How Should I (A Regular Joe) Prepare for Nursing Informatics?

You'd be smart to take some action that will begin to rack up some relevant experience. This will make all the difference when it comes to actually landing an NI job. Talk to your supervisor to find out if there are any 'data' processes or projects you can help with. This could involve pulling routine operational reports, extracting data for quality analysis, developing a database for unit records, etc... chances are s/he will be grateful for the help. If your organization uses an EMR, see if you can get training to become a superuser for your unit. Become very proficient in all MS Office applications. If your organization has department-specific Intranet sites, volunteer to work on it.

NIs in my organization are the link between IT & clinical staff. They conduct EMR training for new hires, participate in just about every committee so that they can ensure that the committee's work (changes in documentation, new protocols, etc) are integrated into the EMR. They also develop & implement projects to make any changes in clinical information systems.

Good luck on your career change.

What can you do NOW?

Are you working in a hospital that has an EMR? If so, I always say, get involved in informatics NOW.

And what I mean by that is that if your hospital is doing an upgrade for example and they need superusers, volunteer for that. If your informatics department holds user meetings with different departments that they support, volunteer and participate in those.

Also, network with the informatics department in your hospital. See if they have any needs you can help with. Sometimes hospitals I work with need to test some functionalities in specific applications and they want a nurse to test it out, but obviously not many nurses want to do it as they don't have the time to mes with that.

That's why if I were in your shoes, I would try to network with an analyst at your hospital who is involved with the EMR in your unit. You could learn some things from them about help they need, etc.

Obviously, some analysts are not as helpful, but doesn't hurt to try to mingle with them.

But as far as being fully ready, I was working in IT and was also a nurse, and I wasn't fully ready for my first job in informatics, mainly because a lot of the applications out there are proprietary. In other words, you can't go out there and teach yourself epic or cerner or whatever other application a hospital might use. You will need to be trained once you get hired.

However, one useful skill to have is database skills. I would recommend that on your spare time, you learn about databases. If you're not fully motivated to learn about databases on your own, you can always take a community college course on it. Knowing a bit of Access and excel might be valuable down the road as many analysts deal with data gathering, data manipulation, etc. Also, databases expose you to a bit of boolean logic which also comes in handy in the informatics world.

Thank you for the replies. So a little extra background info on me: I have used MS Office quite a bit, including Excel. I learned to use Excel in undergraduate biology because our instructor specifically wanted us to use it for data entry...but I also use it for personal use (recording personal data on miles ran, swam, biked, pounds lifted at the gym, my financial budget month to month-I know I'm a nerd)

As far as EMR goes, ironically enough the first two hospitals I worked at use it, but the freestanding surgery center I transferred to in November (which is a satellite of the main hospital I worked for) does not. We do not use ANY computer charting whatsoever. Not even physician order entry, central supply, pharmacy, or labs. Docs still handwrite orders, nurses chart freehand, medications are kept in a safe instead of an automated med dispensing and hand-counted and handwritten on the narc record, and any labs or special tests are written on carbon copy paper and sent downstairs. I literally felt like I went back in time 15 years when I came over here. I asked my director why there isn't any EMR here, and she said that the 4 years she has been the director she's been pushing hard for it, but is meeting resistance from the physicians and nurses who refuse to use it. The majority of nurses here have been working at this same facility for 15 years, and some have even been here 35 years. I imagine it's similar with the docs. She at least said that we will be putting the policies and procedures up on the intranet sometime this year, and would like me to do it and I agreed. She said they would send me to some sort of training course later to learn how to do it. I also revamped the chart audit tool using Excel for them last night at work when it was slow. So I guess it's a start.

As far as networking with IT goes, I have never met anyone from IT at the surgery center. We don't even have an office for them, our only offices are for administration, pre-op, and billing. Our human resources, education, etc. is all in a different building on a separate campus, and that building overlooks several surgery centers. I'm sure someone from IT in the main hospital has some overwatch on the SC, but I doubt we ever contact them unless a monitor burns out or something. But I will ask my director next week what our IT situation actually is, and if it's possible for me to become a "superuser"

Thanks for the information guys, and if think of anything else be sure and let me know! :-)

I also revamped the chart audit tool using Excel for them last night at work when it was slow. So I guess it's a start.

Indeed it is a start, and this is stuff you can actually put on your resume later on when looking for informatics jobs. Excel is a great skill to have because like i said, many jobs require you to sort/manipulate data so excel along with access are good skills to have.

But if you're looking to go into informatics, maybe time to upgrade to a job that uses an EMR.

Oh and we actually do have computers, it's just that we only use them to print off paper sheets for the chart. We print the paper MAR, paper nursing flow sheets, paper schedule etc. There is no software for computer charting, physician order entry, or medical record keeping on the computers...everything is handwritten on the sheets that are printed off from the computer. But you're right it may be time to start keeping my open for something new, but I would at least like to complete the computer projects that they will let me do here first, so I can have something to put on my resume for my next job