Debbie Gring

Hello! I am a clinical systems analyst, but in a hospital setting. One hospital (critical access) system. We also have owned practices/clinics and a nursing home. I do not travel for this position, but I do know of others in multi hospital systems that do go from facility to facility. Room for progression? I would say yes to that. I am a diploma nurse from many moons ago. I don't have a degree, but if you do, get your ANCC certification in NI. Get a CHPMSS certification (HIMSS) if you can too. Get your masters if you can. At my former facility a classmate of mine from nursing school had her bachelors and now has her masters in education but also had done a lot in informatics, she was employed by her current facility as the Director of Clinical Informatics, but is now the CIO. So, yes, I would say there is a good chance at progression, especially given today's environment when the field is bursting wide open. Good luck! Let us know how it turns out!

I am an RN (Diploma) with 40 years experience. The past 12 years in the informatics field. The rest of the time I was on a Med/Surg unit and then a VIP unit. I got into informatics because my then hospital was changing HIS vendors. I worked with order management first, then assisted with the pharmacy install, then the CR, physicians information system (not CPOE) and then finally our new nursing documentation system for M/S. In there I also did the OM side of the new ED system. At that hospital I was titled "Nursing Systems Team Leader". I retired from there in 2010 and moved to Vermont. I now have the title of Clinical Systems Analyst. Here I deal primarily with CPOE and assist with Pharmacy. These two go hand in hand. How did I get started? The last unit director I had knew I was very interested in computers. She knew I would be very interested in this job. Plus, I had assisted her with testing of out then clinical documentation (before I ever knew what I was doing) and wrote the manual for the education of rest of the nursing staff. I then ended up doing most of the education. So, volunteer for IT/clinical projects! Good luck!

Hello! I began Informatics in 2001 with a new HIS at our hospital. At that time I reported to my unit manager/VP of nursing along with the IT project manager. After our go live I stayed on and at that time directly reported to the VP of nursing. After a few years I was changed to report to the Director of Education who reported to the VP of nursing. Shortly thereafter the director I reported to was moved to HR. So for a while we were there. Then a Department of Clinical Informatics was formed with my former nursing school mate as the director. It was basically the 2 of us and she had several other areas that were reporting to her. She of course reported to another school mate the above mentioned VP of nursing! Then the CI director moved away, and I was transitioned to report to a manager in the IT department. So, when I retired from that facility after 37 years before moving to this one, I was an IT employee! Having written all that it sounds like a lot of moves and I guess it was. I retired from there in 2010 and moved from NW Ohio to NE Vermont. For the first 1.5 years I reported to IT director who hired me. Then our hospital decided that a department of Clinical Informatics was needed. So my co-worker who has worked there for many years and been in the Informatics realm for 20 years now and I moved the CI department with our former co=worker who is now our director. We also have 2.5 other nurses working with us, 2 in the ambulatory arena and one who was on the clinical team building our latest HIS and likes the work working with us for 16 hours per week. After all of that, I firmly believe we ARE still nurses even if we are not at the bedside. Our work impacts clinical areas AND ancillary areas all over the facility. When I was in the Nursing department I was penciled into IT. When I was in IT I was penciled into Nursing. A solid communication line has to be maintained no matter where you are. I love the clinical informatics department I am in now. We are all wonderful supportive people. each of us has our own strengths and weaknesses and we help each other. This is the best of all possible situations is to have a Clinical Informatics department. If that isn't possible, either IT or Nursing with excellent communication between with you as the interface is mandatory! I am done with my spiel now! Sorry for the length! Debbie

All I can say is what a dialogue and I totally disagree with MSN Nursing Management person. When I first entered nursing informatics in 2001 I was bombarded with others who were building their portion of our new HIS at that facility telling me that I was no longer a nurse. No longer a NURSE? I wondered if that were true. Hmm. let's think. I use my nursing background everyday. Be it knowing how nurses do their job everyday at the frontline, how orders process through the system, how physicians enter orders and how nurses carry out those orders, how they document the care given the patient, how they develop a plan of care, how they administer medications. How pharmacists interact with nursing, how labs get ordered, resulted and communicated, how other departments work with nursing. I currently work in another facility and I am proud to say we have a Department of Clinical Informatics of which I am ONE of the nurses. This hospital as others are realizing, an IT person can build, but they don't know clinical like we nurses do! We actually have 4 full time nurses in our department. 2 of us work with inpatient areas, 2 work with the ambulatory side. The other hospital I worked at for 37 years? They also have learned the value of having nurses in IT. You can teach a nurse IT, but you cannot teach an IT person nursing. So I proudly say, that YES Nursing Informatics is a NURSING specialty!

Question for your, are you contemplating going into Nursing Informatics or a more technical type role? I've been in Nursing Informatics since 2001. I have times of minimal contact and times of lots of contact with other people. The days of minimal contact are rare and far in between. I've been a nurse for 40 years this year. I worked 27 of them at the bedside. I currently work primarily with CPOE and part of the time assist with Pharmacy application. I have to say interaction is quite important in our job. We educate, we test, we plan, we use our nursing knowledge every day. We discuss work flow, discuss issues, help end users, discuss and bounce ideas off our co-workers and other people using the same applications you do. I love to build. That is my forte. I like to teach and can do a good job at it. I am fortunate that I was able to get into this profession without a degree and have worked at two facilities. I work on the hospital side. The ambulatory nurses working with the EHR are constantly busy with the same roles interactions as above. The end users are our customers and we need to be responsive to them. Be it building, helping, logging issues, educating....what ever is needed. Now if you plan on going to a technical type job writing code etc, you could probably have minimal interaction, however there are always meetings, planning sessions, testing, re writes etc,, what little I know of it! I wish you luck in finding what you are looking for. Nursing Informatics in a hospital setting is full of interactions. Some people love it, some hate it. One thought I just had, if you know a particular system very well you could possibly do some of their build from your home. Just a thought that I don't know much about. Again, good luck!

I was 48/9 when the hospital I was working at implimented a new whole house systme. I was chosen to be on the three co-ordinators for order management. The rest is history. I stayed on at that job (in Ohio) and last year at the age of 58 after working for that hospital for 36 years retired from there after getting another job in Vermont. I am a diploma RN, do not have a degree although I have taken two classes, just don't find it my cup of tea. My point in this long story is that there are jobs out there. Hospitals and nursing homes are always going up with new systems or new to them systems. Look at the ANIA-Caring job bank. I actually found several jobs there last year when looking that did not require advanced degrees. Many do. Be prepared for that. Good luck to you! Salary wise, I don't know what staff nurses make here at this hospital, but I am making just a few cents less then I was in Ohio where I had been at top RN pay for some years. But again, I am a diploma RN with 26 years of med surg nursing experience and 10 years IT experience.

Congratulations and do let us know how it all goes! Tell us more!

good morning! i have reported over the past 10 years to both sides of the fence. i've reported to vp of nursing, then when she had too many direct reports to the director of education (also in nursing department). then with the thought we were going to be getting a new clinical documentation system the hospital created a new job, director of clinical informatics whom i reported to. after she moved away and that hospital was no longer getting a new system i reported to one of the managers in is. i have since retired from that position and have a newer position across the country and am in the is department. my fellow clinical analyst and i report directly to the director of is. that being said, no matter who i reported to in the first position i always was pencil lined into is or nuring. in current position we retain close connections with the clinical areas and the cno in all we do. as for pros and cons, the clinical folks have no idea what we do. the is folks have no idea about clinical matters for the most part. looking back, i am not sure it matters so much as to who you report to, it's maintaining the close ties to both departments that is the most important. we have to think like the clinical folk we are but temper that with the technical world too. almost like a split personality! lol good luck! debbie g

Hey Deb! I think you should get some nursing experience before you get into NI. You already have the IT background, getting some clinical background will give you a whole new perspective from the IT side! What about even a part time nursing job? with out the license now a days it's probably harder to land that job. As the nursing population is aging jobs should be opening soon! I suggest to all new nurses, spend a good year on a med-surg unit getting a good solid foundation then branch out. JMHO. In the meantime go ahead and study for your NI certification. We are currently in a huge build right now and one of our best super duper users has only been a nurse for 1 year! Good luck in your endevors!

[quote=matthew_rn;5172401 the hardest challenge and peev is the silo effect. the silo effect is what we are experiencing with our implimentation now matthew. we are moving from a legacy system to a new one, and the installers all have their own module and know those very well but may not know about other modules too well. been an interesting ride to say the least. it's hard for us to wrap our heads around the whole picture getting it in bits and pieces! debbie g

good morning cara! [color=#483d8b]i am a diploma grad from many years ago (1973!) i worked at my previous facility for many years, the last 10 years of which i was able to get into the informatics arena. that facility was adopting a house wide his and i was on a team of 3 (nurse, unit clerk and radiology tech) that build the order management portion of the system. i stayed on to maintain and refine. several years later we moved to a new pharmacy system which i assisted with, then patient documentation and radiology implementation. you do not have to be in the hospital environment to get into ni however, there are nursing home systems also around that cater to their unique needs. [color=#483d8b]i would say however to get your degree, make yourself known that you are interested in helping with his systems. volunteer to help with testing of upgrades, ask to be a part of a build team. also, look on the ania-caring job list, you will be able to find jobs there, some that will entry type level. [color=#483d8b]good luck!

Hi Cara, While I am not certain, I would say that no your current position does not hinder you at all. The current hospital I work at has a nursing home affilitated with it, they just went live with a specialized nursing home system that addresses their unique needs. Debbie G

angela, i haven't been getting onto the site a whole lot the past few months as i have been moving from nw ohio to ne vermont and into a new position at a new hospital after retiring from the old position! i hope to get onsite more and would love to read anything you blog about. i don't have any specific suggestions for you i think others have given you a lot to start with! good luck and thanks for all you do! debbie

loved it! we had a build session this week for mckesson ccs module and the last day just before closing, i played this for the group. they loved it! really helped the brain drain feeling too and ended a very productive and positive day on a good note! debbie:yeah:

:) hi! we are in the build stage as well. we just started having classes in january (well financials started before then) clinicals pretty much started then. we are doing om, scheduling, financials, cpoe, ccs, pharmacy, bcma all in one big swoop! our go live is scheduled for august 15 of this year. we have had 3 visits from cpoe ic, this week we start building ccs. we have had 2 visits from pharmacy (maybe 3 not sure) and are working on getting the formulary good now. can't do a whole lot until that is golden then we can start working more on cpoe etc. it is a huge project that is for sure! you need to set up an account on yahoo and "join" the listserve. you get approved and can post there and get some help from those who have been there, done that. i've been a nurse for a long time, but have been in informatics for the past 10 years. my good friend that i now work with has been in the arena for even longer! i think about 15 years now! i know this is her third house wide implimentation! this is my second big one, but have had lots of little ones in between there too. good luck! i will try to private message you with my business e mail and can tell you more on how to get to the list serve. \ debbie g