BG.RN

JMR85112, it sounds like you're solidly audacious with your convictions and assumptions about nursing, nursing informatics, and the technological future of health care. May you be successful in your educational pursuit and career path!

JMR85112, you have an interesting perspective, but I would have to respectfully disagree on your statement about "Nursing informatics study tracks are not going to set you apart in the applicant pool nor prepare you fully". During my 18 years in healthcare/nursing informatics field (22 years as a RN), I have been active in the hiring process for a number of EHR-related positions. When these positions are posted, it is not uncommon to receive dozens of applicants. Nurses with clinical experience and informatics background are always shortlisted and interviewed, so I can confidently state they do have an advantage. Have there been studies that support your claim that "MOST of these Nursing informatics track nurse will be prepared POORLY for the changes in tech and nursing"? I find this to be quite illogical and absolutely flawed. I have worked with many talented nurses with nursing informatics background who have thrived and continue to excel in clinical informatics amidst the continuous technological changes in health care. There are so many roads a nurse with healthcare/nursing informatics preparation can take. I agree with you that the nursing informatics track does not focus on programming; it might only cover the basics in programming. However, a nurse who wants to be more engaged in programming would probably want to consider computer science, as opposed to nursing informatics. I actually think that a nurse who prefers to do more technical work would benefit from pursuing a degree in (healthcare) data analytics.

Hey Aliens05. Thought I'd share some info about Nursing Informatics from my perspective/experience... Here you go: I’ve been in nursing/healthcare informatics since 2001 (RN since 1997). The cool thing is that there are so many subspecialties, projects, roles, and initiatives in healthcare informatics that you can explore and get involved in. In my case, I started as a software trainer and led the training department of a medical imaging software company. I traveled all over the US, Canada, and France as part of an implementation team. After about three years, I started a new job as a clinical/nursing informatics specialist. My main responsibilities there were basically around building the electronic health record’s (EHR) order entry module for multiple hospitals, end-user training, and system optimization. After about 7 years, I then worked as a clinical applications analyst, specifically investigating patient safety issues related to the organization’s EHR. My main job was to determine causes of issues in the EHR that could potentially cause patient harm, then make recommendations on how to resolve those issues. The issues I handled might be related to how the system is configured, misleading information, inaccurate calculations, ineffective workflow, and others related to the use of EHR that may be deemed unsafe. Now, I’m doing something different. My current position is to ensure that all of our hospitals (24 in the organization) meet the annual requirements for EHR-related regulatory programs. The government is basically giving incentives to hospitals and clinicians that can prove that they are using the EHR in a meaningful way. My main responsibility is to ensure that the EHR is appropriately configured to capture the complex requirements of various regulatory bodies. My job is never boring – I love it! Oh, and as a RN analyst, the pay isn’t bad at all. RN analysts in my area can make between around 100K to 195K, depending on your experience. I’m pretty sure the pay goes higher if you’re in management – if that’s where you want to take your career. With regards to my education background, I graduated with a Nursing diploma in 1997, then my BSN in 2000. In 2001, I became interested in IT, so I completed an intensive diploma program in Applied Information Technology, where I learned about programming and databases. Then, I graduated with a MSN degree in 2007, with a capstone project on clinical information systems implementation in acute care settings. The school of nursing where I did my MSN didn’t really have an informatics specialty at that time, but I was permitted to take informatics courses outside the school and even outside the university – and all those courses counted towards my MSN of course. Over a decade after, I started my DNP with a specific focus on healthcare informatics; this is still in progress. I am also board-certified in Informatics Nursing. The RN-MSN Informatics degree you mentioned sounds great. Having that degree would definitely help if you’re really interested in this field. Nowadays, having formal education in health/nursing informatics gives a candidate a better chance of landing a job in the field; not like before, nurses interested in computers could get into informatics because of their clinical experience and workflow knowledge… Anyway, there are lots of jobs in informatics. Compared to other specialties, informatics nursing is a relatively small specialty, but we’re special. Have you checked out WGU? They have an RN-MSN Informatics program online. It’s an accredited program and relatively affordable. I know of a nurse who did her BSN-MSN Informatics there a couple of years ago. But, if you want a more established school of nursing, University of Maryland, Duke, and Columbia have great informatics programs. Hope this gives you some idea about healthcare/nursing informatics. Good luck!

I just passed the NI certification exam this past weekend :) I only used the Mometrix study guide, but I also have experience in clinical IS implementation plus I have taken some NI courses in the past. How I prepared for the exam: I did the 150 test questions from the study guide right away so I could figure out what I knew and where my lack of knowledge was. I got 60% on the pre-test. Then I went through the rationale for the questions I got wrong and made sure I understood why I got them wrong. I then went through the materials in the study guide before redoing the test again, and the second time around I got 90%. I went back to the areas that I missed during the first and second rounds; and that concluded my prep. My prep/studying was a couple of hours every day for a week. I think that if you're only using the Mometrix study guide to prep for the exam, you need to have field experience in clinical information systems implementation AND formal education in NI.