ER Nurse to NI Pathway?

Specialties Informatics

Published

Hey,

I'm an RN/BSN with about 4 years ED experience looking to work towards transitioning into Informatics and want to learn the best way to do so. I currently have no IT experience/education but am very comfortable and competent with computers and tech.

I'm on my hospital's informatics council, but haven't gotten to participate due to my work schedule, but will make this a priority in the upcoming future.

As far as education, I gather that experience > an MSN. When I looked at my nursing school's website, they offer a 2 semester "Healthcare Informatics Certification" - is there any value to this?

So other than the council, and possibly some education, what else should I be doing? What is a day to day NI job like? Any other information would be super helpful too. Thank you.

Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.

I looking at the curriculum you linked, I almost think you might as well do an MSN if you are going to do all those courses. I would compare that to the NI MSN offered by the school and see how much more there is to the full degree. I am sure there would be some core MSN courses as well as a capstone for NI, but yeah.

I would start by going to your council meetings and seeing what sorts of NI jobs get posted in your area. There really isn't a sure ticket into getting into the NI field - sometimes it just requires the right timing and some enthusiasm for the role. Good luck!

Sorry I didn't clarify. You're meant to choose 4 of those courses for a total of 12 credit hours. So my next question would be which 4 courses would be the most beneficial.

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