other than bedside nusing?

[kelisehunter]

Other than bedside nursing, what jobs can a new grad RN get straight out of school? Are there any other options? Im sure that bedside isn't for me at all.

[llg, PhD, RN]

I would find it hard to have a nurse educator (if you mean education of nurses) who doesn't have the experience to "walk the walk". We DO need nurse researchers though!

QUOTE]

Researrchers should have clinical exertise, too. Without it, they don't have the judgement necessary to guide their research. The result is research that has little relevance to practice. There are some exceptions to that -- such as specializing in research methodology and/or statistics. But if that's what someone wants to do, there is no reason to waste time getting a nursing degree: just get a biomedical stats degree or epidemiology or whatever. If someone wants to be a prinicple investigator, they should invest in becoming competent in the field they want to research.

llg, PhD, RN

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

I agree that perhaps nursing isn't a "calling." HOwever, I have had the pleasure to work with several nurses who did have a "calling." They were absolutely the most wonderful people, in addition to being wonderful nurses.

That said - I'm of the opinion (and its just my opinion) that nurses should have some kind of bedside experience prior to pursuing non-bedside duties. It really does make things easier - to have some experience.

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

Epona, I'm curious about something. You said you were interested in becoming an NP, but you really don't want to be around infectious diseases (presumably, then, infected people) and I'm wondering how you would manage this. I understand that hospital bedside nursing isn't something you're drawn to, but I hope you understand that without plenty of such experiences, you would have a hard time as an NP: books only go so far. Advanced practice nurses aren't just advanced in lecture material, they're advanced in clinical experience as well (or should be!). So you'd need to do not only "what you have to" to get through to become an RN but considerably more to become an NP. Are you sure this is what you're willing to do (happily, with a smile on your face so the instructor, patients and other staff are willing to have you there, too)?