Nurse Entrepreneur: Build Solutions Yourself
Kerry Bruno, an RN and founder of The Mama Coach, advised nurses to consider "building solutions themselves rather than waiting for someone else." Speaking on the Nursing Matters podcast, she framed entrepreneurship and informatics as viable career paths for nurses to address clinical pain points and combat burnout. The discussion highlighted a growing trend of nurses leveraging their expertise to create scalable digital health solutions.
- To transition into nursing informatics, obtaining the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) Informatics Nursing Certification (NI-BC) is a key step. Eligibility typically requires a BSN, two years of RN experience, and recent practice or education in informatics. Beyond certification, employers seek skills in data analysis, project management, and a strong understanding of clinical workflows. - A significant source of frustration for ICU nurses using EHRs is the documentation burden, including repetitive data entry and features that don't align with clinical workflows. A 2024 study highlighted that usability issues in components like flowsheets and care plans are major contributors to this burden. More than two-thirds of nurses report that poor EHR usability contributes to job dissatisfaction. - For informaticists working with Epic systems, optimization strategies focus on refining clinical workflows, such as streamlining medication history and reconciliation processes. Epic offers specific training, like the Nurse SmartUser program, to help nurses improve their efficiency with the system. Key areas for improvement often involve reducing redundant data entry and customizing order sets to minimize clicks and decisions for staff. - Understanding interoperability standards is crucial, with HL7 FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) being a modern standard for exchanging healthcare information electronically. FHIR utilizes web-based technologies to define data into modular components called "resources," making data exchange between different systems more seamless. - Federal regulations from the ONC and CMS mandate increased interoperability and patient access to their health data, largely through the use of standardized APIs. These rules are part of the 21st Century Cures Act and require healthcare providers and payers to adopt technologies like FHIR to facilitate secure data exchange. - Artificial intelligence is increasingly being applied in ICU settings for clinical decision support, with AI-driven systems helping to predict patient deterioration, detect sepsis earlier, and optimize treatment plans. These tools analyze vast amounts of real-time patient data to provide actionable insights that can augment a clinician's judgment. - A foundational knowledge of data science is becoming essential for nurse informaticists, encompassing skills in data collection, cleaning, analysis, and interpretation to inform clinical practice. This includes understanding how to work with various healthcare data sources like EHRs and claims data, and applying data analysis techniques to identify trends and patterns.
