Hello,
I am about to apply to a graduate program to get my master’s in health informatics administration instead of bioinformatics. The program is CAHIIM accredited and I will be able to sit for the RHIA exam after graduation. I will also get a student discount to join professional networks. Here’s my background.
-B.S. Biology with Chemistry minor
-4 years work experience in Microbiology (2 years food science and 2 years pharmaceutical/medical device) and even some engineering (pharmaceutical/medical device manufacturing)
-No clinical experience
-No IT experience
-I am not even remotely interested in moving up into managing/supervising people. Only the data and/or systems.
Here are my expectations with a HIM career:
-Increase in overall salary potential without managing people (I was paid $11.50/hr for entry level into Microbiology with my bachelors as reference.)
-Successful/comfortable career by only managing things (systems/data/projects) and not going into management/supervisor roles. (Successful/comfortable = stable schedule Monday to Friday, 40 – 50 hour average work week, and around $60k/yr)
-Making clinicians (direct care) lives easier by managing EMRs…etc. I love making people's lives easier at work.
Will I be able to get a job after graduation and RHIA credential? I’ve heard of others volunteering at local hospitals, but will I even be able to volunteer since I have zero experience? Should I work towards getting a coding or IT credential and job first to gain experience while working through my master’s program in case I can’t find an internship? Are my HIM career goals realistic? I thought about bioinformatics briefly, but I think there will be more jobs in HI and HIM.
Be brutally honest please. Thank you for your insight.
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