my observation, anyway.

[jlao]

Ikarus, thanks so much for the response from before. Just an update, I was able to do both jobs. I am doing the hospital part time and RN/IT job per diem as of now. That way I can get my acute care and informatics experience in together. I put in a good amount of time to the per diem that it might as well be considered part time even though it is two days a week. I'm curious on how long should I wait to try and transition into a better NI job. I would really like to work for a vendor, but really do not know how to go about doing so. I am set to finish my masters in winter/fall 2016.