Fortunately, my desire to transition my nursing practice from bedside care to IT has been very well embraced by most geeks I have met. I have never been made to feel like an outsider, or that there was not a place for me. Have, would be the key word here, because I can no longer make that claim.
It should have been obvious to me, but there are some analysts, and applications specialist who feel that what they do cannot be done as well by a nurse. Basically, their degree makes them more qualified to do all the technical work that goes into the informatics work, over say an Associate prepared or even Bachelor’s prepared nurse. While initially this may be the case, information changes so frequently that you are constantly forced to learn new things. So really, the programs and codes and whatever other hoopla that the degree nerds learned is replaced with the new stuff anyways and they have to learn all that.
I can learn anything that they can. Nurses offer a different perspective than those who’s only picture of healthcare is the EMR. I want to be uniquely involved in both nursing and information technology, without a need to eliminate of eliminating any positions in the process. It’s unfortunate that some feel that there is no place for me, even though there’s a real life job title, specialize education, and certification that goes along with the responsibilities I wish to gain: Nurse Informacist.
I can understand, if some nerd walked up to me and told me he was going to start doing my job on the floor, and he/she was going to start off doing on the job training, all the while having the same responsibilities already as a fully registered nurse or licensed practical nurse, but with the plan of going back to school later, I wouldn’t be thrilled with the idea. In fact, I’d probably be disturbed and very upset. But, there is a significant different between direct patient care and informatics that leaves a little more leeway, specially: the patients.
To all you hospital IT person: I don’t want to take your job. I want to translate the language of nursing to you. To all you nurses, I don’t want to shove new technology down your throat, I want to help you to discover the many benefits it can provide to you are your patients. I want to advocate for both of you, to both of you.
See a Nurse Informacists as a resource, not as competition.
As a new nurse and former sysadmin, I could not agree with you more. I am thrilled to see Nerdy Nurse strive to bridge boundaries between providers and technologists. It takes a polymath to succeed in this dual realm. It looks like you are well on your way to success.
Twitter: thenerdynurse
says:
thank you! I certainly hope so!
I am eager to participate in healthcare on a larger scale. I really think I can help to positively impact the lives of many more patients.
My God, this is needed. When you get a chance:
* No more alarms for anything other than a real emergency. When drips are done or lines are kinked, just push a message to a smartphone.
* Those little rolling vitals things? Electronic. Medical records? Electronic. Push the vitals directly into the chart with periodic reviews to make sure they make sense.
* Nurses should spend no more than 5% of the shift charting. Physicians, maybe 10%.
– Thx
Dear Nerdy Nurse-
Love your blog ! And yes. The role of the clinical informatics nurse will become even more vital with Meaningful Use and the pending ACO model.
Here is an article I wrote for HIS Talk on the nurse’s role in ACO’s
http://histalk2.com/2011/05/09/readers-write-5911/
Let’s keep in touch.
Lisa
Dear Nerdy Nurse-
Love your blog ! And you are right, the role of clinical informatics is vital and it will become even more important with the roll-out of Meaningful Use legislation and the pending ACO model.
Here is an article I did for HIS Talk on the nurse’s role in ACO’s.
http://histalk2.com/2011/05/09/readers-write-5911/
Lisa
Twitter: thenerdynurse
says:
thanks for the link!
not as familiar with ACO. Will have to dig into that one deeper.
Thanks for reading and commenting.
I love it. Glad to hear you are breaking new ground. You know you are doing something interesting if it makes others a bit uncomfortable.
Keep up the great work!
Rob
Twitter: thenerdynurse
says:
When I was working in bedside care people never understood why I wanted to do “more”