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ANIA: American Nursing Informatics Association is a nationwide nursing informatics group that is very active. HIMSS, a general HIT organization, also has a nursing workgroup and a very active nursing informatics membership. Also, there are local groups like NENIC in New England. AMIA also has a nursing informatics workgroup. I am sure there are others. I think ANIA would be a good first choice for a national group.

I am a nurse with a MSN and a MSCS. With a CS degree, you might also consider working for a vendor in one of the various areas of development, not implementation or field support. Of course, that is more technical than the NI position in the hospital. But it can be exciting being part of designing and developing the product. Imagine being one of the developers of a Cerner system or an Epic system at the beginning, before it was sold to hospitals. If you are willing to be more technical, that could be an option. I work as a software architect, focusing mostly on the clinical aspects of the product. I was one of main designers of the CPOE functionality. Don't let the title fool you. I am definitely doing nursing informatics. WIth a vendor, your title represents your salary and department, but your responsibilities are adjusted according to you skills, knowledge, and interests. We have NI nurses with titles of support engineer, quality engineer, product manager, product owner, with the salaries that match.

I am a nurse that then earned a MS in computer science. Whether you pick a MIS or CS degree really depends on what you want to do. I wanted to work for a vendor in R&D to actual build and design the systems that are installed in hospitals. Someone has to design them - better a nurse than not. Not that you need a CS degree to do that, but you are more likely to be hired if you do because you are hired as a developer. There are significantly few positions for informatics nurses in R&D development. MIS is much less technical but more geared towards implementation/installation/sales. CS degree is also very mathematical and science oriented. Twelve credits for calculus plus other math classes. For some, that would a challenge or something they would not be interested in. MIS versus CS - depends on what you want to do. R&D developer positions usually required a CS degree or CS experience. For JMR85112: Going for a nursing degree is also challenging. It is a lot of science, but a different type of science (A&P, micro, chemistry) and it is very people oriented. If you want to learn more about healthcare, there are some other options. I have seen healthcare informatics MS programs which are geared towards non-clinicians which provides some healthcare education. Also, there is the MS in nursing program geared towards people with BS in another field - you may want to consider that. It prepares you for advanced nursing positions. No easy choice, but you know your situation best.

The ania organization provides their conference web sessions as a package. Each conference is about 15 to 30 credits. They cost about $300 for the entire conference of sessions. There are multiple conferences available. All of them are web casts. American Nursing Informatics Association

As a nurse with a computer science degree, I would only recommend a computer science degree if one wants to be involved with software design and development, most likely for a vendor. The degree takes a lot of work and has a very specific focus. Many of the classes in nursing programs do not overlap with computer science including 12 credits in math. A CS degree does not usually cover or focus on topics that are involved with other nursing informatics positions such as marketing, project management, and system implementation. As a nurse with a CS degree, I work as a software developer for a vendor. As the previous comment stated, such informatic nurses are very much needed to help build better systems. I love my job, but it is not for everyone.

You might want to also consider working for a vendor either in R&D, support, or quality. I work for a vendor, and we have nurses who earned engineer/CS degrees later as well as engineers who later became nurses. They work as business analyst, support engineers, quality engineers, and R&D developers. These positions are technical positions in which a clinical background is a great advantage. The master's might not be required. Also, you would have the opportunity to make the systems better. These are positions for engineers/developers in healthcare IT vendors, and not positions for nurses. You may want to check the jobsites looking for these type of positions.

SNOMED CT will not define what should be charted about urine output and its color. SNOMED CT main purpose is to tag the data that is charted so that it can be understood and later used for analysis. So SNOMED CT will not provide you the choice list of colors for urine output. Once the user selects a color, the concepts of urine output and the color value can be tagged with individual SNOMED CT codes. If you are looking for documentation standards for urine output and its color, it would be found in other resources. One might consider looking at the IHI Home Page, The Institute for Healthcare Improvement on their CAUTI bundle which may describe documentation of urinary catheter and perhaps urine output. Others may suggest other standards and resources to use. In general, SNOMED CT and similar terminologies will not describe what should be charted for observations, only provide a way to identify the data.

I been working in a vendor's office for over 20 years designing and developing HIT systems. I still maintain my nursing license, although my position doesn't require it and doesn't require me to be a clinician. Besides feeling it is the right thing to do, it does give me a great deal of credibility in the vendor development environment. It is important to me and to my role to maintain a strong connection to the nursing community and to healthcare. The contact hours required for licensure are obtained via local nursing informatics conferences and on-line web conferences. I have been able to obtain enough CEUs to maintain a board certification in Nursing Informatics.

A BS in Data Analytics is a specialized degree that focuses on data, databases, database queries/reports, and analysis. Looking on line, some also have business courses, programming courses, and other technical courses. Can it get you into nursing informatics or healthcare informatics, Yes, but it may direct you to a particular area. It seems to be an area that you are interested in. Healthcare and HIT has finally realized the value of data, looking at that data, and mining that day. One can imagine that the Veteran's Adm Hospital System taking all of their patient data nation wide to analyze and mine. Likewise with the big hospital chains like Kaiser, Partner's in Boston, and others. Also, data is analyzed at the individual hospital levels such as in the quality assurance departments and as part of the HIT department. With a nursing background and a BS in data analytics, that would be the best areas of opportunities. It is somewhat different than the informatics nurse in the role of clinical analyst. They are responsible for system implementation (training, project planning, configuration) and maintenance in the hospital. That is a common role for many informatics nurses and has varying names. With the BS in data analytics and nursing background, one could work for a vendor, but a vendor doesn't have patient data to analyze. Vendors do, however, provide the tools for data analysis. The data analyst goes to where the data is. Being a specialized role, it may take some time to find a position, as they may not be listed with nursing positions or nursing informatics positions. They may be listed in the technical or database positions listings. Note that a BS in data analytics provides a stronger technical background in this area then taking classes on the side or potentially a MS in HIT. But then again, it depends on how technical the HIT degree is. Good luck on your decision.

I am a informatics nurse involved with designing applications with a vendor. Yes, the dream job you are looking for is most likely found within the vendor environment. It may be found in a hospital, but not as likely. Infomatics nurses in the vendor development environment are expected to have a strong system analysis and design background, including screen design. Also, general knowledge of the technologies and health applications involved. A stronger background in the technology is very beneficial. Looking for a job is more of a challenge as you want to look where vendors post. For example, the job web sites, maybe HIMSS web site, and checking out the careers tab of companies that create those type of systems. Positions might include product manager, analyst, or clinical specialist/consultant.

You might want to look at the HIT vendors . Your background would be applicable to multiple positions. You could work in R&D designing HIT system as a business analyst, software quality testing, support, customer implementation, and so on. Development positions with a vendor often require a strong technical background and having clinical experience/education is a plus.

I am a nurse that went into computer science. I now work for a healthcare IT vendor developing software. I have heard of other nurses, although quite a while ago, that went into biomedical engineering. But I don't know where they are now. Most biomedical engineers work in the hospital biomed department or work for healthcare device/IT vendors for product development, support, or implementation. Many nurses have gone for healthcare IT degrees, either healthcare informatics or nursing informatics, but that is not with a medical research focus. If you are interested in how medical devices/informatics systems can help in detecting, tracking, managing, improving the care of diabetes, then a more IT or bio med engineering degree is appropriate. If you are looking to the direct treatment of diabetes itself and contributing to research, then more bioinformatics or bioengineering perhaps.

I am about to do my third renewal. It is actually 150 contact hours if you don't do some of the other professional activities such as publications. A couple of easy, and somewhat reasonable cost wise options are (1) HIMSS Online Conference (2) SINI Conference web cast (3) ANIA recorded sessions from conference. The HIMSS Online conference which starts when HIMSS has their conference provides recorded and live web sessions on various topics and cost about $57 this year. One can get about 10 or more contact hours with that. SINI (summer institute of nursing) at the University of Maryland has webcast of their conference for $330 and gives you about 15 contact hours, but that can vary by year. ANIA has all of their conferences available through their education site and offer about 15 to 30 contact hours per conference. Cost if I remember is about $300 to $400, but not sure. All of these have their online sessions available from 2 months to 2 years. Please search the web for the actual costs and time periods, as above is just my recollection and may not be accurate. And then of course, join the local nursing informatics group if there is one which can provide additional opportunities for contact hours. Also, ACCN will ask for certified nurses to take the test again to validate new test items and that can give you 15 contact hours. One doesn't get a score as you are only trying test questions for them. If you invited, join up quickly as these offers can go fast. These are not free, however, but they provide the most reasonable cost/contact hour than actually attending the national conventions.

As a developer of these systems, there are a few reasons that might associated with this. Some have already been mentioned. First, healthcare and its documentation/processes are complex. This industry, with all of its nuances, rules, etc is not simple, much more complex than iTunes, banking systems, etc. The variety of data elements to be supported is extensive. If you look at the HL7 Reference Information Model - you can see how complex the data is, even at a conceptual model. Secondly, this is a highly regulatory industry, which it should be to protect the public. But regulations requires documentation and processes. Thirdly, we are taking care of people. The expectations of system quality is at the very top, which again is should be. Lastly, some of the issues with these systems is understanding the clinical workflows. Although a vendor can do focus groups, hire clinician consultants, etc, it is not the same as having a clinician deeply involved in development. For these clinicians to work most effectively and efficiently as an lead/designer/visionary in the process requires a strong technical background, one which few clinicians have, even those that are informatics specialists. Product development is not hospital system implementation - different set of skills required. Those are just my personal ideas. I am sure there are others. A complex issue often has multiple variables.

I have seen many variation of titles in healthcare informatics, including all kinds of variation of the term "analyst". I have also seen two people with the same title responsible for very different tasks in different organizations. The only way to know what this position involves is to evaluate the position tasks/roles. Much of it also depends on who is providing the position. The role of analyst in a healthcare agency like a hospital is very different than the role of analyst at a vendor. Another clue is whether the position requires, prefers, or doesn't even mention that you need to be a clinician. The more clinical, the more involved in the specific clinical aspects of the organization. The job posting may provide some information on roles and responsibilities. If not found in the posting, then then next best place is find out during the phone interview or talk to the recruiter if there is one.

My daughter goes to RIT. Loves it.

Most of the management team in the healthcare IT started off as employees in that department or that particular focus (i.e IT). The first step is to obtain a position as an employee in the field/department you want to advance. The real question is what concentration would you need to get into that basic employee positions. These healthcare IT positions are highly competitive. For these positions, with equal experience and backgrounds, those with some type of IT/informatics concentration/degree probably has an advantage over those with a nursing leadership focus.

I can give you my thoughts on one of your questions. The question of the MSCS versus MSMI. I myself have a MSCS, but the kind for BSCS continuing. The degree depends on much what you want to do. The MSCS is a highly technical software engineering degree. It is usually taken by people who plan to design and create software. It is one of the preferred degrees (and other technical degrees) by vendors who are looking for software engineers to develop software. The MSMI degree probably has a different focus. Of course, that depends on the program as I have seen much variation in medical informatics degrees. The MSMI degree most likely does not focus on software engineering and development, but more on the application of technology. Although it may have some software programming classes. It also has a medical focus with the MSCS degree does not. With the focus of the application of technology, the MSMI program might deal more with system implementation, training, IT architecture, etc. If you are not going to do software development, then a MSCS might not make sense. But do more of your own research and see what others have to say.

I started as a nurse and now design hospital computer systems. I used to be concerned that being away from the bedside that I was no longer helping patients and their families. And then I did the numbers. When I was a staff nurse on the med/surg, I took care of 5 patients a day for about 50 weeks a year. That could potentially be 1300 patients for whom I could make a difference. Then I went into teaching at a small hospital based RN school. I taught about 5 classes of students (30 per class) for about 150 students. So by teaching them, I potentially impacted 150*1300 patients per year which is 195,000 patients a year through the nursing care provided by my former students. But then I went to design computers for hospitals that nurses use every day. To indicate the impact I made to patients, lets crunch the numbers. Lets say my system is used in 200 hospitals a year. Each hospital has about 200 med/surg beds. This is a total of 365 days a year with an average length of stay of 3 days. So (200*200*365)/3 = about 4,800,000 patients a year. Now that is an impact!

We have a couple of MS health informatics here in the Boston Area. The one at northeastern is specifically designed for 2 types of candidates, ones who start as clinicians and one who starts as IT. So you can't assume that an MS HIT degree won't meet your needs nor require you to be technical. Look carefully at the objectives the the program and what they have to offer. It varies by program.

One thing I would compare is the length of time required to get the degree and the cost. I know that my MSN was 49 credits but my MS in computer science was 30. It was one year versus 2 as the MSN often requires some sort of clinical or practicum. For practicums, it is usually about 2 to 4 hours of clinical equals 1 credit. So you could have a 3 credit practicum and spend up to 12 hours a week doing it. I would look carefully at the classes required for each. For a MSN, there are some core courses that you will have to take that may have little to do with informatics, although they can provide an excellent foundation. You will miss out on this foundation in the HIT masters, but then it allows you to take on more technical courses. I can't say which is better from an employment basis. I have seen both in the vendor community.

There are a couple of options depending on your career direction. Most informatics nurses with certification are through ANCC. Informatics Nursing This certification has been around for the longest and is specific to nursing informatics. Another set of certifications are through HIMSS which is the main HIT organzation. Health IT Certifications | HIMSS.org These are new within the last 5 years or so. Six Sigma and others are not HIT specific, but may be applicable depending on the position you take. If you are looking for a position that is less in the HIT world and more into the vendor world that creates HIT, then other certifications might be advantgeous. Best way to know is check the job postings for such positions.

I would say you have a good chance, but you may actually have a better chance getting a job with a vendor. Your business and development background make your an attractive candidate for that type of positions such as in business analyst, support, software quality, learning products, project mgmt, product marketing, etc. Vendors of healthcare IT would prefer to hire clinicians into these positions if possible, although they are not listed as positions requiring to be clinicians. Where I work, we have 2 nurses working as software quality engineers. In the hospital environment, it may be a bit tougher as you are competiting with nurses with possibly more advanced degrees or more nursing experience. I would check the job sites on line like monster and the jobs at himss.org to see if there are positions that might fit you. If you are limited to a certain location, of course, your options are more limited.

For an RN-BC, you only need to have a Bachelor's degree in nursing. There is no requirement for master's degree. Check the web site for ANCC.

You may also be able to broaden your opportunities if you look beyond the hospital environment, especially if you also have a background/education in more IT/Tech areas. Healthcare system vendors are always looking for people to be business analyst, software quality, marketing, system development who also have a healthcare background. These are not the positions out in the field that is doing on site customer installations/training, but the positions within the vendor R&D organization with minimal travel (unless you are in marketing). These positions are not listed as nursing jobs, but as IT/system development/etc jobs. They are listed on the vendor web sites or on big job web sites. There are also some head hunters specializing in this. Within the healthcare institutions, competition for these jobs are fierce with many of the candidates have numerous years of nursing experience. But, vendors are looking for a slightly different skill set, experience, and background, appropriate to the positions they provide.