How do I get from ICU into Cath Lab or Nursing Informatics?
ICU to Cath lab should be simple depending on your experience, training, and skill levels. You need to reach out to someone in the Cath lab and find ou the requirements then connect with the person in the lab who does the hiring. The rest depends on finding the openings posted by the HR dept.
if you are looking on line you need to have you search parameter set in a way your skills match the listed requirements ( the computer filters are very picky)
Nursing informatics used to be simple to get into by just having more computer skills and system understanding that the next applicant. These days if you are really interested you need to find at minimum a certificate program in informatics - most Schools of nursing at University levels offer a certificate. Many offer BSN or MSN level degrees. Knowing a how the base operating systems work (even if you don't program you need to understand the logic and function of the system, Then you get to add the operations and function of nursing onto the framework and make the system work for you not you for the system. AND I assure you the techno folks you work with DO NOT and WILL not ever understand how a nurse thinks!
used a computer and be registered with your computer and be certified or board certified
You have a solid foundation specifically iv drips and arresting pts, the rest is done when you start in the Cathlab. You’ll start circulating then monitoring and finally scrub.
Talk to the Cath lab manager. Ask to shadow unpaid and get to know the staff. Tell them how impressed you are with the job they are doing. Same with ICU. ICU has a long orientation in most healthcare systems from one to 6 months or more. Nursing Informatics is a little tougher since it requires some specialization. This is something you need to be knowledgable in order to be work-ready. Speak to the manager about a position and see what is needed as far as education, certification, and years of experience. These positions are posted at hospitals all the time but filled quickly for the right candidate.
