RN vs Health Information Management

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Hello,

I want to become a RN, but I can't afford to quit my job to go to school full time. I came across the field of HIM. This degree could be taken completely on line. I would like to know would I be wasting my time pursuing this degree? Which field would have more job opportunites RN or HIM? I live in Alabama. Thanks for the advice!

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Specializes in Pediatric Critical Care.

I know someone who did this program at the college level and they are now working in the Canadian Institute for Health Information making a good income, if you are detailed oriented, enjoy office working and working with databases then HIM is for you.

The person I know absolutely loves it!

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Thanks for your reply!

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Before you enroll in your HIM progam please go to www.CAHIIM.org to make sure your program is accredited. It is important that you will be attending an accredited HIM program so that after graduation you can sit for the RHIT or RHIA exam depending if its an associates or bachelors program. Yes there are a lot of HIM jobs out there. It is important to be credentialed so that you will have more job options in this field. Especially medical coding...and with the new ICD-10 classification system being implemented in 2013 we will need more coders. You just have to figure out what part of HIM you are interested in which I'm sure you will figure out when you take your classes. Also check out www.ahima.org it also a lot of information with the careers options in HIM.

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I am currently in this program, and as another poster said, make sure the school is accredited. I was kind of forced into this degree, since I had 10+years in IT, and wanted to get into the Health field. After beginning, I found that my school was not accredited. I also found when searching through jobs, there were not many that did not want you to have some patient experience, be it an RN, LPN, or otherwise. Check through local job listings to see if it's right for you.

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I am currently in this program, and as another poster said, make sure the school is accredited. I was kind of forced into this degree, since I had 10+years in IT, and wanted to get into the Health field. After beginning, I found that my school was not accredited. I also found when searching through jobs, there were not many that did not want you to have some patient experience, be it an RN, LPN, or otherwise. Check through local job listings to see if it's right for you.

I saw your other thread where you talked about being in a degree program in health informatics, and I think you may be confusing health informatics with health information management (or what used to be called "Medical Records"). Health informatics positions typically want you to have some clinical background/experience, but I've been in nursing a very long time and I don't think I've ever run into a medical records (HIM) person who has a clinical background. I'm having a hard time picturing that programs have suddenly started requiring that.

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I saw your other thread where you talked about being in a degree program in health informatics, and I think you may be confusing health informatics with health information management (or what used to be called "Medical Records"). Health informatics positions typically want you to have some clinical background/experience, but I've been in nursing a very long time and I don't think I've ever run into a medical records (HIM) person who has a clinical background. I'm having a hard time picturing that programs have suddenly started requiring that.

You are right. I have been interchanging the two.:uhoh3:

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