A day in the life of an ambulatory care nurse

[turnforthenurse, MSN, NP]

Is anyone willing to share what a day as an ambulatory care nurse is like?

I recently saw a job listing very close to home for an ambulatory care float nurse. This position requires floating between urgent care, adult/pediatric clinics as well as specialty clinics in the area. As a current ER nurse, I feel like I could handle the urgent care and adult/pedi clinics but I'm not too sure about the specialty clinics.

[FlyingScot, RN]

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[Oedgar]

I think a lot of it depends on the clinic, patient volume, what other staff is working there (MA's, phlebotomy, how many nurses per provider?). My day at the OB/Gyn clinic went like this: Arrive an hour before first patient. Start a load of instruments in autoclave. Set up rooms/check supplies, go through piles of lab results, mark off in log as they came in. Put urgent things on doc's desk, non urgent in pile for doc to sign. Look at day's schedule and locate any missing imaging items and put on chart if patient has appt that day. Go through morning appts/procedures. End of morning a bit of clean up and if I was lucky, call patients about results, problems, return calls. One hour for lunch, during which we had to wash a load of instruments. Afternoon repeat... run like mad with paitents every 15 minutes, urgent phone calls, people double booked, people who were given an appt and a card but it was not entered into computer schedule. This as 'affectionately' termed by OtherNurse and I as 'surprise.' At the end of the day clean up rooms, put out any potential fires as we looked at next day's schedule, return patient phone calls, call labs about problems or missing results, leave office an hour after we supposedly get off.

[BDOGGRN]

I am currently a float nurse in the ambulatory setting. It may seem different than what you're used to in ER, but also, a lot of similarities. I've been in the primary care setting for 15+ years, and every day brings something new and unexpected. Basic concepts/fundamentals of nursing and the ability to provide good, honest, genuine care are always your backbone, no matter what setting you're in! Congrats on considering a new chapter in your career! I find it so rewarding to care for folks throughout their lifetime and circumstances.