Nurses who DON'T work in a hospital, what do you do?

Me too Cay. I just graduated and waiting to take the NCLEX. I've started to apply for jobs. Local ones first. I wanted to get in the hospital down the street that I precepted at, but I heard they hired a couple classmates. I also applied at a couple nursing homes and a jail. The jail is the only place that called me back so far. I'm not sure what an LPN would do at a jail, but I better see about it. I think I would like something like urgent care or doctors office, but hard to find openings.
I'm not sure if I would like the nursing home or not. Any advice on what to try for first? My gf says to take the first one that is offered, but I would like to make sure I could tolerate it at least for awile. I do have a part-time factory job to fall back on, but I'm ready to get out of there...

I am fairly recently retired but I have worked (in Australia) in industry, mining, construction, food processing, and timber. I have also worked as what we call a Remote Area Nurse... single practitioner in an isolated area with minimal support. In all these jobs support has been minimal and supervision administrative not clinical.
I have also worked in cancer research as well as aged care and drug rehab. No I'm not the oldest nurse on earth but I have had 30 years as R.N to collect these adventures
What ever you decide to do get a couple of years of experience as a general nurse under your belt then start networking.
I know that here in Australia both the Nurses Federation (ANF) and the College of Nursing (RCNA) have special interest groups which hold conferences, lectures etc. If I was starting out now they would be my first port of call... they didnt exist when I started, I was involved in the establishment of a couple. They provide networks and information ... as well as the low down on who is changing jobs or leaving.
The drama of moving outside the traditional areas as a sole practitioner here in Tasmania is the need for clinical review to retain a current practicing certificate. The average company accountant hasn't a clue about best practice for a RN.
I enjoyed working in communities and away from hospitals most of the time but the professional isolation is sometimes tough and to move into a practical area you need high level skills if the nearest backup is a chopper ride away.
Anyway thats a few thoughts from my experience...to which I add, give it a go, its great fun to live on the edge a little.
Princenina

Sonoran,

It sounds to me like you're more interested in things that are tangentially related to nursing, as opposed to nursing itself.

The nursing degree qualifies you for entry level nursing positions. Someone here once compared earning a nursing license to earning a driver's license. The requirements for a driver's license don't guarantee total proficiency, just a basic level of understanding and safety. There's still A LOT more to learn. One doesn't have to have mastered merging into freeway traffic or crossing three lanes of traffic to get to that exchange to earn a license. There's still a lot more to learn. And the basic license doesn't qualify a person to take up truck driving or designing intersections or other roles that are related to driving and would most likely require experience as a driver.

I'm noting this because I have a degree in nursing and have come to realize that I'm not interested in the crux of nursing - clinical care. Which means the jobs I am interested in either want years of previous nursing experience OR don't require a nursing degree. The jobs that don't require the nursing degree generally don't pay as well as clinical nursing, at least not initially, and so employers are reluctant to hire me because they think I'll bail out for a better paying clinical job as soon as a good offer comes along. However, I've realized that even the more peripheral nursing roles such as school nurse and occupational health nurse only interest me abstractly, not in the day to day functions, especially the clinical aspects. Minimal as the clinical aspects may be, they are the crux as to why they are hiring a licensed nurse as opposed to someone without a license.

A person can get into clinical research without being a nurse. A degree in life science could work for that. A person can get into medical law without being a nurse. Paralegal? Consider why people hire nurses as consultants. Because they have years of clinical experience in a certain area. A nurse without that clinical experience doesn't have much more to offer than someone with a good background in medical terminology and medical record review. Just some thoughts!

I'd recommend holding off on nursing school and getting more information about what you might do with that education before investing so much time and money. Perhaps try to get a job in clinical research or with a law firm that specializes in medical cases or whatever else might interest you. There might be an administrative or assistant type position that you could qualify for and maybe you'll learn more about what truly interests you. If you can manage it, volunteering can be a good way to find out more. Also, informational interviews.

If, on the other hand, you truly are interested in becoming a nurse, then go for it!

I work for a major insurance company as a pediatric case manager, the salary is not bad starting at $56,000 a year with no weekends or nights and after 6 months on the job you have the choice of applying for 10 hour days or working at home which I intend to do.

I worked 2 years in L&D then went to Agency Nursing when I started having my own babies. I enjoyed Agency because I could tell them when I was available for work (when husband was home to watch the kids and we needed some extra money), (I NEVER worked Christmas or Christmas Eve, but worked the other holidays for the extra pay!) And the hourly wage was much better than being an employee for any specific facility. I've been a Nurse for 40 years now, and for the past 5 years as an Independent Nurse , with my own business "renting" myself out to various facilities (Nursing Homes, State Homes for Developmental Disabilities and Home Care, NEVER hospitals!). I've found that by "cutting out the middle man" and becoming my own Agency, I can work less and make more. When I decide I want/have to retire from Nursing, I can then become a staffer and hire other Nurses and CNAs to work for MY Agency. Agencies make between $5 and $15 an hour for each hour an employee staffs a facility for them.

Hi Luv,
How did you get your job? It sounds great. Is it?
Toto79

I'm a community health/occupational health hybrid nurse. I work in an office although I'm on the road once a week giving lectures. I oversee older and health impaired driver issues for my state. That's on the 1:1 case management level as well as global crafting of health policy. I teach basic health concepts to DOT counter staff, testify at the legislature and take frantic family calls from people desperate to get their mom/dad/aunt off the road.

This is a BSN-requiring job. It also mandated a lot of background and experience that you may not often see in an RN. I have to do a lot of legal work and my first degree was in criminal justice. I also had many years of hospital experience, case management and occ health. Pay is ok, benefits amazingly good.

A lot of RNs ask me how to get a job like this. I just saw it in my state job listings and knew it would be a good fit. Be vigilant, apply for anything you think sounds interesting. Interview a lot. Expect competition. My (later) boss said that when she was hiring she saw a lot of nurses who thought they'd get the job by default=entitled.

Thanks everyone for the wonderful job ideas. I am entering my last quarter of school so I am starting to think about job hunting and these have given me wonderful ideas.

I heartily second the thanks! Nurses are an amazing group of people.