Long Term Outlook

I had a career in Information Technology long before entering nursing. I have a MS in Nursing Education and I recently applied for a job as a manager of clinical informatics. I didn't get the job but I was among the last two finalists. One thing they told me is I have a unique combination of experience that is hard to find (nursing and information technology). I had asked about the concern that this job could go away. The answer was... there are so few people with this talent that there should be no risk of the field/position going away.

With that said, I was somewhat relieved to not get the job as I love hospice nursing and that is where I feel fulfilled. Ask yourself if you will miss the nursing aspect of your job. Will you get to do it as well? If not in your new role in your hospital could you pick up a shift here and there in the OR to keep current? Doing work in information technology can be frustrating and can be rewarding but not like nursing. Also, OR nurses are in high demand. What if the hospital where you work has financial difficulties and has to eliminate jobs. They won't eliminate OR jobs because of the shortage of OR nurses and the OR is a revenue producing center for the hospital. They might eliminate the informatics job. I don't know this but throwing it out there.

Don't let your nursing skills lapse.

I left the ICU for informatics a couple years ago and it's been a wonderful move. It's an opportunity that won't come around very often to learn skills that a lot of other people out there covet. The way I see it, very few people have the body, let alone the patients to be a clinical nurse for a whole career so it's worth considering these moves sooner rather than later. Worst case scenario you don't like it or you're downsized and you go back to the OR.

Back when i started in 2003 my nursing friends told me that that computer jobs are temporary (informatics job) and that i should be wary about going into the field as my job would probably end up in India. This was back when IT jobs were being shipped overseas (and they still are, but not as bad as in the late 90's early 2000's).

9 years later and every week, if not almost every day, i get emails from recruiters asking me if I'm available for different positions throughout the country.

Thus, I think the long term likelihood of sustaining your employment in the field look pretty good, unless of course you decide that you hate your job and you hate the field, but that would be your personal option.

Kind of like going into a branch of nursing you don't like and asking, what are my chances of sustaining employment in the next so many years? Well, not good if you don't like your job.

But if you like the field, plenty of opportunities out there. Just because a project is implemented, doesn't mean it stops. There is support, upgrades, new user requests, and the cycle repeats and repeats. Technology and user requirements are always evolving so implementing one project doesn't mean your job will come to an end.