Vince_RN

I'm an ED nurse, and a long time computer hobbyist and general tech geek. For the past 18 months I've done some informatics stuff as a side job at work. For a while it was half my job, though now it's a quarter or less. I worked on the build team and the roll out of our first EMR (we were pushed right up against the meaningful use deadline, but made it with several seconds to spare...) I did pretty much all the work flow stuff for the ED and some for the rest of the hospital, designed all the forms we document on, helped design and teach the classes first to superusers, then to the rest, and I do much of the teaching and a lot of the changes and improvements in out documents and orders and such. I've really enjoyed this and am thinking about making the move to doing it full time. I have a sort of mentor for this at work, but I thought I'd ask a few questions here too and hopefully get advice from a few informatics professionals. What I'm wondering about mainly right now is the education part of it. Certificate vs Masters? Does doing the extra work to get the masters increase job opportunities and salary enough to be worth it? Health vs Nursing Informatics? I understand the difference in focus, and looking at the courses but would be very interesting. Is one more marketable then the other? Thanks for any info or advice, Vince_RN

Ridiculous is a daily occurrence in this business. I have seen a patient in her 60s who came to the ED because she had a bad dream, that was one of the most ridiculous I guess. A favorite ridiculous patient is the one that comes in with a vague chronic complaint of several years duration that a dozen specialists have failed to diagnose who comes into the ED expecting a definitive diagnosis. Another favorite of mine is the folks the police bring in on mental health holds even though there is no mental health complaint simply because they were annoying people and generating 911 calls.

Don't worry about finding three ED patients difficult 4 months into a residency. I've seen hundreds of new nurses start their ED careers, and few were really capable of properly taking care of three ED patients at that point. Many thought they were, but that showed they were overconfident, not competent. It does get easier, but it takes time. Starting in a residency at the kind of hospital you describe is the right way to do it. Stick to it, work there for at least a couple years, and you'll have a great career ahead of you. On that list posted above, expect to be at the "beginner" level when you finish residency. "Competent" perhaps a year later. I would say "Proficient" is perhaps 5 years into your career.