The growing career field of nursing has intersected with the information age in the 2000′s to create a fulfilling opportunity called nursing informatics–a branch of health informatics.

Healthcare informatics refers to that point at which healthcare and information and computer science come together.  Specifically, it deals with the devices, methods and resources needed to optimize the acquiring, storing, retrieving and use of information in biomedicine and health.  Tools in the field include computers, formal medical terminologies, clinical guidelines, and communication and information systems.

The nursing informatics specialist directs and leads the planning and implementation of information technology systems that are used in hospitals, clinics and similar healthcare environments.  The specialist works closely with nurse managers, nurses and with the IT department to gather information that will be used for designing, developing, implementing and evaluating correct clinical information systems.  These systems include software, databases, and other applications used to manage patients, personnel, supplies and other facts needed to deliver efficient and effective patient care.

The nursing informatics specialist serves as the project lead on any IT project which has an impact on clinical departments.  She will manage timelines, vendors, and budgets, and work with leaders such as nurse managers to train system users.  The informatics specialist will also work with managers to ease staff in the transition toward new systems and processes.

In addition, the nursing informatics specialist is usually required to draw upon her own clinical expertise and her knowledge of information systems to make sure that all of the healthcare facility’s systems work for the staff and patients and also comply with federal and state guidelines.

The informatics specialist can expect a good salary, ranging from $40,000 to $120,000 yearly, depending on education level.  Typically, a Bachelor’s degree in nursing is required, with a Master’s degree earning the higher end of the pay spectrum. And of course, a nursing license is required.

The outlook in this field is quite good because it carries a one-two punch.  Number one, all nursing fields are expected to have many openings in the next decade, and two, computer professionals will also be in high demand. Put the two together and you can understand why there is a tremendous amount of job security for the person who has trained himself or herself adequately for a job as a nursing informatics specialist.  Few people will have the skills in both areas to qualify for this job–which means that you will be gold if you happen to be one of those few.

Related Posts

• No Related Post

The Internet has been a godsend for job searchers. It makes it possible to find jobs that fit your skills, all across the country. But the Internet does more than that. There are also plenty of websites that help you with the actual preparation of your resume. Here are the 10 best that we’ve found (in no particular order):

• Susan Ireland’s Resume Site, http://susanireland.com/resume/how-to-write .  What sets this apart is that it approaches the subject as a workshop.  You can take one free resume-preparation lesson at a time. And each lesson comes complete with an on-site video, to help make things clearer.
• The Damn Good Resume, http://www.damngood.com , offers four main sections:  Advice, Resume Samples, Books, and “The Jobs Lounge” (a blog).  Particularly helpful in the Advice section is the article on Tough Resume Problems.
• CollegeGrad.com has a huge section on developing resumes for the college student who is about to graduate.  Most of the advice applies well to those about to exit from nursing school.  The exhaustive resume section is at http://www.collegegrad.com/jobsearch/Best-College-Resumes .
• The.Best.Resumes , http://tbrnet.com , bills itself as “The First Place to Go When You Want a Job.” With all the resources they offer for free, it’s hard to argue. They have an extensive section on developing great resumes, but an equally large section on perfecting your cover letter.
• Got a Mentor lands on our list because they have a list of the best places online where you should post your resume. Find the site at http://gottamentor.com/ViewGeneralAdvice.aspx?g=26.
• It only makes sense that the premier job-hunting site, Monster.com, would have plenty of resume-creation tips. And do they ever!  The resume-tips section is sparse and, honestly, kind of ugly. But what they lack in style, they make up for in breadth–with five pages of articles pertaining to creating the perfect resume. It’s located at http://career-advice.monster.com/resumes-cover-letters/resume-writing-tips/jobs.aspx .
• Pongo is a helpful site that features, not only resume-design tips, but a “Resume Builder,” i.e., a wizard-program that takes you through the process of building your own resume step-by-step, as you answer its questions. It offers a similar Cover Letter Builder. It’s at http://www.pongoresume.com .
• Few things help with the preparation of your resume more than having samples to consult.  And not many sites have a better or bigger selection than Best Sample Resume, http://www.bestsampleresume.com .
• We’ve tried to feature only free sites on this list, but The Resume Clinic is included because of one neat feature. They offer a free critique of your resume, whether you hire them to create a new one or not.  And it might be helpful to hear what a professional thinks about your current resume. You can find them at http://www.theresumeclinic.com .
• And finally, something just for fun, from JobMob:  The 150 Funniest Resume Mistakes, Bloopers and Blunders. Just one example: the candidate who included, with his resume, a letter of recommendation from his mom. See the hilarity for yourself at http://jobmob.co.il/blog/funniest-resume-mistakes .

There are literally hundreds more sites, but after you scan these ten, you should be equipped to make a superb resume–and to land the lob!

Related Posts

• 20 Great Tips for Finding a Job in Nursing
• The Online Nursing Application

Last year, “Rachel” graduated from her nursing program and immediately began complaining about how hard it was to find a job in nursing. Six months later, she had landed a position as a school nurse, while friends with other career goals were still looking. Reality had slapped her in the face: In this economy, jobs in all career fields are scarce, but jobs in nursing are more plentiful than on many other career paths.

Indeed, for the past decade, every study has reached the same conclusion: Nursing is expected to continue adding jobs at an impressive rate, especially as the population grows older and people live long enough to encounter more physical ailments. And what variety there is for those wanting to be a nurse! There are positions in burn care, ambulatory care, emergency rooms, developmental disabilities, home care, geriatrics, medical telemetry, intensive care, mother / baby care, oncology, pediatrics, operating room, psychiatric nursing, recovery room, psychiatric nursing, rehabilitation, school nursing, hospital floor nurse, and more.
Still, landing that interview is never a sure thing. It’s always smart to add a few strategies to your job-search toolbox, to help you find the right nursing job faster. Strategies like the following simple tips:

Begin your job hunt while still in nursing school. That means start working on your resume and talking with whoever does the hiring at hospitals, clinics and other medical services where you might consider working.

Get a Professionally Prepared Resume.  See our post HERE.

Be willing to work as a PRN until you find a regular full-time position. Remember that most nursing positions are filled in-house, so the key is to get your foot in the door.

Take occasional road trips to nearby cities, visiting the local hospitals, clinics and doctors’ offices. Ask about any available positions and also how often new positions become available (If, for instance, every month, then re-visit a month later). You can also leave resumes at each place you visit.

Ask friends or family members to introduce you to their supervisor. It really is often who you know that determines whether you get the job or not.

Contact contract employment and recruitment agencies. By aligning yourself with a recruiter, you get immediate access to jobs that aren’t advertised to the general pubic. Plus, a recruiting agency lets you apply to positions at many medical facilities at the same time with just one resume submission. The agency then shops your resume to all available openings.

Become a master Internet job-searcher. Searching for nursing or nurse on job boards such as careerbuilder.com or monster.com and even Craigslist often unearths hundreds of nursing positions. However, be ready for the fact that hundreds of other nurses are looking at those same ads.

Speaking of the Internet, learn to use social networking sites in your job hunt. Sites such as Facebook or My Space make it easy to keep branching out your contacts further and further. Eventually, it’s likely you’ll find the occasional nurse who can perhaps help you connect with her own employer.  See our post on the Online Nursing Application.

Colleges and nursing schools often have their own databases of open positions, so be sure to scan through those.

Learn to network in the real world as well as on “networking” Internet sites. Networking in the professional sense means letting family, friends and acquaintances know you’re looking for a nursing position. Get leads from them and ask to speak with anyone to whom they refer you. Then, even if those people don’t have a job to offer you, ask them for more leads, and keep working outward until you land a position.

Expand your vision and be willing to accept overlooked nursing positions such as jobs at schools, health insurance companies, the Health Department, at retirement homes and nursing homes, in HOSPICE, in traveling nurse programs, and in mentorship programs.

When you’re on the Internet, look for nursing-specific job sites. For instance, a couple of popular ones are Nursing Jobs, Nursing Exams and Jobs and Nurse Options.

Don’t forget to look at newspaper classifieds. So many people are doing their job-hunting online now that it’s just possible that they’ll overlook the old faithful newspaper ads–leaving the position open for you!

Create a video resume and email it to potential employers. This is an especially good idea for nurses, because personality plays such an important part in how you interact with patients.

Develop a long-term plan. Use your current nursing job to meet key contact people who will might help you to continue moving up the ladder, until you achieve your dream position.

Join professional associations for nurses and those in the medical profession. These are the people who are often aware of where the open positions are.

Stay connected with fellow graduates of your nursing class and other recent alumni. Many good tips have come from fellow classmates who know about hospitals and facilities too far for you to travel there to job hunt.

Keep and show a positive attitude even if a hospital or medical facility doesn’t need you at that time. It’s just possible that a nurse might quit next week. If you’ve left a good impression with the person doing the hiring, you could still get a call.

Start your own business. Before you object, yes, it’s possible to have a nursing business. You could be hired by someone to be a personal nurse to someone unable to care for him or herself. Or to give health-related demonstrations at community events.

Volunteer. Places such as homeless shelters or non-profit hospitals can put your healthcare talents to good use. All the while, you can remind them frequently that you’re interested in any paid position that might become available.

When you finally land an interview, close the deal! To do this, you need to make sure that you’re personable and come across as knowledgeable. You should have done research about the employer ahead of time so you can intersperse what you know about them into the conversation. This shows them interest on your part. Dress professionally and no matter what they ask, always bring your answer around to how your background and experience will benefit them.

It’s a great career path you’ve chosen for yourself–and one with great potential. Don’t give up after the first few rejections. Because in a career field expanding as much as nursing is, if you show a little patience and if you have the talent for the work, you’ll get that dream job soon enough.

Related Posts

• Evaluating Nursing Education Programs
• How to Become a Licensed Practical Nurse
• Accredited Vs. Unaccredited Nursing Schools
• Opportunities for Those Who Pass the PMHN
• Midwife Certification Exam and Accreditation
• A Nursing Educator is a Good Career Choice
• 3 Career Options for Nurses You Might Have Overlooked
• The Internet’s Best Resume Preparation Sites

As with almost all other employment areas, applying to become a nurse has now been made easier thanks to the Internet. That’s because there are now now an abundance of places where you can fill out an online application, which will then be considered by those who do the hiring at various hospitals, clinics, etc.

However, just because it’s easier to fill out an online application doesn’t necessarily make it a better job-search approach. Especially for a field such a medicine, it’s always better to create a resume and cover letter and send those to the facilities with job openings. Here are some suggestions to keep in mind as you complete the online application.

1) Before you start answering any questions, read the entire application. Before you waste your time on it, make sure there are no conditions on it that would preclude you from being considered.

2) Make sure you follow all instructions to the letter. If they ask for full name, don’t use initials. If the application says they need references, then provide them. Don’t assume that anything there is not important enough to follow precisely. Nurses are expected to be able to follow instructions, and to be detail-oriented.

3) If you plan to send a resume to the medical facility, then you need to be certain that the information on the application matches that on your resume. For instance, if the application says you worked for one employer from 2003 to 2007, but your resume said it was from 2004 to 2006, there’s a good chance that someone will catch the discrepancy.

4) Never volunteer negative information. Here’s one of the unfortunate truths that you need to understand about the difference between an application and a resume: Whereas a resume is meant to find a person with the perfect skills to match an open position, an application is designed to weed out those who just don’t fit. That’s why they’re full of places designed to reveal negatives (such as criminal background, schooling, etc.). So there’s no need to give them any additional negatives regarding you and your past. If the application doesn’t ask about your grades in college, then why tell them you received C’s and D’s? If the application asks only about felony convictions, why mention that you’ve had seven speeding tickets in the past two years? Whenever positive, put on a positive face.

5) Here’s a tip suggested to me by a friend, that seems to have merit. If there’s ever a place with plenty of room to type freely, after you’ve answered the question, include something extra about yourself that lets them know you are uniquely qualified for the position. Try to tie it in to the question itself, though. For instance, if there is room to type after the question about your education, after you’ve included the expected degree and college name, insert additional information about extracurricular activities.

6) An finally, before you click “send” or “submit,” check over the application. Make certain there are no mistakes. Send it and forget it. Move on, then, to your next job prospect.

Related Posts

• The Internet’s Best Resume Preparation Sites

Many nurses want a change from the daily routine of being a nurse in a hospital setting or a doctor’s office and want to assume a leadership role and one that offers them more independence. Becoming a Nurse Educator is a career path that offers the opportunity to work in a school setting and teach or you can take on a really independent role and become a community adviser or educator.

To become a nurse educator you will need to pursue your master’s degree in nursing and if you want to pursue a teaching role in a college most places prefer a doctorate for this role. If you would rather be a nurse educator in a practice setting you normally don’t need the doctorate degree and have the chance to work in the community for clients which could include families, groups or businesses or you can work at a hospital or clinic and be responsible for patient education and staff development.
Here are the Eligibility requirements from the National League of Nursing.

A nurse educator can work with students in a clinical setting and be able to effectively answer questions because most of them started out in that role themselves so completely understand the issues and problems associated with the job. With this type of job you have more career opportunities available that probably would pay more and you definitely would have more flexibility in terms of your schedule and ability to work at your own pace.  Nurse Educator Jobs listings

Besides giving you a more independent role where your decisions are yours alone you have the chance to work with changing people’s lives by educating them and advancing healthcare. You can influence people with lifestyle changes and knowledge about proper nutrition particularly in areas like diabetes and other areas that demand more education particularly in today’s world that is moving so rapidly.

More on Nurse Educators from Wikipedia.

Related Posts

• A Nursing Educator is a Good Career Choice
• Evaluating Nursing Education Programs
• How to Become a Licensed Practical Nurse
• Accredited Vs. Unaccredited Nursing Schools
• Opportunities for Those Who Pass the PMHN
• Midwife Certification Exam and Accreditation
• 3 Career Options for Nurses You Might Have Overlooked
• 20 Great Tips for Finding a Job in Nursing