Here we are in February already, can you believe it?

I am writing this today on what is the coldest day of the year in Boston. It was bound to get cold up here in the Northeast. We've had a relatively mild winter but without fail, those chilly temps find their way to us. 

Well, I entitled this post, Demystifying Nursing Informatics for a reason. 

In my nearly 20 years within the speciality practice of Nursing Informatics, I continue to get asked by nurses (and non-nurses), "what exactly IS nursing informatics?

In fact one time, I was traveling to Duke University where I was teaching the Intro course to Nursing Informatics. I was trying to get to my hotel and there was a roadblock. I told the person that I was there to teach nursing informatics and his response was, "Info-what?!".

I laughed (and have never forgotten :)). 

Well, for some time now, I have wanted to develop a program to help demystify this specialty practice that has brought me so many exciting...

During the summer of 2014, I finally committed to taking the informatics nurse board certification exam. 

I did not know how to approach studying for it nor how it would go but I was tired of putting it off and knew if I did not do it soon, it would continue to get put off. 

While I had my PhD in nursing informatics from Duke, I knew that I was still missing that third party validation of my knowledge that could be assessed by clients, customers, and colleagues. I did not want there to be any question that my knowledge, experience, expertise, and approaches to health IT projects and practice  was comprehensive, thorough, and valuable to others. 

Unfortunately, there have been many times where I have been asked, "what is informatics?" and "what do informatics nurses do?". Those are times when I reflect on their questions and recognize that more clarity is needed to our roles and capabilities. 

One way to demonstrate your capabilities, expertise, and...