New RN needing advice

Specialties Informatics

Published

Hi all, so I am looking into continuing education and I am a new RN. I received my associates degree in May 2018 and I have been working at a small home that provides long term care for disabled persons. I know that I want to continue my education and I am not really wanting to just get experience for 5 years before I continue my education, I would like to go back to school now.

The thing I am unsure of however, is that I was debating between going back for my BSN, and then after this doing my NP masters degree, or my other interest was in Nursing Informatics. One of my local accredited colleges offers an RN- MSN (Informatics) without having to get the BSN first. Is this a bad idea? I have heard and read a lot of information saying that you may need to get into your companies informatics area and gain experience as that counts more towards getting a NI position moreso than just the degree.

I am just looking for some guidance as I don't want to choose RN-MSN Informatics and end up having the masters in NI but not being able to get a job in NI. At this point I would also kind of be stuck in that my Masters degree would not allow me to practice in other nursing disciplines.

Any advice?

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Specializes in ED, Informatics, Clinical Analyst.

I did an RN to MSN in Informatics through Excelsior College and was very happy with my degree program. I'm not sure why you think you'd be "stuck" and unable to work in other disciplines because you specialized in informatics. Most MSN programs have the same core curriculum and then additional courses for whatever you are specializing in. If you decided you really wanted to do NP school and got accepted into a program, you'd already have a master's degree and would just need to take the NP specific courses and do clinicals. The same is true for becoming a nurse educator or clinical nurse specialist.

As far as employment is concerned, it depends on a lot of factors like your background, your experience, the job market, and the type of job you want to do. When I graduated, I had worked as an acute care nurse in ED/ICU for 6 years, but the only informatics experience I had was my Capstone and using an EHR as a nurse. When it came down to it, my knowledge of ED workflows was as much a factor in me getting hired as my degree. Some of my coworkers did get a foot in the door by becoming super users and/or trainers, so if you have the opportunity, it's worth looking into.

Saying that being an NP and being an informatics nurse are different is an understatement. First and foremost, I'd think about whether or not you want to provide direct patient care. If you love being at the bedside and spending time with patients, informatics nursing may not be the career path you want to take. If you like working with end-users, collecting and analyzing data, and designing and building workflows you'll love informatics.

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I work in informatics but my MSN is not in informatics. My current employer was more concerned with my nursing knowledge and teaching background than my IT skills. In fact, my job only requires a BSN, not an MSN.

Many jobs will not care what concentration you chose in your MSN. You can still teach, work in the hospital, be an admin, etc.

I suggest looking at informatics job listings with prospective employers and seeing what their requirements are. One of the university hospitals in my city require a lot of IT knowledge, but mine does not (we learn as we go).

The daily work of the NP and Informatics are at opposite ends of the spectrum. In informatics I am often the only nurse, and I work with IT staff, business analysts and the like. I get almost 0 patient contact.

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Specializes in Nursing informatics/IT.

You have asked about Informatics before on this board.

Many of the RN who believe that technical skills and prowess is not needed for employment, are most likely Narrow-minded and therefore, are not open to the ideas of the tech advancements. Many of you on here cannot see Nursing beyond the scope of your limited mindsets.

Just because your employer doesn't require it now, doesn't mean it won't matter in the future. And the Future is staring at you dead in face everytime you use a machine to do your job!

What are you going to do with your informatics degree when Machine Learning does most of work? Look up:

https://hitconsultant.net/2019/02/07/health-catalyst-series-f-funding/#.XJPMHRNKjdQ

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On 3/21/2019 at 1:39 PM, JAG_RN10 said:

You have asked about Informatics before on this board.

Many of the RN who believe that technical skills and prowess is not needed for employment, are most likely Narrow-minded and therefore, are not open to the ideas of the tech advancements. Many of you on here cannot see Nursing beyond the scope of your limited mindsets.

Just because your employer doesn't require it now, doesn't mean it won't matter in the future. And the Future is staring at you dead in face everytime you use a machine to do your job!

What are you going to do with your informatics degree when Machine Learning does most of work? Look up:

https://hitconsultant.net/2019/02/07/health-catalyst-series-f-funding/#.XJPMHRNKjdQ

?????

I see no lies here. JAG, they are working on implementing health catalyst where I am at.

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