Thinking of a career in Informatics

I too am looking to move into the Health Care IT world. So far, I have met with people who only think they understand IT and don't want anybody to disturb their world-view.

So far, the most common advice I hear is get your "RN" license. RN's know everything, especially if they have a... BSN...

My quesitons:

Has your experience in "in implementing, developing, and running larger scale Enterprise applications and systems" been within the healthcare environment? Healthcare systems design, implementation and maintenance is a totally different beast then in Corporate America, banking or any other industry.

If it has been then I'd say why get a nursing degree? I'm "interested" in Jazz but I have no intention of obtaining a degree in music. I'd also advise against getting a degree in nursing if your sole and ultimate intention is to work in healthcare informatics. A nursing degree is a huge investimate of time, money and.........blood, sweat and tears. Get a nursing degree because you want to be a nurse and practice nursing.

If your goal is to increase your credibility in the healthcare informatics arena by increasing your clinical knowledge why not look at a healthcare informatics certification course?

Greatings all, new to the forum!

Ok here it goes. I am thinking of becoming an RN in Informatics due to the fact that I fell in love with this new field. I have tons of years in implementing, developing, and running larger scale Enterprise applications and systems. I have grown tired of Corp. Env. since it was never my passion and I have always been interested in the Nursing field. I hold a Bachelors in CS, and was wondering if I should go get a BSN or ADN/ASS RN instead. I am interested in hearing from the seasoned Nurses out there on which route to persue. Thank you all in advance and have a wonderful day!

JC:D

I don't think JC stuck around... But regarding the differences between corporate america and healthcare, I see lots of need for technological changes, some as basic as software bug fixes but there's little appreciation for the issues and certainly no excess money to fund it. Healthcare Informatics must be a very challenging field even in the best of times.

Hi all. Although I'm not a seasoned informatics nurse, I'm a seasoned nurse. I'm probably going to get flak for writing this but I personally feel that anytime someone is talking about coming from a non-health care field into nursing (medical, public health, etc) informatics, you need to actually demonstrate that you can provide quality patient services for at least six months to a year before you move into informatics. Otherwise, why bother getting an RN license where you will be held to a certain standard and expected to demonstrate a certain level of expertise in nursing practice? After all, health care is ultimately about the users of the service and not the nurses. In addition, meeting the needs of the end user in informatics may be more of a challenge if you don't have the understanding of what the end user is really up against. Just ask us end users who get frustrated when we see a need for a reconfiguration or tweaking of software to make it more user friendly.

i'm an lpn and have been doing it support for 2 years. i have been seriously considering obtaining my adn so that i could go further in this field. but looking back, i have done fairly well to this point. most recruiters, when they post their client's needs, specify rn with clinical background so they can relate to the workflow issues that arise when building the programs for their facility. i have always been extremely happy being an lpn and until i started doing it work, never contemplated going on for my rn degree. so i think for the time being, i will just stay where i am at and see what comes my way.