I am sick of ICU nursing and want a change.

Specialties Informatics

Published

I am a current night shift MSICU RN with 1 year of experience, and all I have to say is I am sick of it. I went this route because I planned to do CRNA or NP, but I feel I will hate doing both of those as well I have a 3.6GPA, and have plenty of contacts and feel I could get in to a program if I wanted to go to a APN route.

I think nursing informatics is the way to go for me. The reason I say this is because I am a huge computer guy, I do computer repairs as a side job and have done this since high school I am very good at software, hardware, and working with programs. I also like to teach, I tutored during college and loved it. I feel that I would much rather work with the computerized part of nursing.

So my questions are:

1.Where do I start with informatics?

2.Will my tech skills benefit me?

3.What type of job positions would be right for my skill set?

I am planning about getting out of ICU soon. I think I will apply to CRNA and NP schools, but I would hate to go through all that education and money only to find I hate that job as well.

So please if you have any experience in informatics let me know what you think!

Thank you!

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Specializes in informatics for 10 years.

hello anarchy! (funny nick) :cool:

Quick answer to your questions:

1. Are you currently using an EMR in your unit? Because the first place to start is in your own unit, with the software you're currently using. Get involved with implementations/upgrades, help out training the new nurses on the software, etc. And obviously, applied to vendor jobs. Many of them require no experience and are willing to train you.

2. If by tech skills you mean software skills, sure, skills help, but you should also be aware that I've worked with many nurses in the informatics fields who had no software skills prior to getting the job. In short, you seem to have the same background I had before I went into the field so you should be fine.

3. I would say you would enjoy the 'analysts' position. Typically these are the people who know the software and they configuring it, implement it, training others to use it, troubleshoot problems, etc.

And just fyi, I also started as a nurse, but on the side I used to do my own computer builds, repairs, helped others with their pcs, software issues, etc, and once I got sick of nursing, I decided to get a computer science degree. At the time I didn't know about informatics and I could have most likely gotten a job without spending the extra money in the CS degree, but I was so sick of the field my plan was to completely get out of it.

Browse through the posts in the forum as your question(s) have been asked and answered multiple times.

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Specializes in Oncology Home Care.

I agree to what was said above by ikarus7401 and let me add this, don't waste your money and time going back to school to become CRNA or NP if that's not what you are interested in. Nursing Informatics is in its infancy stage and would not be hard for you to get into without much more experience. Here's some job titles you may want to look for -

Clinical Analyst

Project Manager

RN – Information Systems

Nurse Specialist Informatics

Nurse Clinical Consultant

Systems Analyst

Implementation Specialist

Also the HIMSS offers courses for nurses here HIMSS | Nursing Informatics | Professional Education | Salary Guide

Hope this helps.

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1.I am using Meckesson in my unit now. I feel like I know the software very well.

2.I need to brush up on excel but my other programs I am very talented at. I love to explore and learn software.

3.The analysts spots do sound nice.

I agree with you bottom statement. Of just quitting nursing an starting over fresh, but it seems like such a waste of previous education.

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What's your advice in my situation.. Here in the philippines employment is hard so i took sa hospital training some paid some for free and in that 4months od training I've realized that nursing is not for me. I hated it got tired of it. I'm planning to take information technology if my parents would allow me will that be enough to enter an entry level job?

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Specializes in informatics for 10 years.
What's your advice in my situation.. Here in the philippines employment is hard so i took sa hospital training some paid some for free and in that 4months od training I've realized that nursing is not for me. I hated it got tired of it. I'm planning to take information technology if my parents would allow me will that be enough to enter an entry level job?

I personally don't know how things are done in your country, but here for sure you need clinical experience if you want to do nursing informatics, specially if you're looking to work in a hospital. Most places like to hire nurses with at least a year of nursing clinical experience, if not more.

Of course, you can always apply for a vendor, and those many times hire people without clinical experience, but I have no idea what options of vendors you have in your country. Might be easier to look for informatics nurses in your country and see what they recommend for you.

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Im planning to take information technology then apply for a job related to this field then may 2years or more in the tech world then im planning to go abroad to venture on health informatics there.. I've research about nursing informatics here in our country but its far from development and I dont think the philippines would be using emr's as early as the US.. So hard and frustrating to stay here unemployed and underpaid..:)

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