I don't know what to do

Does your current facility use an EHR? Start by volunteering to be a super-user. Learn how to write care plans that are missing, find out whoever is in charge of your system and see if you can shadow. I am in my second semester an I am already working with the SIM lab (I work at a teaching hospital) to help them teach the ABSN students how to chart in the room while assessing. I am meeting all the right people. I would not give up

I can totally understand your concern with a bunch of debt hanging over your head. And you don't need to have experience in informatics to lead you to want to pursue your dream, if that is what you want to do. My friend had been a psych nurse at the hospital for 5 or so years and decided she hated the "people" aspect of nursing, very likely because she was so burnt out from the constant drama that encircles that field. She openly admitted it, that was her SOLE reason for pursuing informatics, but she knew that is what she wanted to do and so she started to become more involved in the EHR side of her work, once you are already working somewhere it is usually easier to transition into a new role in the same facility if that sparks your interest. So she became a super-user when they were implementing their new EHR system. Aside from that she had no other informatics experience, she decided to pursue a 1.5 year post bachelors certificate in Informatics and is now working at a top hospital in the area in her dream job. Perhaps you should look for other, shorter programs that can offer you the degree/post-bachelors/masters certificate you need and try to gain whatever experience you can within your current hospital, you really don't need a DNP. Maybe some of the courses you have taken will also be counted for credits to a new program. I'd keep searching!

In many places, the health informatics speciality has had a saturated market for the past decade, employees are often hired on contract and are disposable, this makes it easy for employer's to hire applicants with experience.

What led you to choose Informatics in the first place? If you didn't have some experience in it already, what made you think you should borrow all that money to get an advanced degree in it? That's where you made your mistake. Like many nurses going to grad school today, they read about something that sounds interesting and then jump to borrowing money to get a degree in it without first exploring the field enough to know whether or not it is a good fit for them.

I recommend you take a break from school and figure out what career path will be right for you -- not only by reading about different specialties, but by talking to people in those fields to find out the details of the job market and by doing some work in those fields to see if you like it. That work will also give you some experience for your resume when you graduate. Then and only then should you invest in a graduate education.

If that sounds unreasonable for you ... perhaps someone on your faculty (or even a classmate) can help you find a low-level job in a related field to help you get your foot in the door. For example, being a research assistant for a faculty member doing research in informatics or something.

Yes I know I messed up. I am interested in informatics, to be honest, because becoming a CRNA or NP is undesirable. NP programs are a joke mostly, and to become a CRNA would take longer, involving getting experience in the ICU. I cannot get past some of the things that take place in the ICU, such as prolonging someone's life in a painful way. Also, to be honest, I have even less of a desire to work with people, more so than when I first started as a nurse. I've had a vague interest in workflow, EHRs and anything in that vein since before I became a nurse and that is also where the interest in informatics stems from.

What I am finding is now that the EHR has settled into day to day workflow in the hospital, there is less of a need for informatics professionals. Informatics is presented as a field where there is a need for people to bridge the gap between clinicians and IT professions. It's still true, but organizations don't seem to think so. They have no interest in seeing the value of informaticians. In fact, informatics has actually hurt nursing more than anything in the past 10 years. I used to think that notion was nonsense, and would silently roll my eyes at older nurses who complain about using the computer. I was wrong.

Yeah, I think I will take a leave of absence. I will try to pursue an entry level informatics position such as a clinical analyst or CDS position, even if it means moving to another city. I feel like such an idiot, since I've been conned twice. First about nursing, and second about informatics. Only this time, I will back away before I get too deep.