Psych or Cardiac Telemetry for future Informaticist

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:nurse:

After several months of applying, interviews, and second interviews, without any success; I have decided to return to bedside nursing. I am in grad school studying health informatics and had hoped to find an entry-level informatics position. Unfortunately, everyone wants experience and my bank account is empty. Informatics will have to be on hold for now. My determination has shifted to finding a nursing job where I can continue building my nursing skills. I have spent 3 1/2 years as an RN on the Pediatric Med/Surg unit. Recently I received two job offers for bedside nursing positions. These offers are in very different departments. The first is cardiac telemetry at an acute care hospital and the second is psych at a children's psych hospital. Both of these positions appeal to me and they both have drawbacks. I would like your opinions for further insight.

Which position would you take and why? Which position is going to provide me with the best experience for a future in informatics? Do psych nurses become informaticists? If so, do they have a more difficult time obtaining these positions? Everyone is searching for 5 years acute care experience. Do they consider working at a children's psych hospital as acute care experience? (The hospital is part of an acute care healthcare system.):confused:

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Specializes in informatics for 10 years.

Which position would you take and why? Which position is going to provide me with the best experience for a future in informatics? Do psych nurses become informaticists? If so, do they have a more difficult time obtaining these positions? Everyone is searching for 5 years acute care experience. Do they consider working at a children's psych hospital as acute care experience? (The hospital is part of an acute care healthcare system.):confused:

There are companies out there that specialize in psych software, and those companies are looking for psych nurses because obviously they want experienced people in the field to represent them. So maybe getting that psych job will increase the list of places that you can apply to.

With that said, I specifically have helped in the implementation of a psych unit and i have no psych experience; but that's irrelevant since i have i suppose a lot of implementation experience.

So which position will provide you with the best experience? The position that will allow you to participate in some type of project implementation while doing your nursing job.

Maybe the psych position will allow you to apply for psych (computer) jobs in the future, but what if this department is not using computers now and is not planning on using them any time soon to do their charting? What if the telemetry job is planning in doing an upgrade to their system in the future and maybe you can be part of that?

Thus my point is that i would look to see which of these positions have a better chance of letting me part of a project, maybe as a super user, or maybe as a team of nurses that meets with the IT department, because that's the type of stuff you want to put in your resume.

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Thank you for your feedback. :) I have worked as a Super User and served on the Nursing Informatics committee while I was a pediatric nurse; so I understand the importance of them both. The telemetry position is at the same healthcare system where I worked previously, but at another facility. I am hopeful there will be opportunities to continue as a Super User. They are changing to a new vendor which would provide additional experience. The psych position is part of a competitive healthcare system and may enable me to see different environments and healthcare dynamics.

They both have their strengths and weaknesses. I guess I go back to "making a list." I need to make a decision by tomorrow.

In today's economy, I am very thankful to be in the position of choosing between 2 jobs. I just didn't expect the choice to be this difficult.

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Specializes in informatics for 10 years.
Thank you for your feedback. :) I have worked as a Super User and served on the Nursing Informatics committee while I was a pediatric nurse; so I understand the importance of them both. The telemetry position is at the same healthcare system where I worked previously, but at another facility. I am hopeful there will be opportunities to continue as a Super User. They are changing to a new vendor which would provide additional experience. The psych position is part of a competitive healthcare system and may enable me to see different environments and healthcare dynamics.

They both have their strengths and weaknesses. I guess I go back to "making a list." I need to make a decision by tomorrow.

In today's economy, I am very thankful to be in the position of choosing between 2 jobs. I just didn't expect the choice to be this difficult.

Personally i would pick the job which would give me the opportunity to get the relevant experience. You might see a new environment, but what good would that be if doesn't help you "pad" your resume?

But as they say, make the choice that feels the best for you. And I've been in the position of always having to choose between two jobs, and i always wondered----why does this always happen to me? :D

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Specializes in ICU, Informatics.

You've probably already made your decision so this may be moot for you, but for the sake of the thread I'll add my 2 cents.

The tele floor is going to expose you to more technology and more opportunity for participating in implementations. I agree with the other posters as well, get all the superuser experience that you can and pad your resume with training.

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