Career watch

22.05.2006
Ask a Premier 100 IT leader

Roland A. Garcia

Title: Senior vice president and CIO

Company: Baptist Health of Northeast Florida , Jacksonville, Fla.

Garcia is this month's guest Premier 100 IT Leader, answering readers' questions about education choices. If you have a question you'd like to pose to one of our Premier 100 IT Leaders, send it to askaleader@computerworld.com, and watch for this column each month.

I am a neonatal intensive-care unit nurse with 15 years of experience. I am one-third of the way through an online IT degree in Web application development. How can I incorporate the two careers into one that would be desirable for employers? I am an excellent employee and student but have no previous IT experience. The health care industry is under-going significant changes, with large investments being made for the deployment of electronic medical records (EMR). When organizations are faced with such projects, which are intended to change the fundamental proc- esses of an organization, subject-matter experts are required to facilitate the necessary workflow changes. Your knowledge of hands-on care in this setting can be of significant value, either to your organization or to others.