Career Advice Needed

Engliman

Greetings,

I am in need of some advice for my current IT career direction. A very important detail for the reasons for this advice is that I will be relocating from the USA to the UK in about 2.5 - 3 years time, and need to have taken some steps in terms of certification before them.

I basically sleepwalked into I.T. from retail. I have excellent customer service skills and a relatively large hospital system which I had two friends working at needed an entry level help desk technician. I applied and got the job somehow (no experience). My manager believes in customer service above all and trains people on the job basically. Well, fast forward a year to April and that same manager who had moved to the AEHR team opened up a Technical Analyst position. I applied, and once again to my amazement got the job.

So, my current role is editing forms in GE's Centricity EMR using the VFE language (a proprietary language sadly, with no further use), writing SQL and Crystal Report queries, creating instructional videos using Adobe Captivate, and providing support to Physicians and clinical staff for the EMR. However, life throws up snags and mine is that I will be moving to the UK where they do not use Centricity EMR, or from what I can gather anything like it.

I have been remarkably fortunate in getting to where I am with zero paper qualifications. However, it looks like this role doesn't exist in the UK and I need to set on a career path to a viable I.T. career for over there. I am not sure what the closest path would be however, and so I turn to you guys here.

Please advise!

OctalDump

SQL and Crystal reports is fairly generic stuff used all over the place. Adobe Captivate seems to be similar. EMR/EPR systems themselves are used in pretty much all the hospital systems in the western world. It looks like the UK is in a transition period with the roll out of more comprehensive EMR/EPR.
There's also PMS (practice management systems/software) which might have enough related to make a transition. Those software usually also provide a helpdesk support via phone.

This is a relatively recent article on the situation in the UK: What are the options for electronic patient records in the NHS after NPfIT?

My advice as a complete outsider who probably knows less than you, is to keep an eye on what is happening in the UK with their EPR/EMR roll out and what software/systems they are using. And at the same time work on generalising your skill set.

There are certifications available in some of the areas you are skilled in:
SAP Certified Application Associate - Crystal Reports 2011
Adobe Captivate certification
MCSA SQL Server
I'd add ITIL to the list if you don't have it yet.

The MCSA SQL Server starts with a "Querying SQL Server" exam, which I think would give you MCP certification but not much else. The other two exams for MCSA are more about administering the server. But that is also a very useful path, since there are many DBA jobs.

I'm not sure if the "CompTIA Healthcare IT Technician" is applicable. I know it covers some fairly US centric stuff. The general notions about confidentiality are largely the same.