Nurse going to school for Data Analytics?

[KDuncan890]

I have been a nurse for almost 4yrs and I am completely lost. I know I do not enjoy Hopsital nursing, so majority of my experience has been in LTC. I would love to branch of into the informatics or EHR vendor sector. Because of my love for math and data, I have decided to get my masters in data analytics instead of nursing. I feel bad to say, but I no longer like the pitfalls of floor nursing. I'm hoping that getting this degree will allow me to understand data, and allow me to combined both of my loves. I one day hope to become a clinical analyst, but I feel that with my lack of hospital experience that my dream is a long shot. Are there any clinical analyst out there that could shed some light on how they broke into the field? I just think I could make a greater contribution to the nursing profession by making our charting alittle easier lol Hopeing to work for a major LTC EHR vender someday. Fingers crossed.

PS- I also study SQL in my spare time

[Rocknurse, MSN, APRN, NP]

I'm an analyst. I've been in the field for 2.5 years now. I had no prior informatics experience and they hired me for my cardiac expertise. I was trained after I was hired, as many of the people in my department were. The only requirement was that we had a minimum of a BSN and clinical cardiac experience because we were hired to the team that builds the cardiology section. I was just lucky I guess. I would approach the informatics/IT dept of your facility and speak with the manager and express your interest and see what they suggest.

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

Our clinical analysts are hired based upon their clinical expertise. Of course, they have to have familiarity as an EHR user & additional IT training is provided, but the essential piece is the clinical background. We have analysts from all clinical disciplines. An 'analyst' position in our organization is actually a liaison position that works with clinicians to translate their needs into IT-speak so that the EHR & other systems can do what we need them to do. Although they may help with designing reports to extract data in their specialty area, they really don't do any data analysis.

In my organization, data analysis is done by qualified folks in the functional areas (Quality, Infection Control, Financial Services, Risk Finance, Clinical Risk, etc) that 'own' the data or need it to make business decisions. I believe that most of those data-crunchers have MBAs or math-related degrees... we even have a couple of people with MS degrees in statistics sprinkled in there.

IT titles can be a bit confusing. They tend to give people grandiose new job titles rather than promote them.