Since there isn’t a defined route to becoming an informatics nurse, each person’s journey is unique. Such is the case with my path to informatics. Here’s how I leveraged my background and experience to achieve this goal, and the challenges I overcame.

Can I work with information technology as a nurse?

Nursing informatics was not even in my lexicon; I had no idea what it encompassed at the time. It was not something I learned about in nursing school or clinical experiences, but it was briefly mentioned at a nursing governance meeting at work. I “googled” the term and discovered that it was the perfect way for me to meld my interests, skills, and education. I researched what I could about it, but found that the information available was ultimately lacking.

The notion of being an RN who uses technology to promote and improve patient care sounded amazing to me. I was smitten with the idea, and for me, it was all about pursuing that goal from that point forward.

How I Got My Foot In The Door in Informatics

Getting your foot in the door in informatics is notoriously challenging, and there isn’t necessarily a prescribed path one should take as a nurse, such as you would in becoming a CRNA, for example. My path into informatics wasn’t straightforward; however, the following helped:

• I researched the position I wanted to apply for. I learned all about the applications the role would utilize and their purpose.
• I sought out a mentor. I joined Facebook groups and reached out to those who worked in similar roles.
• I participated in informatics meetings for my hospital; it’s a good way to learn about the different roles and how informatics impacts clinical workflows and patient outcomes.
• I participated in process improvement focus groups in my OR department and helped to implement change within the EHR and mobile applications we used.
• When interviewing, I focused on my experience with the inpatient nursing and surgical modules within the EHR, as well as my educational background in computer science before nursing.

I Landed A Great Entry-Level Role

My first role in informatics was as an EHR Support Analyst for the same facility that I worked for in the OR. In this role, I did the following:

• Provisioned clinical users with EHR access.
• Performed clinical documentation audits.
• Worked on support tickets for EHR-related problems.
• Provided at-the-elbow support to clinical end-users.
• Updated clinical documentation screens and data elements within the EHR with scheduled maintenance releases.
• Upheld corporate change control standards.
• I participated in the facility informatics council.

It was a great opportunity to get my start in informatics, and I truly loved what I did. I learned a lot about various clinical workflows as well as hospital throughput, as that is all captured in some aspect within the EHR and supporting applications.

I loved that I could combine two passions of mine, technical and clinical, and make a career of it. I liked that I could help use technology and the EHR to save time by either streamlining documentation, which saves clinicians valuable time, or building a report to pull relevant data.

The Challenges I Faced

The transition from OR nurse to informatics nurse did present some unique challenges. Thankfully, I was able to draw upon my own experience and technical savvy to address most of them. For other challenges, I relied heavily on my informatics peers to guide me.

Nursing school doesn’t prepare you for informatics or information technology-based work at all. My former manager once told me, “You can teach a nurse about IT, but you can’t teach IT professionals about what we do as clinicians.” Make no mistake, IT professionals are very knowledgeable in their respective areas, but you can’t sum up years of nursing education and field experience in a training module for IT staff. That’s where informatics nurses come in.

Some of the things I struggled with are:

• Concepts of change management at each level throughout the company: I struggled with how a request began and how it would eventually make its way to corporate teams for execution.
• Outlook: Like really using Outlook for scheduling meetings, blocking schedules, and advanced email functionalities.
• Task Prioritization: When you are used to prioritizing patient care, triaging problem tickets and other requests was a bit of a challenge at first.
• IT Etiquette: The unspoken rules about updating problem tickets, forwarding problem tickets, Webex meetings, email requests, and more.
• IT Lingo: VPNs, Thin Client, UPS, BYOD, WAN, and more!

While I had some great mentors and IT colleagues to show me the ropes in this field, I also relied heavily on application tutorials found online from the software vendors. There are also a number of great resources on YouTube.

However, I have since moved on from that role and am now working as a clinical analyst in informatics. You can subscribe to my blog for more on this amazing realm of nursing.