Nursing Informatics???

[ventgurl]

Greetings fellow healthcare professionals,

I was wondering what Nursing Informatics is, what degree is required, do you have to be a nurse, and where would be the primary place of employment. Please forgive me if there is already a discussion thread on the topic. Thanks in advance for your help!

[perseus29]

WOW, thanks to you all! I've gone on the websites and they were quite informative. Healthcare Informatics sound like it is on the cutting edge of healthcare. As a Respiratory Therapist and technology nut (self proclaimed), this souds like a perfect way to advance my career. Allnurses.com is proof that technology, healthcare,and education go hand and hand. So far I see that Excelsior College offers a 17 credit online certificate for current healthcare professionals with a Bachelor's degree. More insight will be greatly appreciated!!

Just wanted to let you know that you don't have to have an 'informatics' degree to break info the field, unless you are going for one of those roles that is specific for a nursing informatist. AS I have said in many other posts: there are dozens of people doing clinical it jobs that have either no clinical experience, or no clinical background; then there are those clinical people that are doing the jobs and they had no IT experience, except for maybe using email.

As you say you are a technology nut, maybe what you want to do is find hospitals that have their RT dept in electronic form; i don't know much about the RT department as I've implemented application for the nursing world. HOwever, in the past when i have searched for jobs, many of the listings said something like: clinical experience such as RN, RT, PT required...As I tell people, many times you create your own opportunities in these fields; if you got clinical experience and you are technology savvy, maybe you might as well start looking for jobs in the field; I just saw one the other day that said the following:

Programmer/Systems Analyst III -- Clinical Documentation - Analyst - IS

"Supports Clinical Documentation - Experience needed in RT, PT, OT or Speech.

Acts as a consultant to user departments to enhance existing business applications and to facilitate solutions to meet business requirements, ensuring that all related applications are consistent with overall organizational strategies."

Of course, if your goal is to have an informatics degree, nothing wrong with that; i just want to make it clear that many people are in the field without such degree.

[rninformatics, DNP, RN]

Be aware that there are a number of certification programs offered out there.

http://www.amia.org/informatics/acad%2526training/index.asp

You may also want to broaden your horizons and think about specializing or obtaining certification in healthcare informatics and not just nursing informatics..............clinical generalists, cross trained staff and versatility are trends noted in today's highly competitive market.

I'm in Connecticut, I will have y Bachelor's in General Studies in May09. How long and how much for cert course?

[ventgurl, ASN]

Thaks ever so much, you all have been very helpful! BTW Suesquatch, for a 17 credit cert @Excelsior is $6970 (not too bad)!