Is there a shortage or glut of nurses in informatics?

Specialties Informatics

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I really don't know what or who to believe. I just heard an acquaintance say that there is a glut of IT workers (this includes the growing community of health IT workers), yet I thought I read somewhere that there will be a shortage of informatic nurses. Are the two related? Is the shortage related to the experienced informatic nurses? Knowing that there is a glut of informatics nurses may not stop me from pursuing a job in this area, but it will give me an idea of what I'm truly up against. Opinions and insights would be appreciated.

Hi everyone,

I wanted to know in which clinical area would you recommend to get experience to specialize in nursing informatics

I don't think a clinical area matters, unless you know of a specific job that requires you to be skilled in a certain area, and your goal is to get that specific job.

As for myself, I worked all areas of medical surgical units, and the job I got was implementing an operating room application; I had zero experience in that area, except for maybe understanding some of the post op flow, but ironically enough I got turned down for all the jobs that involved applications in the regular floors that I was experienced on.

Of course, there were times when i was on a job search and it would say something like, labor and delivery experience preferred, or emergency department clinical experience required, etc, but not all jobs required specific clinical experience. What you will see the most though is, clinical experience preferred or clinical experience or hospital workflow understanding a plus....

Hence, I would choose to work in a clinical area that you're interested in, and not worry too much about selecting the best clinical experience for informatics.

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Hi everyone,

I wanted to know in which clinical area would you recommend to get experience to specialize in nursing informatics

As Perseus said, clinical experience, period.

Mine was mostly LTC, simply because, as an LPN, that's what was most easily available.

:)

As an LPN, if you aren't in a rural area you might have to get in sideways - offer to become a super-user, learn the system inside-out and see if you can get in that way.

Good luck.

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Right now in my facility we only have an IT director. Not a nurse.

However, he is rarely there and I have become the 'unofficial' superuser.

I don't technically have super user access but that's not really a problem. I pretty much handle every issue that comes up that isn't so big that I refuse to touch it (don't want to get in trouble :) ).

So the IT experience is not really necessary compared to the clinical experience then?

I was wanting to go ICU or Trauma immediately after school. I guess that can still be a go.

The BSN is most likely NOT going to happen. I am already in an ADN program. I would be willing to do an RN-MSN program though. That would give me plenty of years to get out of nurse newbieness. I'll have to look into it. Are there ADN - BSN programs??? I'd rather not take an initial 4 year program because I really want (and need) to hit the floor sooner than later.

ETA: Oh... I'm silly. There's one right there on the Excelsior site.

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So the IT experience is not really necessary compared to the clinical experience then?

Stan, my boss would have been thrilled to take a nurse from the floor who had an interest and even a smidgeon of knowledge aout systems and train.

If you could get a reference from your IT director that would be more than enough for an entry level spot in a lot of places, particularly smaller facilities without a lot of budget but a need to comply with various regulations in the works. Seriously.

You're wicked smart. That combined with a license is the most important start. Excelsior is really great about letting you CLEP, distance, whatever to fulfill gen eds. They are making me take ONE non-core class for this.

There are some sciences I would love to take, but I will after my degree is conferred instead of do pre-reqs to get into a different program. I have over 200 undergrad credits. I'm done. I want and need a bachelor's, and one of the nice things about the Excelsior program is that I will substitute grad level courses for the undergrad at the undergrad tuition, AND I can opt out of the MSN and complete the BSN when those requirements are complete with one additional course, I believe.

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And Stan, there are many reputable RN-BSN programs on-line, many through your local state (or district) university.

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Right now in my facility we only have an IT director. Not a nurse.

However, he is rarely there and I have become the 'unofficial' superuser.

I don't technically have super user access but that's not really a problem. I pretty much handle every issue that comes up that isn't so big that I refuse to touch it (don't want to get in trouble :) ).

So the IT experience is not really necessary compared to the clinical experience then?

.

I would venture to answer your question with, yea IT experience is not really necessary, but it doesn't hurt to have it, and it really depends on the specific job you're going for; if you want to do programming for an application used clinically, then of course, you will be required to have IT experience more so than clinical experience. But there are other jobs out there that don't require much IT experience.

However, in the last year or so, I have seen a greater number of candidates that have better credentials than I saw in 2005, and 2006 and by that I mean that they have an RN degree along with some other IT experience; with that said, becoming a superuser gives you invaluable credentials towards getting a job in the informatics field.

Now, as a consultant, I have gone to many hospitals and I've met the IT/informatics staff, and many times the nurses that volunteered to be superusers got chosen to be put in the IT team; some hated it and quit that role, and others simply loved it and stayed in the team. As they had no IT experience, many had to take some intro database course, or programming course to be able to do their jobs better. Others didn't have much to do with programming so they learned on the fly....

Just 3 months ago we had a nursing assistant who is always doing more than what she has time for, and as nobody wanted to volunteer to simply enter data in the system, she volunteered to do it; 2 months later and now she has been asked to join the IT team doing simple build and troubleshooting tasks. Little does she know that she has a bright future ahead now and all her IT experience prior to the IT job, was excel and photoshop. :)

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Just 3 months ago we had a nursing assistant who is always doing more than what she has time for, and as nobody wanted to volunteer to simply enter data in the system, she volunteered to do it; 2 months later and now she has been asked to join the IT team doing simple build and troubleshooting tasks. Little does she know that she has a bright future ahead now and all her IT experience prior to the IT job, was excel and photoshop. :)

:)

Good for her, and your team!

My boss would have been thrilled to find a bright person in-house who was interested in this stuff. Lucky me, she didn't.

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and all her IT experience prior to the IT job, was excel and photoshop. :)

Photoshop actually has a pretty steep learning curve...

LOL

Basic excel usage is one thing but I have seen some tricked out spreadsheets that push VBA to the max. HEHEHEH.

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Photoshop actually has a pretty steep learning curve...

LOL

Basic excel usage is one thing but I have seen some tricked out spreadsheets that push VBA to the max. HEHEHEH.

You're right! I quit photoshop when our school gave us a free sample of paint shop pro...photoshop was too much too handle for me! :coollook:

And with excel I stick to basic copy, paste, the function of adding, and some sorting :chuckle ...so yea, excel can be a beast of a monster to master, especially when i see those brave souls extracting data from databases, etc. But knowing excel goes a long way in the it world; it has saved my life tons of times...excel and access combined! :D

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Specializes in Med/Surg <1; Epic Certified <1.
Come to St. Louis. Plenty of opportunities here for informatics.

Living in STL, I'd love to know where those jobs are and how one goes about finding them?!?! I have an IT background, but not so much actual hospital experience yet!!

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Living in STL, I'd love to know where those jobs are and how one goes about finding them?!?! I have an IT background, but not so much actual hospital experience yet!!

Pixie, learn your system inside out and befriend someone in the IT dep't. Try to get in as a super-user, someone who trains other users, helps with implementations, etc.

I am always on-line looking at the job postings for the facilities (limited as they are) in my commutable area.

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Specializes in Everything except surgery.

To get into the Healthcare IT field, you do NOT need clinical experience, IF you have IT experirence or you were a superuser with an emr application. In fact you don't even need to be a nurse. It does help if you have some healthcare experience, whether it is in a doctor's office, SNF, or acute care. Most positions want you to have acute care or office experience.

There is at this time NO glut in healthcare IT! However, there is a HUGE need for healthcare IT and many facilities are looking for those who want to get into IT, and are willing to train you. I see numerous ads for anyone with a healthcare background! This means those who do billing in a healthcare setting also.

Search online ads, as there are many out there and you will find what you are looking for. And they are not just in rural areas, but in big cities too! There are opportunities from the northeast to southeast to the southwest, and northwestm, not to mention opportunities overseas.

The biggest asset is a having a degree in heathcare, business, or IT. The second is having a clinical background and being pc savy. Lots of choices out there, just take time and look for exactly what you feel would suit you best.

Talk to an IT recruiter, who can help you find out what is required for the position you might be interested in. Then go after what you want!

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