Students, do any of you not want a hospital job after graduation?

[Skips]

I sort of don't understand the appeal of hospital nursing. The only reason I can think of is exposure to many different illnesses and manifestations of those illnesses...exposure to a variety of meds...exposure to procedures, etc. Other than that, not sure why I'd want to work in a hospital.

Anyone else want to do nursing outside of a hospital? I still have a year and a half until graduation (BSN), so I do have an opportunity to gain more experience with clinical before I graduate. I'm just wondering what everybody thinks. (:

[NewGN12]

I think it depends on the individual and what your future goals are. It is important to reassess what's your focus. if you know hospital work is not for you then don't do it but be aware of your decision.

[lumosnox]

I do want to do hospital nursing, at least for a bit, because I love specialties that are almost always hospital based. My true loves are peds hema/onc, PICU, and NICU. However I also really like flight nursing (like MedFlight) and home hospice care. We'll see how life turns out! :)

[melizerd, ASN, RN]

I don't want to work in a hospital. I want hospice in homes or a facility but prefer in home. It's my passion and I have zero desire to work in a hospital long term. I may end up doing a year or two of med/surg floor only because its the most common place to start in my area.

[Racer15, BSN, RN]

I would never do med-surg. I've known that from almost the beginning. Luckily for me, I'll be an ER nurse when I graduate, and I think I'll be very happy there.

[Nscorpiored, BSN]

For me I would like to do neonatal nursing and eventually go into being a neonatal nurse practitioner. In order for me to do so, yes I would need to work in a hospital or a private clinic, but I need experience in an emergency room, intensive care unit, or critcal care unit. On the other hand, I need to realistic about my options coming out of nursing school. I may very well have to do home healthcare nursing, nursing home, or whatever else is out there. God willing I will get into a hospital I am hoping that a Med/Surg unit will take me and I can get my start there to have some years under my belt before I transfer out

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

I'm a nurse educator (in acute care, NOT academia) & I find this thread fascinating. As an enthusiastic nurse researcher, I would love to investigate what has changed over the years that has made the acute care environment so distasteful to our new grads. Were previous grads just more obedient and accepting? What is happening in clinical rotations? Instructor attitudes? Staff nurse attitudes? Is the Physical workload overwhelming? Scheduling? This could easily keep a researcher busy for decades. . .

That being said, you all need to realize that nursing school does not turn out a 'complete' nurse... at graduation, you're probably only about 60-75% complete. This is not unique to nursing... it's the same for all 'practice (hands on) professions'. The difference is that those 'other' students actually have to complete internships or fellowships in order to graduate while employers have always filled that role for nursing. You actually do need the 'practice' on real patients, under real conditions - to become 100% competent to carry out nursing interventions and apply all that theory to actual patient care. For instance, you may have aced your cardiology exams, but would you be able to actually identify a patient experiencing early cardiac failure and take appropriate actions? Hey, I don't mean this as a put-down because some 'experienced' nurses can't do it either.

Nursing practice is not just a checklist of technical skills that you may never have to use in a non-acute setting. As one of the PPs said, Assessment skill is essential. So, if you're a school nurse who has no acute care experience - how well do you think you'd be able to identify decompensating asthma if you had never even seen it before? Could you live with the consequences?

If you choose not to work in an acute care job, please find one that can provide you with a controlled learning environment - one that is suited to new grads. And then, I hope that you don't ever have to switch clinical environments because it will be very difficult if you have never developed those 'generalist' competencies that come with hospital experience.

I really do love you guys!

[scubanurse2000]

I am late coming to this post, but I am in the same position in regards to hospitals. I am a new grad and eventually, I wish to become an NP working in primary outpatient care. It is not the hours that bother me, it is the environment of hospital bedside nursing. There seems to be quite a bit of unnecessary stress caused by short staffing, conflicts with administration and cliques among the nurses. Nursing is my second career and I know that managing your company's environment is part of the battle of retaining good employees. And, as you know, hospitals are companies with a monetary bottom line like everyone else.

My path has led me to working with per diem companies that will train me in school nursing, home health and some office based medical work. They do not pay as well as hospitals or LTC, so it might not be a viable solution for everyone, but it is a start. Hey, it is free training! I have also talked with instructors, nursing education counselors and even managers at medical companies and they have told me the same thing, if you are not going to into acute care, look into other avenues outside of the hospital for experience. With the new healthcare initiative, we will see (over the next few years) more outpatient centers popping up, as well as an increase in home health. I think it would be interesting to become a NP that makes home visits for primary care purposes, much like the old days when the doctors used to make house calls.

Again, since this is such a late comment, I hope you have found a job that works for you and you have great luck building your career! Take care!