Originally Posted by CocoChanel
Hello everyone. I have a question for all the office/outpatient nurses out there. I'm currently a 2nd semester Junior in the nursing program and I'm beginning to realize with every Med-Surg clinical we do that the hospital setting is not for me. I would love to work in a women's health clinic, peds office or outpatient setting of some sort. I know the majority of nurses say that you need to get your 1 year Med-Surg experience first, but I think that if you know that Med-Surg is something you don't want to do then why go through with it (I'm probably wrong about that). I guess what my question is, is it a good idea to go straight into office/outpatient nursing right out of school or is it even possible? The local hospital in my area has a 3-month internship for new grads. I was thinking about doing that first and then trying to find a job in the office. Is this a good idea or should I just tough the 1 year in Med-Surg out first? Any advice would be great. Thanks in advance.
Well, let's put it this way. You can't go wrong getting that one year of med-surg experience and it will help you IMMENSELY in the office setting...
That being said, the 3 month internship will also help you to get your foot in the door... even better would be a 3 month internship with 3 months of experience for a combined claim of 6 months of hospital experience... You could look at it as 6 extra months of school if you want. Only you'll get good money for it.
Now here's my story. I did 4 months of med-surg and hated every second of it. Hated it so much I finally quit, not caring at all how it looked on my resume or what anyone thought about it. All I knew was that I could not stomach another minute of it. At that point I was so "traumatized" by 5 years of stressful pre-reqs and 2 years of nursing school hell combined with 4 months of med-surg and an illness that was seriously dragging me down not to mention a teenage daughter that had been victimized and a move to another house and town that I threw my hands up and just said NO to working for 10 months. At the end of that time I applied for 2 clinic positions. Both wanted me. Neither cared I'd taken 10 months off. Both thought it was great I had some med-surg experience. Both were also willing to train a new grad. Now don't get me wrong, they would have loved it if I'd had more med-surg, but it certainly was no deal breaker.
Bottom line: Apply to a clinic as a new grad. Also apply for a hospital position or the internship if you like. If you get the clinic, great. If you don't, aim for at least 6 months in the hospital and then apply out to a clinic again.
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