It's graduation season. High schools and colleges everywhere are celebrating as they should. It's a major accomplishment.
Although it's been many years since I've been a student, I still recognize the significance of this time. I have been in my profession for over 26 years, but I didn't finish my Master's degree until 2009. The profession I am in, Healthcare IT, just fell into my lap, and I'm glad it did. I started out as a computer operator at a small hospital in Delaware in 1998, in the Hospital Information Systems department (HIS). I dealt with a lot of paper reporting, paper documenting for charts, and data entry,. Not long after I started in this field, the government began to give financial incentives to healthcare institutions to encourage the transformation away from paper to an electronic health record (EHR). As such, the healthcare technology industry grew by leaps and bounds.
I'm sharing all of this because a couple of weeks ago, I went to an Expert User's Group for the EHR I work on. As I walked around the sea of people, I noticed that there weren't many that looked like me. There were about 10,000 people there, and there were less than 100 people of color. I was a little grieved by this statistic, but thought that maybe there isn't enough conversation around Healthcare IT as a career choice. Although there is no particular degree that will guarantee a career, Healthcare IT relies on a combination of technical, project management, along with business administration and business management skills.
I want to let our people know about this hidden gem. We don't always realize the opportunities that exist within Healthcare. When we hear IT, sometimes people only think of businesses like Apple, or Facebook, or other places in Silicon Valley. If you have friends or family members that are graduating and looking to start their careers, I would highly encourage pursuing positions in Healthcare IT. It's a lucrative field, and hospitals will always be around as long as there are people who need healthcare.
This was a great read. I look forward to reading more of your blogs.