Recently I was hospitalized, and during my stay had an ‘Aha!’ moment. Since I work for Healthcare IT News, I couldn’t help but observe the healthcare IT happenings swirling around me.

The nurses on my floor were quite open about their likes and dislikes of adoption. For example, I couldn’t receive a bag of saline without a nurse scanning the bar code on the bag, then my wristband, so the data would be recorded in my EMR. Sometimes the scanning didn’t work and frustration was expressed over repeating the process. More than one nurse remarked how they liked the good old days when they could just administer medication and make a note in the chart.

Most of the job postings for clinical IT positions require candidates to have a nursing or related degree, plus a clinical license/background, but I never really understood why this requirement is so essential. Initially, I thought it was because of HIPAA. Now that I’ve witnessed clinicians in action I understand.

Clinicians have a specific skill set as healthcare providers, plus they are the ones using technology the most. While some of the nurses at this particular hospital initially opposed IT implementation, they all accept that it is here to stay and are adapting along with the technology.

Clinicians can provide valuable insight in various healthcare IT roles from consulting to development to implementation in order to better serve the front end, thus improving the patient experience. I did some research and discovered that 14 percent of the jobs posted on HIMSS JobMine in 2011 had clinical or nursing IT titles. I think nursing and clinical informatics will continue to be a growing portion of this job market. From a patient perspective, healthcare IT can only improve with clinician’s involvement.
 

E.J. Fechenda is the Audience Data Manager for MedTech Media. Since 2008 she has helped manage Healthcare Finance JobSpot and Healthcare IT JobSpot - now merged with HIMSS JobMine. She is not a Human Resources professional, nor a healthcare expert, but over the years she's accumulated a lot of feedback and insight from both job seekers and employers alike. Each week E.J. will deliver a blog based on this information. One week will be employer focused and the next week, job seeker focused.