hanginglimbs

Thank you both for your informative posts. I think we're I'm being led astray are two areas: 1) I am in a "health" informatics program, not NI program. I know for some institutions that is pure semantics, but I'm one of the few clinicians in my program. The majority of them have either business or CS/IT undergrad work. They all work for either Partners Healthcare, Meditech, or one of the other big HIT-associated companies in Boston. 2) Most of the jobs I have looked at have been on the technical side of HIT, such as a systems analyst or actual programming. Your posts have not only helped me with my paper, but hopefully with my job search as well! Much appreciated!

Thank you for your answers. Any programming languages, certifications, other software/hardware knowledge, or other "official" (as in "knowledge of SQL" as opposed to "works well in a team." And what I meant by my paper's premise is that a company is more likely to hire a tech guy with no healthcare experience than a healthcare worker with no technical experience. Informatics programs, however, are looking for healthcare workers as opposed to tech guys because they feel it is easier to teach the technical skills than the healthcare knowledge...this is how it was explained to me anyway.

Hey All, I'm a RN enrolled in a heath informatics MS program. I'm writing a paper analyzing entry-level informatics positions for RNs and the skills required for each position. I'm basing this paper on the difficulty for RNs to get health informatics positions over traditional IT/tech people. Does anyone know what are maybe 4 or 5 good entry-level health informatics positions for RNs making the career shift? My plan is to search job listings for each of these positions and analyze what skills/qualifications are required. I've been to the informaticsnurse.com forum, but it's hard to tell what is a good entry-level position for an RN. Also, any other input from personal experience about any skills/qualfiications/certifications/classes/etc. advice that an RN could use to get into informatics would be helpful. My paper isn't due until the 17th. Eric

Hello, I've been an Army RN for 3 years and am looking to go to grad school in informatics when I get out this fall. I live in DC, so everyone at work has been pushing me toward the MSN program at U-Maryland (when they are not trying to get me to stay in the military!). I've also heard the programs offered at Pittsburgh and NYU are good. My question is how limiting is NURSING informatics? George Mason University has a health systems management with a concentration in health information systems program. An inside source told me that they are combining that program with one of the MSN programs in the computer school to do a Health Informatics program. Based on the name alone, it seems more collaborative and multi-d. The head of U-MD told me that nursing informatics degrees are not limiting and that it is an extendable skill, but how true is this? In your experiences, are the job markets more open for HEALTH informatics positions as opposed to NURSING informatics? What are the differences?