My name is Jim and I welcome you to my first blog. I currently teach at Brigham Young University in the College of Nursing and attend the University of Utah where I am enrolled in the DNP/Acute Care NP program. I have been a nurse for more than 30 years and am continually amazed in the technological advances being made in healthcare. I graduated from a 3 year diploma program in Green Bay, Wisconsin at a time when a single computer filled an entire room and the internet was only being used by the military. When I graduated from the University of San Diego with my BS degree I actually had a computer, but alas, if I wanted to save any information, I had to save it to a 5 1/2 inch floppy disk. In the 80's, I was able to graduate up to an internal hard drive and could actually surf the internet while I attended the University of Maryland for my MS in nursing. It was here at the University of Maryland where I truly began to appreciate the power and influence informatics could have on healthcare. My cadre of fellow nursing students were the first to actually develop interactive nursing case scenarios for the internet.

I currently call Washington state my home, but since I teach at BYU it is more like my home away from home. My wife and I love the island life north of Seattle so much that after I retired from a 26 year career in the Navy we cannot part from the salty sea air so I do a long distance commute. Living on an island affords me the opportunity to feed several of my passions in life which include ocean kayaking and scuba diving. In fact, I enjoy scuba diving so much that last year I decided I needed more to keep me occupied and became a diving instructor. My wife and I have four kids who makes everyday a joy to experience.