Certified

Today was a big day for me.  I have been working as an informatics nurse for quite awhile now.  Two years ago--I actually left perioperative services to join the nursing informatics department.  It was a bit of a scary move at that time--leaving the comfort zone of the operating room but my job was going away and I needed to move to that position.  I have a new more scary move coming up.  Our whole department will be looking for jobs soon.  The PeaceHealth system has decided that nursing informatics will become clinical informatics and will be system level jobs.  So we have to apply and interview for whatever jobs they decide to post--and we don't really know what they are going to look like yet.  So a lot of unknowns.

I have actually been working toward getting my certification for a year and a half now--taking lots of continuing education classes and prep courses to try to get ready for it.  I have been studying particularly hard the past month or so.  It was so important to me to get this.  I felt like I needed it to be competitive for the new jobs that will be posted.  So many of my co-workers have or are working towards their masters degrees.  And one of them is even working on her doctorate.  So I have been feeling like I needed to do something to make myself look more competitive.  At this point in my life, it was hard enough for me to devote my attention to getting this certification accomplished much less try to get my masters degree.  I just don't have the attention span for studying and writing papers anymore.

So happy to have this accomplished.  Now to start working on my interviewing skills.  Yikes.  I haven't interviewed for a job in 18 years and they didn't do behavioral based interviews back then.  I have been involved with interviewing others and have always thought--"Glad it isn't me--I don't think I could answer these questions."  So more work ahead but for today--it was a very good day.