Limited EHR program experience

rninformatics, DNP, RN · Jul 6, 2012

My questions would be:

Other than as an end user do you have any other experience and with which type of clinical applications/software/programs? Specific software/vendor names please.

Think you would increase your chances of securing an entry level role depending on how much super user experience you have had and how well you can transition your nursing skills to what is needed to practice as an informatics nurse.

Have you participating in any of the building, testing go live or other super user activites at your facility? Have you been a member of any of the implementation, testing, training or post go live optimization teams?

There are many of us who got are start without prior experience and learned on the job.

Today's environment is very competitive and demanding and many hiring managers want folks with experience who can hit the ground running - that is not saying there are not entry level positions out there, as there are.

Strongly suggest you do your due dilligence, use this forum as a one tool to learn more about the speciality, what skills are required and what roles are available.

Good Luck

Hey everyone!
I've looked in this forum for answers to this specific set of questions, but I didn't seem to find any. Forgive me if I'm repeating.
I am an ICU nurse who was a superuser during my facilities recent implementation of part of a new EHR. I am currently in the midst of gently "stalking" my facility's informatics nurses for shadowing opportunities. I am interested in pursuing informatics as a career beyond beside nursing. Ideally I would like to transition to a position in my hospital ( seeing as I would be familiar with the programs used).
My issue is that if I indeed pursue informatics but am unable attain a position at my current hospital, how will my limited EHR programs experience affect hiring capability. I have only used 2; the old one my hospital used that is pretty much extinct in my area/city and our new program that as far as I know our hospital system is the only one that uses it in my region.
Looking outside my hospital and it's EHR and having no I informatics experience, would I really have a chance? Have any of you started an informatics position with a EHR you had no experience in?
Any input would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks

ThanksForAllTheFish! · Jul 7, 2012

Oh trust me, I have been lurking in this forum for sometime now :)My only experience is as an end user for our old program, Meditech (a pretty old version) and our new EHR, Allscripts' Eclipsys. I was a superuser when we went live with the first parts of Eclipsys and still am a kinda go-to person for staff questions. There haven't been any opportunities for other super user activities, ie we don't have any superuser council meetings. On a more positive note, I have finally arranged a day to follow an informatics nurse at my hospital (who worked on my unit when I first started). Thanks for replying!

ThanksForAllTheFish! · Jul 7, 2012

Sorry for the one paragraph. It keeps unformatting my paragraphs on the device I'm using.

Mijourney · Jul 7, 2012

Another option you may consider while it is still relatively free and while you're still lurking at your place of employment is to pursue a HIT-PRO certification by taking course work through one of the online HITECH school programs. Check out this link to see what type of training opportunities may be out there for you. HealthIT.hhs.gov: Home

In the future, there should be more opportunities in the hospital and beyond for HIT skilled clinicians to become involved in EHR and workflow implementation.

ThanksForAllTheFish! · Jul 16, 2012

Thanks for the info! :)

TheGuestNurse · Jul 23, 2012

Are you very computer literate outside of the hospital EMR you currently use?

ThanksForAllTheFish! · Jul 24, 2012

Before I became a nurse I was a research assistant in an animal behavior lab. I used a variety of animal tracking/data collecting programs. I used excel 2000 ALOT, was quite the wiz with formatting and data entry.. Helped my boss with some PowerPoint 2000 presentations. However, since becoming a nurse I haven't used those programs nearly as much, especially the newer versions. As for the animal tracking programs I always thought our lab basically beta tested the program and hardware for two different companies with the amount of time we were in contact with the development team and the debugged versions they would send us, lol.

kishykat · Jul 24, 2012

Do you know if this program is still going on Mijourney? Everything I looked at looks like the programs are over for now, you can still take the certification exam, but it looked like all the schools were done doing their programs.

belizish · Jul 26, 2012

Are you on the West Coast? 1. What were your super user tasks/role? 2. Were you a super user only for go-live or is it an on-going role?3. Why type of implementation were you supporting?

Mijourney · Jul 27, 2012

Hi kishykat. I believe that if you go to the site I posted, you will find the curriculum for the program. I think it is free to the public. You probably can study from that and perhaps challenge and pass the HIT Pro exam.

ThanksForAllTheFish! · Jul 29, 2012

Are you on the West Coast? 1. What were your super user tasks/role? 2. Were you a super user only for go-live or is it an on-going role?3. Why type of implementation were you supporting?

Belizish - nah, I'm not on the west coast, would be nice for vacation right about now though. :)

I was merely a Go Live superuser. Not sure what made me "super". Of course I am still considered a go to person and try to be the person who contacts informatics or help desk on behalf of the staff depending on the issue/concern. We were implementing an entirely new EHR. This first act included clinical documention for nursing including EMAR, pharmacy, order entry, and a new lab system. It was a rough Go Live but we made it. Still working out some kinks. The only thing not included was physician order entry and documention - that's coming up real soon.