Software-Related Nursing Opportunites?

Greetings. I am a new nurse with less than six months of experience under my belt. I had a very hard time in the last two semesters of nursing school - so difficult that I took an entire year, after graduating/receiving my license, off. I have mixed feelings about how I handled those situations.

I started working in late September, working PRN nights at both a nursing home and at a small, critical-access hospital with only 7 rooms for the floor. There is always 1 nurse (RN or LPN) and 1 CNA there on the floor at all times. I figured that I would get some MedSurge experience, albeit an inconsistent amount due to a very real chance of not having any patients (Many days, I've only had one patient, many of them being very self-sufficient patients. These types of patients are almost always swing-bed.).

The nursing home is a 60-bed facility and challenges nurses to become more efficient with time management, general medication knowledge, and thorough - swift -assessment skills. I've been there only a few months and I have identified issues with several residents that ended up with them, justifiably so, sent to our attached ER/Floor (where I work). I largely attribute this to my lack of familiarity with these residents, though I understand the merits of being familiar with them.

So, I think I am doing a fairly good job balancing acute patients, swing-bed, and nursing home patients. So, I decided to go full-time nights on the floor and PRN days/nights with the nursing home. I am sometimes put on days as a nursing supervisor (only 3x now). I do the best charting, which I don't really think is much of a feat considering I am in a rural town in Mississippi.

So here's where I am. I enjoy the (sometimes) slower pace of the night shift life, but it leaves my personal relationships in a void because of the opposing schedules. Every night shift nurse, I'm sure, knows this struggle. I don't see myself wanting to switch to day shift due to administration pulling nurses, specifically in the nursing home, in all different directions with med passes (8 am med pass - lord jesus), bureaucracy, and increasing amounts of policies, in-services, charting demands, and, quite frankly, the one we know best - an understaffed facility. The only time it would ever be fully staffed is when State randomly pops up once a year, and you see office dwellers you haven't talked with since you were hired. 

These are all normal things related to nursing, I'm learning... and I don't think it's for me. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love taking care of people. I love sympathizing/empathizing with patients and residents, but there really are only two parts of my job as an ADN - Pass medications and chart; I know there is more, but this seems to be the bulk of the work - and, as you guys know - and are paid pennies. 

So, to get to the point of my post - I am seriously considering finding a nursing-related day-shift job once I get a year under my belt. The only catch is that I am leaning towards integrating nursing with what I originally thought I wanted to do - computer science and anything software related. My conundrum is this: I want to move towards this integrated type of career (move away from patient care into a technological area that would benefit nursing), but I am unsure of where to start, where I could go, and what I could do.

If you've gotten this far, I appreciate your time.

 

Summary: I didn't know what I was getting myself into when I became a nurse, and now I want to shift my nursing work to be more software related, yet still benefitting the healthcare profession I've chosen. 

Research an advanced degree in Nursing Informatics.

Best of luck. You will need 2-5 years of acute care experience, but there are indeed nurses that work with computer systems more than with people.

It also depends on where you live. Unless you are in a large metro area, those jobs are hard to find, but it can happen. I was completing my MS in Informatics when I discovered that there is a lack of jobs out there, and a market flood of grads with experience. I changed my degree focus. I also have a master's in programming. So look for a job, but get some experience before making the leap

See our members advice in allnurses Nursing Informatics forum:

https://allnurses.com/nursing-informatics-c18/