Just posted this on one of my Linked In Groups, its a question I get constantly from my fellow project managers and programmers/engineers who have been laid off and want to get into the healthcare IT world.
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I have been trying to get a lot of people in this industry, mostly project managers and programmers. Few tips:
1. Healthcare industry is very focused on people within the healthcare, its hard for people from outside to enter, so one way would be to start volunteering at your hospital to understand the workflow.
2. Join different online and local community chapters for HIMSS, PMI and network with local healthcare groups. Attend conferences, HIMSS being one of the best ones and learn about the vendors, talk to vendors, learn about the field.
3. This may be long term, go back to school to learn about healthcare informatics. I have been recommending people to the UCONN online healthcare IT course that HIMSS backs. If you like a specific department, try to get experience in that department - work as a pharmacy tech, radiology tech... on the side.
4. Talk to vendors directly to get a position with them. Start with the most basic work, leverage what you already know. Getting a consulting job is difficult without specific industry experience, however you can get employed by the EMR vendor and gain experience in that regard.
5. Once you have done all the top 4 things, try getting some go lives under your belt. That gives you direct vendor experience. Getting to staff at go lives is a matter of being able to talk the talk and getting through the recruiter and added to their go live list.
Like any other industry, the world is small here. Once you get the first gig the next ones will fall into your lap if you have the right connections and develop the right path for yourself.
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Another article that I read this morning:
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I have been trying to get a lot of people in this industry, mostly project managers and programmers. Few tips:
1. Healthcare industry is very focused on people within the healthcare, its hard for people from outside to enter, so one way would be to start volunteering at your hospital to understand the workflow.
2. Join different online and local community chapters for HIMSS, PMI and network with local healthcare groups. Attend conferences, HIMSS being one of the best ones and learn about the vendors, talk to vendors, learn about the field.
3. This may be long term, go back to school to learn about healthcare informatics. I have been recommending people to the UCONN online healthcare IT course that HIMSS backs. If you like a specific department, try to get experience in that department - work as a pharmacy tech, radiology tech... on the side.
4. Talk to vendors directly to get a position with them. Start with the most basic work, leverage what you already know. Getting a consulting job is difficult without specific industry experience, however you can get employed by the EMR vendor and gain experience in that regard.
5. Once you have done all the top 4 things, try getting some go lives under your belt. That gives you direct vendor experience. Getting to staff at go lives is a matter of being able to talk the talk and getting through the recruiter and added to their go live list.
Like any other industry, the world is small here. Once you get the first gig the next ones will fall into your lap if you have the right connections and develop the right path for yourself.
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Another article that I read this morning:
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