What is informatic nursing and how do I get into it?

[RNAnalyst]

I actually went in the other direction. 12 years of nursing, a little over 10 of them in the ED, and I was ready for a change. I was in the right place at the right time, when our MIS department was getting ready to implement Meditech's EDM. So, while still working in the ED, I volunteered for "Super User" training, was sent out of town for a week to learn the basics, then became instrumental in developing the screens used to document triage, assessments, treatments and discharges.

That lead me into a full time position as a Nursing Informations Specialist, responsible for the ED and LAB modules for 2 hospitals. I can't remember a time when I enjoyed my work as much, and for me, the stress level dropped so significanly, familyl and friends have commented as to how much more they enjoy my company!

Gotta love it!

[AC439]

RNAnalyst: Glad you found something you like to do. I think your job nature is very different from my previous IT responsibilies. I was the IT director and basically responsible for everything. No, I was not one of those that show up 1.5 hours late at work, then go do golfing and eat lunch with equipment dealers. I had to do both the technical as well as the administrative part of it. As most of the newer MIS tech coming into the field bearing the attitute they can be the newest "geek" and earn $$$, I had to constantly making sure my system servers are all healthy. Therefore, I had my own technical (really technical!) portion of my work to do everyday.

Correct me if I'm wrong, I believe a NI will not required to troubleshoot a faulty RDBMS. If you run into problems with the DB, you probably will first talk to your MIS. They will then either do the troubleshooting (if they have an inhouse programmer or contant the software developer for resolution). I think a NI's job is more of a liasion between system users (nurses) and MIS, and some limited superuser ability of getting into the system to act as the first level support to the users.

I may one day explore into the NI area. But getting back to pure IT/MIS will not be my option.