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Why Nurses Make Good CIOs
April 30, 2008
My position as a CIO never ceases to be challenging. But what gets me through many of the dilemmas I face are the experiences that I had as a nurse.
Nursing provided me with obvious, yet critical, skills I needed to succeed: Stay organized, prioritize tasks, be a team player, put patients first and most important, do no harm.
Serving as CIO requires another set of specialized skills: Leadership, a desire to learn, business and political savvy, and critical thinking skills.
It is essential to remember that implementing clinical information systems has a direct impact on patient care.
While one should always tread softly in this area, it is beneficial to have someone who understands essential health care processes to drive technological implementation.
Health care is extremely complex. As a nurse, I was able to garner bits of knowledge about each clinical discipline. Today, I can draw from that background to make more effective decisions.
Managing Change
We all recognize that technology can be a beautiful thing until it slows a busy clinician down. " Despite having sound reasons for installing executive-supported technology, adapting to workflow change is a tremendous burden for clinicians who run to complete one task after another throughout the day.
Managing change is an enormous part of my job. I call on the skills learned in nursing school many years ago to effectively communicate I.T. vision and listen to the needs of the people I serve.
Looking back, I am thankful I was required to take that three-credit class on interpersonal communication.
I’ve learned that to have a more effective impact, I must take time to engage physicians, peers and department leaders to truly assess the needs of our organization.
That way, I can implement customized solutions to meet their specific needs. That dialogue is critical to getting internal buy-in and support for change.
Other challenges I had to meet head-on in my transition from nurse to CIO included learning the business side of health care and developing technical expertise.
Understanding the business is essential, not only when taking steps to meet revenue cycle needs with technology, but also when striving to become a contributing member of the executive leadership team.
Continuous education
While my brilliantly talented I.T. staff can handle the details, I have to continuously educate myself on various aspects of technology to strategically guide us down the right path.
My professional organizations have been a great resource for educational and networking opportunities, and I highly recommend joining at least one.
I was introduced into I.T. functioning first as a clinical applications project team member and then as a clinical applications project manager.
The project management process follows the nursing process closely, and therefore, is a natural progression for nurses to make.
This transition also provides a great opportunity for nurses to get their feet wet in I.T. I would highly recommend any nurse who is interested in I.T. to get involved in clinical implementations in their organizations.
In short, clinicians are organized, efficient people who communicate effectively and possess an in-depth knowledge of clinical processes.
I am proud that I developed that foundation of skills as a nurse. The rest is coming through experience, education and strong mentors at every level of the organization.
Technology is the future of health care. Nurses are in a prime position to lead the industry, implementing the right technology at the right time in the right way.
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