5 year plan

[mcclatchey5]

Hello,

I am in my 4th week as an applications analyst in the MIS department of the hospital where I work. I was previously a staff nurse on the med/surg floor. I met with the CIO of the entire hospital network (I work in a 100 bed hospital owned by a larger hospital in a large metropolitan area) and he asked me where I wanted to be in 5 years. Well, I wasn't sure how to answer because I am so new to informatics. I told him I would let him know in 4 weeks and he is expecting a formal 5 year plan by than. Does anyone have any tips for 1) what possible career paths an informatics nurse have and 2) how to write a formal five year plan.

[3rdcareerRN]

One key item is whether you want to go wide or deep.

Wide = understanding how IT helps the organization stay in business and then helping select/deploy IT

Deep= knowing everything about a particular application/technology and improving its performance/use in the organization.

Risks/rewards:

Wide=requires political savvy, has high visibility; firing likely if you lead new initiative that fails...but you are quite employable elsewhere.

Deep=easy to just do your job tasks, can see personal results; if your application/technology is replaced by new shiny thing selected by Wide specialist then you're at high risk of layoff.

("3rdCareer"=many scars from choosing both routes above at various times. :))

Really, this is not so different from any career path involving personal growth -- such medsurg nurse to either float nurse (wide) or clinical specialist (deep).