December Member Spotlight: Meet Sherri L Duarte, DNP, RN, NI-BC, CPHIMS, BRMP – our September Member Highlight!
DVHIMSS: Thank you so much, Sherri, for joining us as September’s Member Highlight! Where are you from, and how long have you been in the Delaware Valley?
Sherri: I am from Mentor, Ohio, a suburb east of Cleveland. I’ve been here in the Delaware Valley for two years, but I did go to Penn Nursing.
DVHIMSS: A nice homecoming! How long have you been in informatics, and how long have you been a HIMSS member?
Sherri: I have 12.5 years of experience in various IT and non-IT informatics roles and have been a HIMSS member since 2011.
DVHIMSS: What is your current role? Tell us more about what you do.
Sherri: My current role is Nursing Informatics Senior Project Manager. I have been in this role for over two years. I manage one extensive nursing data and analytics platform project for the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in our Center for Pediatric Nursing Research and Evidence-Based Practice.
DVHIMSS: What exciting projects are you working on in this role?
Sherri: I’m working on a nursing data and analytics platform. We have two dashboards, one that’s unit-based and one that’s nursing-based. We’ve got unit demographics where we can tell the most prevalent diagnoses for patients on a particular unit. We have the ages of the patients, how complex they are, and other metrics.
Then, we’ve got a nursing dashboard that gives our nursing demographics. We have 5515 nurses at CHOP, and we can look at their median age, how many years they’ve worked at CHOP, how long they’ve been licensed as nurses, and all kinds of workforce data. We’ve got patient-family experience data and are working to pull clinical outcomes data into our dataset. Eventually, we will combine the two dashboards and see how different and changing nursing and patient characteristics impact patient outcomes.
It’s just so exciting! It’s why I’m here. When I interviewed with my boss for the role, I got excited because I had heard of people wanting to do this but hadn’t seen anyone doing it yet. We are looking to be comprehensive in our approach. I work with fantastic data analysts and an amazing colleague with a strong background in software, predictive analytics, and AI.
It will be incredible when we start putting all of these things together. We are calling this precision nursing, where we can pinpoint the right care with the right nurse for the right patient to achieve outstanding outcomes. We are very excited about this work, and I will speak about it at the NJDVHIMSS conference on October 16th!
DVHIMSS: We are very excited to have you and look forward to your presentation! How did you get this role? What kind of schooling/skills/experience have you obtained to make you successful in this role?
Sherri: I attended nursing school and was a bedside nurse for 20 years. Fifteen were in the emergency department; I also did preop/pacu, fixed-wing air transport, and critical care ambulance transport. I’ve always had side hustles, and I currently work on weekends providing nursing care in the home for older adults. I love this area of nursing, and it’s great to see nursing fundamentals at the core of nursing care, regardless of the setting. I enjoy seeing the same patients regularly, building that relationship, and providing care.
My breakout into informatics started when I was getting my Master’s in Healthcare Informatics. I was working in preop/pacu, and right before our organization went live with Epic, they were looking for credential trainers in the areas. My nurse manager knew I was getting my Master’s, so she put me forward as a credential trainer. I underwent the training process and trained the perioperative staff on Epic’s Optime and Anesthesia applications. Right after we went live, an Optime/Anesthesia analyst position came open, and I transferred into that role. I was fortunate because I understand that now it’s challenging for people getting their Master’s in informatics to break in without experience.
DVHIMSS: I love your natural progression from bedside nurse to informaticist. I have also seen that breaking into informatics nowadays can be challenging. What is your advice for someone looking to break into healthcare IT from the clinical setting?
Sherri: I’ll start with some background. When I got into this field, I didn’t understand what informatics or healthcare informatics would be. I went in a little blind, following my interests to take me wherever the opportunity was, but this was exactly what I wanted! So, the first thing to do is follow your particular health-IT interests.
As a clinician in IT, my first role was an RN analyst, so it was specifically made for a nurse. Having a clinical background and understanding the workflows is essential, but don’t fall into the trap of thinking you know everything. Things change, healthcare delivery changes, and each organization has different builds and workflows. That’s why it’s crucial to go to the users, observe them, and see why they are doing workarounds in the workflow. Being a clinician informaticist also helps those on the technical, server, and network sides understand the clinical impact when things go wrong.
To break into informatics and health IT, joining professional organizations like HIMSS and starting networking is essential. Join governance councils at work, get involved, and become a super-user on your unit or your clinical area within your organization. Volunteer for projects, get to know people, become known as a clinical expert, and show your interest in informatics. That’s worked for many people to get into these roles when there are internal openings in your organization.
Many vendors are looking for clinical experts to support their needs outside of the hospital space, and the nursing background is significant for new and emerging technologies.
DVHIMSS: What are you looking forward to experiencing with HIMSS this year?
Sherri: I am looking forward to more connections and networking this year! I love the information and industry updates during the conferences, and I will speak at this year’s meeting in October! I also got elected to the board this year and am excited about that!
DVHIMSS: That’s great to hear! We are excited to have you on the board and look forward to your presentation on October 16th! Thank you for taking the time to introduce yourself and share your thoughts on how clinicians can break into IT. Before we go, what is your favorite hidden gem in the Delaware Valley?
Sherri: Last year, I went to St. Peter’s Village in Warwick Township. It’s a tiny, hidden gem. If you blink, you’ll miss it. It’s a beautiful town with an incredible drive that’s not too far, plenty of history, and a hiking trail. It’s a great place to spend some time!
Sherri can be found on LinkedIn or reached at duartesl@chop.edu
