Informatics? Please help me because I'm 100% lost

@llg: Thank you, I hadn't really thought through it all in the perspective. It really makes a lot more sense, I just kept getting stuck in a circle.

Informatics also does a lot with electronic medical record. As an educator I'm talking to them all the time about how to arrange our documentation. For example, they can add clocks that will prompt the nurse to document every 2 hours that might align with a policy. Or what elements to include in an assessment related to a complaint.

I am hoping someone can help me understand what education I need to get my foot into nursing informatics.

Some background: I am a BSN nurse with 8 years of experience ER, ICU. I have very little in the way of computer training. My question is this. Is it possible for me to get a job in informatics as a BSN if I take an associates informatics/computer degree. My plan would be to continue getting educated at least to a master's level in this specialty.

Thanks in advance for the help.

Josh

Honestly the advice I got from my facility was to volunteer to be a superuser for my clinical application and support go-lives throughout the organization. I have my BSN, but they steered me away from getting a master's in informatics simply because they valued the work experience more. I ultimately did a few go lives for my organization and got hired as a full time clinical informatics educator which I love. I am finishing my master's in nursing education simply because a lot of informatics handles education, and I find it helpful to understand how to teach people, whether it's the end users or teaching analysts how to build various applications.

Nursing Informatics or Clinical Informatics serve as a liaison between the end user and computer analyst. One must truly be savvy in the clinical and technical world.

Experience as a Super User is greatly beneficial. Your ER experience would be valuable if your EHR has specific solutions for ER.

Hi! I was preparing myself to go back to school and was interested in this Masters program. They have an RN-MSN option. I was considering this field because I love working at the hospital, but want to transition out of bedside and have always been interested in computers and software. On my unit, I was always volunteered to be one of the Super Users when we switched our programs. Was not sure if those that are in the field now, recommend a Masters degree or if most companies want you to have experience over an advanced degree. Thanks for your input!

Hi everyone,

I'm a BSN nurse with almost 5 years experience. I've done a year and half of bedside med/surg and the rest as an OR circulator. I love the OR and couldn't imagine doing anything else in patient care, but I'm starting to grow restless and want to learn something new. I've thought about getting away from direct patient care and I like the idea of informatics. I'm a super user at my facility, and help with preference card changes. I know it's not much, and I have zero IT or computer science experience. I was thinking about applying to an MSN informatics program, but I'm honestly not exactly sure what the courses are like or if I'd feel totally lost. What's a typical day look like for someone in this role?

As super user at your facility, you are providing value and service that is helpful to your colleagues and ultimately to your patients, and that is commendable. It could also be a starting point to a career in Nursing Informatics. That is actually how I started in my career as a nurse informaticist -as a super user for a couple of EHR implementations.

There are many roles to fill in the Nursing Informatics field, and not all of them may need prior background in IT or computer science, although those could be helpful for certain roles/jobs. Some nurses don't even move departments when they take on an NI role - they can be "embedded" nurse informaticists within their own nursing department, such as Periop. For example, nurses can function as facilitators and coordinators whenever a change in the electronic health record (EHR) needs to be implemented, or they can even initiate the change themselves by identifying a gap and recommending a solution. Other nurse informaticists are in charge of creating and maintaining reports and using data analytics to identify issues/possible problem(s) and their solution(s). Still other nurse informaticists may be responsible for configuring or customizing off-the-shelf EHR software in order to meet the needs of the clinicians, while others coordinate various projects to improve both the electronic documentation tools as well as the data/information extracted from those tools. There's a lot of things that nurses can do, learn, and contribute to in NI! :-)

A typical day would really depend on what role you're filling. For example, an "application analyst" (usually someone who configures/customizes the off-the-shelf EHR software) may spend a large part of their day in front of a computer tweaking and optimizing the software (there is training for this) as well as collaborating with clinician subject matter experts (SMEs) to test and validate their work output. An EHR trainer/educator may be spending their day creating/updating training plans and tip sheets, as well as teaching clinicians how to use the system (in a classroom setting or in smaller groups/one-on-one). Project managers such as myself may spend a lot of time identifying areas of improvement, doing analysis of the root causes of issues, and coordinating the various aspects of a project aimed at improving documentation tools, workflows, or a combination of those. In many of these examples, there may be a LOT of meetings to attend and emails to write! :-D

There are many more roles that nurses can fill in the NI field (and some nurses even create their own roles), but I hope I've given you enough examples to help you get started on your evaluation of where you want to take your career next. You may also want to volunteer for internal informatics-related projects such as electronic chart audits, or participate in your organization's nursing informatics council, if there's one, so you can get a better "feel" for the kind of discussions nurse informaticists participate in and the decisions they need to consider/make. Good luck!