You are: The Strategic Coach

You don’t need a technical degree to break into this field, just the right focus and foundational skills. Begin by:

• Leaning into your strengths and translational experiences: Do you have leadership or managerial experience in any industry? Have you ever presented in front of a large audience? Carry the confidence that your motivation to teach and support, and ability to create solutions are valuable assets!

• Exploring entry-level certifications such as Google’s IT Support Certificate and Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt or Green Belt. Project Management Professional (PMP) is also helpful.

• Learning how EHR systems work through YouTube tutorials or free demo environments (if available). Consider starting with general healthcare workflow courses to build context.

• There are several pathways to take when achieving your specific goals. These are just three options:

  • It is possible to start your career path by finding an EHR Trainer role without direct experience, however some sort of teaching background or credential will be a likely prerequisite or preference by an employer.

  • Consider taking a clinical operations approach by working your way into a Practice Manager or supervisor role of a Healthcare System’s specialty or service line. Specifically, an opportunity that works closely with technologies such as Remote Patient Monitoring, Telehealth, or equivalents. For example, practice manager of a cardiac clinic that leverages remote patient monitoring.

  • Last but not least, consider finding a role in some sort of healthcare IT talent/consulting agency as a recruiter and work your way up!

• Networking with professionals on LinkedIn or local HIMSS chapters to understand hiring paths and job shadowing opportunities.

Essential Resources:

• The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for getting up to speed faster and smarter - This book focuses on the importance of the first 90 days of a new role. Missteps in that timeframe can jeopardize or even derail your success.

  • Hardcover version

  • Kindle Version

• The Digital Doctor: Hope, Hype, and Harm at the Dawn of Medicine’s Computer Age. - This book is a compilation of compelling stories and hard-hitting analyses of physicians that provide insight into the challenges of technology in the healthcare sector. (links below)

  • Paperback version

  • Kindle version

More specific to your aspirations:

• Switch: How to Change Things when Change is Hard - Great insights and strategies on embracing and facilitating change.

  • Hardcover version

  • Kindle version

• Who Moved My Cheese? - a simple, amusing, yet enlightening read that is referenced to often, especially during times of change.

  • Paperback version

  • Kindle version

Your clinical experience is a powerful asset. Here’s how to build on it and pivot into a technical role:

• Lean into your strengths and translational experiences. Stand out to your IT/informatics department by suggesting optimizations to workflows, or volunteer to be a subject matter expert or “super user.” If you believe your leader will be supportive, share your interest in this next phase of your career. Disclaimer, not all leaders are created equal so sharing such information will not always yield the same result for everyone, but it can make an impactful difference!

• Target roles that bridge clinical and IT skills, like Clinical Informaticist, Epic Trainer, or Support Analyst. These positions highly value your hands-on care experience. These are likely the most attainable with zero tech experience in your position, you will likely create the opportunity to pivot to other opportunities down the road with time and experience.

• Volunteer to help with new initiatives that involve IT or Electronic Health Record (EHR) training. This will make you visible to your organization’s IT team and potentially open up some doors for you.

  • You may also consider volunteering for an onboarding process for your department specific to EHR fundamentals.

  • Pilot programs are also great ways to have closer collaboration with Healthcare IT professionals in your organization.

• Consider specialized training in systems like Epic (through an employer or consulting firm), or certifications in Health Informatics (e.g., AMIA 10x10, or CAHIMS).

• Document your process improvement contributions from the bedside such as: helping optimize documentation workflows, reducing charting time, or using clinical technology effectively.

  • Log your hours spent for any projects you lead! If you want to work on your PMP certification, you must complete a certain amount of hours of project management. You can start counting your hours as soon as possible.

• Leverage mentorship or job shadowing with your organization’s IT or informatics department to understand real-world applications.

Essential Resources:

Success isn’t only about understanding technology, it’s about improving systems. These two books introduce you to the foundational thinking behind workflow optimization, process improvement, and reducing inefficiencies.

• Unlocking Lean Six Sigma

  • Paperback Version

  • Kindle Version

• The Toyota Way

  • Hardcover Version

  • Kindle Version

Recommendation to all clinicians:

• The Influential Mind - strategies and lessons on how to clearly communicate vision and align multiple disciplines; something you will likely need to get familiar with.

  • Paperback Version

  • Kindle Version

Already in the field and ready to level up? Focus your next steps on deepening your expertise and broadening your impact:

• Master specialty skills such as leading organizational change, and aligning stakeholders. If you aren’t already part of a governance committee, or running one, you should strongly consider doing so.

• Earn certifications like Project Management Professional (PMP), Lean Six Sigma Green Belt or Black Belt at this level.

• Build your portfolio with projects such as spearheading Digital Health Initiatives or Pilot Programs and highlight the successes from that effort with clear and undeniable data. Develop a Strategic Roadmap for a 1+ year project initiative that aligns with your organization’s strategic plan.

• Get involved in strategic initiatives within your organization or volunteer for pilot programs to showcase leadership potential in your specialty.

• Explore other tracks or roles. Each role combination is unique, however this role combo likely has the most amount of diversity when it comes to career paths.

  • If you develop the interest or expertise in actually building out changes to an Electronic Health Record, you’d make an excellent Architect.

  • If you don’t want to be a “people manager” you can be a program manager instead so you can manage processes and initiatives.

  • On a tangential path, you’d do very well in an Organizational Development Specialist role. It’s a slight stray from Healthcare IT and that’s alright!

  • You also carry a strong potential to be a client success manager, if you were to end up working for a firm or agency that connects talent and tech to the right healthcare systems and businesses.

Essential Resources:

• Switch: How to Change Things when Change is Hard - Great insights and strategies on embracing and facilitating change.

  • Hardcover version

  • Kindle version

• Who Moved My Cheese? - a simple, amusing, yet enlightening read that is referenced to often, especially during times of change.

  • Paperback version

  • Kindle version

• Learning Engineering Toolkit - For a deeper dive on Evidence-based practices from the learning sciences.

  • Paperback Version

  • Kindle Version

• The Influential Mind - strategies and lessons on how to clearly communicate vision and align multiple disciplines; something you will likely need to get familiar with.

  • Paperback Version

  • Kindle Version