Family practice RN

Trauma Columnist · Nov 3, 2015

Do you work in a clinic? Are you wanting to go back to the hospital?

JerseyGirl2010 · Nov 9, 2015

Well, 2 out of 5 days I do house calls with the doctor, but I don't usually go into the house with him because most of his patients have tight space in their houses. I sit in the car and help him chart/document. The other 3 days I am between two offices, again basically following the doctor, seeing his patients with him and helping him chart and document (not a whole lot of clinical stuff), but I don't mind it as my first hospital experience as an RN scared me out of that setting. Can't say whole-heartedly that I would want to go back to that environment, but I am starting to get really tired of our office politics and the pettiness that comes along with that. I feel like I am stagnating by staying there and not gaining valuable experience. I was thinking of Nursing Informatics as I feel I have had a good amount of experience helping this doctor transition from paper to EMR the passed 6 months (A big part of why I was hired for this practice). Going back to the office politics for a moment--Our office was bought out by a larger corporation (well before I was hired) which owns several hospitals and practices in the area and I find that I have to be a diplomat between the doctor and the mid-level management mainly because the doctor doesn't trust/like them (seemingly only trusts me) and I feel I have to make him AND corporate happy all at the same time. For example, prescriptions. At some point during transitioning to EMR I'm sure corporate mentioned to us that the doctor would have to comply with e-prescriptions but due to many reasons we haven't been doing it. Sometimes its because the system simply doesn't allow us and sometimes its that the doctor refuses because he feels that EMR is too time-consuming to begin with. The other day, because I was reminded that e-prescriptions needed to be done the proper way (i.e. through our EMR) the doc had a bit of a fit about it. This is when I feel like I am stuck between a rock and a hard place. He has to comply otherwise it will fall on me as well, plus part of me thinks it may serve as best practice for documentation purposes (this is still yet to be proven to me lol). Anyway, I think I'm venting more than explaining. How does one get into something less clinical and more technical or "behind the scenes" so to speak? Could this bit of experience set me up for Nursing Informatics?