You know your'e an Informaticist when.......

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Specializes in Informatics, Education, and Oncology.

YOU KNOW YOU'RE AN INFORMATICS NURSE WHEN ……..

1. You initially flinched at the use of all upper case letters (considered shouting) in the title above

2. You accidentally enter your password on the microwave.

3.You haven't played solitaire with real cards in years and know (via review of audit trails) which users’ PCs in-house have been playing the on-line version of the game.

4. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of 3.

5. You e-mail the person who works at the desk/cubical/office next to you.

6. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don't have e-mail addresses.

7. You pull up in your own driveway and use your Blackberry, Smartphone or PDA to call to see if anyone is home to help you carry in the groceries.

8. You wonder why every commercial on television does not have a web site at the bottom of the screen.

10. Leaving the house without your cell phone and or laptop, which you didn't have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get them.

11. You get up in the morning and go on line before getting your

coffee.

12. You start tilting your head sideways to smile.

: )

13. You can text with the best of them, have a "BFF"……… or know what those letters stands for.

14. Your definition of “a critical situation” has changed from one dealing with the decline in a patient’s physiological status to being unable to access ANY module of your HIS.

15. "Downtime" for you means additional work and inconvience.

16. You are too busy to notice there was no #9 on this l ist.

17. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn't a

#9 on this list

AND NOW YOU ARE ROTFL at yourself.

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:D

Guilty of looking for 9.

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Specializes in Med/Surg <1; Epic Certified <1.

Well, I'm not in the healthcare informatics field, but good heavens, I picked up more IT habits in my last career than I thought!! lol

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Specializes in Cardiac Care.

I have 17 BFF's...

8 of which I haven't actually "met"...

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I have to say I am just SOOOooo excited about Nursing Informatics!! I just found out about this profession last night. I am been wondering if/how I could combine my love for nursing and computer science. I figured one would support my fun habit :bugeyes:

I have gone back to school @ 40?? and 2 young children. I have been torn between the two different fields. I just figured I would get a degree Nursing and CS, and hope I could do something with it...Hallelujah...I've seen the light.

Anybody up for some advice? I am planning to apply to ADN program next spring. It appears to be very difficult to get in (Calif., and lottery) although I could get right in...who knows. So my plan is if I do not get right in, I will continue working on BSN prereq's to apply for that and continue the CS along the side. I am not able to find a clear direction for Nursing Informatics other than paid programs (University of Phoenix, DeVry, etc) of RN-MSN programs. I am assuming this is because RN experience is needed. Any words of advice or directions??

Thank you...

BTW; I was looking for #9 and laughed with most, "OMG, that's me"

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F4Mom, do you have any systems experience? Try to get into a hospital or health care organization in the IT department now.

You'll need some clinical experience to go directly into informatics but not IT.

Good luck!

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Specializes in cardiac/critical care/ informatics.

I wouldn't think of going anywhere without my lap top and even took it on the cruise.

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To F4Mom ... I would highly recommend if you decide to get a computer science degree that you don't take any computer programming classes if you are in nursing school. While I'm not in informatics right now (big possibility for me in the future), my first degree is in Computer Science and I just finished my ADN. Not to discourage you, but both require a whole lot of of time & focus. I remember countless nights in front of my computer in school trying to get my computer program/assignment to work ... my advice is just not to take both at once ... there isn't enough time in the world to study for nursing and finish a VB.NET program at once. Just my $0.02.

By the way ... I love the list, I can completely relate to those listed above.

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