NURSING INFORMATICS

Nursing Students Western Governors

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I am a BSN prepared nurse with an interest in nursing informatics. I am not sure whether I should do nursing informatics or healthcare informatics. I am not sure what the difference is and if there are any limitations with either. I would one day like to be able to be a builder as an nurse nformaticist.

In addition, my other dilema is choosing a school. I have looked at schools from western governers university () all the way to vanderbuilt. Any suggestions on schools that they had good experiences with and were not very expensive. I am not sure about wguis it accredited and will I get a job if I graduated from there. Please share tour thoughts. Thanks in advance for all responses.

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Specializes in Outpatient/Clinic, ClinDoc.

WGU is fully accredited, inexpensive, and has degrees in both HIM and MSN/Informatics, although I do not believe they have a healthcare "informatics" degree (just health info management).

Do you want to work with medical records/coding/compliance/etc, or work as an informatics nurse and analyze workflows to make changes to the EMR/processes? Both are needed and both can be rewarding. I have the MSN in informatics from but I work in HIM, so it can go either way. :)

That said, many MSN/Informatics grads I know find it difficult to get a job with JUST a degree.

If your main goal is to work in nursing informatics, start looking for entry positions - analyst, superuser, etc. The MSN degree along with those positions could be helpful.

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Thanks for your reply. I would love to do analyzing workflows as opposed to coding and compliance. I have been a bit concerned about doing the program at because they do not have a hands on clinical component where you get to work with a nurse informaticist during the capstone. I was hoping to get good hands on experience especially seeing that I do not have a job in that field as yet. How did you feel about not having that component.

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Specializes in Outpatient/Clinic, ClinDoc.
Thanks for your reply. I would love to do analyzing workflows as opposed to coding and compliance. I have been a bit concerned about doing the program at WGU because they do not have a hands on clinical component where you get to work with a nurse informaticist during the capstone. I was hoping to get good hands on experience especially seeing that I do not have a job in that field as yet. How did you feel about not having that component.

Lack of 'clinical' did not matter to me as this was a bucket list item, however technically you DO need an MSN preceptor for your capstone. Do you ACTUALLY need one to complete the task? No, but you do need one to sign off. You could use that opportunity to work with your preceptor if you wish.

I have heard rumors that the capstone will change, but I am not in a position to know anything official since I am just a grad not an employee :).

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