Suggested NI/IT/IS Interview Questions

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Specializes in Informatics, Education, and Oncology.

***Note - The questions below assume the "position" is located in a hospital or other healthcare delivery organization. Questions would of course be differenct for a Vendor based role/position. ***

Suggested Information Technology/Nursing Informatics/Information Systems JOB INTERVIEW QUESTIONS From the CARING Listserve during the week of 2/4/08 from Kathleen Kimmel, RN, MHA, CHE, FHIMSS, Vice President Nursing Informatics, McKesson Provider Technologies

The best questions you can ask will come from delving into the specifics of the job description. Go through each item on the job description and ask defining questions. Besides thoroughly understanding the job description you may want to consider asking some of the following questions:

*Where within the organization does the Position reside - nursing, IT, or jointly reporting to IT

*Which VP does nursing and IT report to?

*Describe the organization's existing cultural attitudes toward

nursing informatics and IT?

*Ask about collection of metrics, pre and post project

implementation.

*Ask about the use of standardized terminology - SNOMED, LOINC,

NIC, NOC, NANDA, etc.

*Ask about system integration, failover system redundancy, and

interoperability.

*Ask about system security.

*Ask about hardware, software and devices.

*Discuss end user training and the use of super users

*What is the IT department's track record with respect to on-time

and within budget implementations?

*Does the IT department have project managers?

*Are the project managers nationally certified? Is there a program management office that tracks, monitors and reports on all project progress?

*What type of change control process is in place when end users

request changes?

*Is there a change control board?

*How often does it meet?

*Ask about RFID and wireless.

*Ask about system maintenance, performance and downtime.

*Ask about adoption of clinical systems? Is there resistance?

*Have there been any failed IT implementations? Describe.

*Ask about senior management's leadership and support of IT

initiatives?

*Ask about system support resources.

*Ask about the organization's track record in supporting IT.

*What is the budget for IT? Is it growing or shrinking?

*Are there plans to outsource IT or will it remain in-house?

*Ask about the use of data warehouses and data marts.

*Are there a lot of free-standing analytical applications? What data query systems are used, (e.g., COGNOS, Business Objects, etc.)

*What type of knowledge management systems are used?

*Ask about how IT is being used to drive evidence-based practice?

*What type of clinical decision support is used? Ask about

clinical content. How often is clinical content updated? Is the

content point-of-care oriented?

*Are there some major problems or software glitches with some of

the existing clinical, financial or administrative IT systems?

*How does nursing IT ensure relevancy? That is, how does IT know

they are solving the right business and clinical problems?

Are there ties to the existing nursing governance structure? What committees does nursing IT interface with?

*Discuss the strategic plans for nursing informatics - how does

it fit in with the organization's clinical IT strategic plans?

*Is this a new position or an existing position? If it is a new

position, why was it created? If it is an existing position, why did the person who was in the job leave? Does the position have a history of turnover? Why?

*What IT systems/applications would you work with?

*Will you be working directly with IT vendors? If so which ones?

*What are the duties and expectations of the position you are

applying for?

*Who would you report to?

*Describe the specific job expectations. That is describe a

typical day in the life. What are your daily, weekly, monthly tasks,

*duties and responsibilities?

*What type of education, training, etc. is provided? Will you be

able to attend one national conference a year?

*What are the work hours? Will it require on-call coverage?

*Will you receive on-call pay? How often would you be on call? Will you be working nights or weekends? If so how often.

*Will you be spending most of your time at the hospital? If so,

will you have office space there or will you be commuting between an

off-site IT office building and the hospital?

*Will you be able to work from home?

*Who can you turn to for support if you need help?

*Are there flexible job hours? If you need coverage for

school-related demands, (e.g,) time off for midterms and finals, who

will cover you?

*Will you have access to a mentor if you need or want one?

*How will your work be measured? That is, if one were to say you

were doing a great job, what specific behaviors would you exhibit and

*what tasks would you be accomplishing?

*Is there a career ladder? After several successful years in

this position describe potential promotion opportunities.

*Is your remuneration based on a nursing or IT pay scale?

*Ask if you can interview a person who is currently doing this

job. Ask what he or she likes and does not like about the job, etc.

*Ask about the culture and morale of the department.

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Excellent, excellent questions. I left a job after 20+ years in IT to pursue a nursing degree, and now 6 mos into an oncology nursing positing, am thinking of integrating the two pursuits. These questions are essential and thought provoking!!:yeah:

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Specializes in Peds, Ambulatory, Nursing Tech.

Hello,

I am in an MSN educator program. This semester I have to make up a curriculum, test blue print, objectives, and goals. Also outline of courses, descriptions. I would like to do this for a nurse informatics course. Although other than my own comp.knowledge I am not sure what to include.

This assignment is worth 75% of the grade! :confused:

Doe anyone have a sample syllabus for informatics Nursing? (I looked on the wed but none have philosophy, goals, or outcomes.

Also I have to make up 30 questions for a NI test (part of the assignment)

Is there a site where I can get sample NI tests?

None of this will be given to real students its only for the assignment.

I appreciate any help...:idea:

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Specializes in SICU,BURNS,ACUTE DIALYSIS.

Would you perhaps consider mentoring someone......I desire nothing more than to work in informatics. Last year I did a travel assignment to a facillity that was going live with EPIC.......been hooked since. One of my big concerns is that I may doing more formal education than need be. If mentoring would interest you. let me know. and thanks for the great list of interview questions

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Specializes in Informatics, Education, and Oncology.

Greetings rneducator456,

I'd suggest you start with the NI Scope and Standards of practice related to drafting your curriculum, objetives and goals.

The scope and standards of practice should also help with the philosophy or theory part of your assisgnment. Also check out the TIGER project (do an Internet search) as their descriptions of novice and expert informatics nurse should help you with your question development. Sounds like a way cool assignment .....and short of doing it for you I'd also suggest you reference the outline used for the ANA/ANCC NI certification exam...............that should definately give you enough to work with.

Good Luck with your assignment.

Hello,

I am in an MSN educator program. This semester I have to make up a curriculum, test blue print, objectives, and goals. Also outline of courses, descriptions. I would like to do this for a nurse informatics course. Although other than my own comp.knowledge I am not sure what to include.

This assignment is worth 75% of the grade! :confused:

Doe anyone have a sample syllabus for informatics Nursing? (I looked on the wed but none have philosophy, goals, or outcomes.

Also I have to make up 30 questions for a NI test (part of the assignment)

Is there a site where I can get sample NI tests?

None of this will be given to real students its only for the assignment.

I appreciate any help...:idea:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Informatics, Education, and Oncology.

land27,

Feel free to e-mail/private message me and I will be happy to assist in any way that I can related to mentoring.

Would you perhaps consider mentoring someone......I desire nothing more than to work in informatics. Last year I did a travel assignment to a facillity that was going live with EPIC.......been hooked since. One of my big concerns is that I may doing more formal education than need be. If mentoring would interest you. let me know. and thanks for the great list of interview questions
Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in SICU,BURNS,ACUTE DIALYSIS.

Thank you very much. a good starting place is often the most difficult part of the the journey,and know I have one. I'll keep you posted.

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Specializes in Informatics, Education, and Oncology.

Justing linking the two threads - enjoy!

https://allnurses.com/forums/f28/i-want-get-into-informatics-340772.html

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Specializes in Informatics, Education, and Oncology.

One of our long time members has been holding out on us! :eek:

I won't mention any names (Ikarus7401) but you know who you are.

See the link below for a great resource!

NI interview Video and Interview Skills:

http://www.nursinginformaticshq.com/nursing-informatics-interview-videos/

http://www.nursinginformaticshq.com/nursing-informatics-interview-tips/

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Specializes in informatics for 10 years.
One of our long time members has been holding out on us! :eek:

I won't mention any names (Ikarus7401) but you know who you are.

See the link below for a great resource!

NI interview Video and Interview Skills:

http://www.nursinginformaticshq.com/nursing-informatics-interview-videos/

http://www.nursinginformaticshq.com/nursing-informatics-interview-tips/

I wasn't holding out!!! :D More like I didn't know entry level candidates were struggling so much, and that's why those links above came up, because I didn't know what else to do besides scream in frustration:idea:

Just in the past few months I've been involved a bit more interviewing entry level candidates, and it was really sad to see how many of these nurses really wanted to get away from clinical nursing and do informatics, but they failed their interviews miserably because of their weak responses.

What was even more shocking was that these candidates were given screening interviews where they were given details about the job, yet when the actual interview came up, they couldn't recall this information, and hospital directors weren't impressed...actually, some of them were insulted.

So yes, my number one tip when interviewing for a position, please please familiarize yourself with the job post. Looks like silly advice, but this is no joke. Out of 10 interviews we did, only one candidate was able to actually respond to this question. That is sad. Once you nail that question, make sure you are at least familiarized with the project life cycle, or software implementation life cycle.

Anyway, I appreciate you found the post helpful, rninformatics. I hope others will benefit from it. :)

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