Is taking first job in an office a bad career decision?

CrunchRN, ADN, RN · Mar 13, 2015

I did 21 years ago. I eventually lacklusterly tried for hospital jobs, but they wouldn't even consider me. Many fellow nurses that had only been away from hospital nursing for 3 to 5 years had the same issue.

Never really bothered me as I have loved the normal schedule and many other perks of non-hospital nursing, but if you want to be a hospital nurse for a while I would start there.

sourapril · Mar 13, 2015

A lot of people would be envious to you that you got a day shift job that matches your long term career goal. I think the choice is pretty obvious.

allnurses Guide · Mar 14, 2015

I agree that hospitals looking for 1 year of experience generally means 1 year of acute care hospital experience. Since you've chosen the ambulatory setting and are interested in becoming a CNM it may have been the better choice anyway. Lots of prior conventional wisdom is being thrown by the wayside these days.

I have worked in both environments. The hours in ambulatory care are a dream compared to the hospital, at least until you start having those unpredictable babies throw a wrench in the works. Best wishes to you as you start your career in nursing! :up:

BloomNurseRN, ASN, BSN, RN · Mar 14, 2015

I started in a clinic environment and did my first year there. After a year I applied for other positions and within 4 weeks I had an offer for a Med-Surg floor and an offer from a home healthcare company. I know many nurses I graduated with that started in long-term care and have also moved in to the acute setting. I think a lot of factors depend on your area. I also think the previous thinking of not starting in acute care limiting your career is starting to go by the wayside. Good luck!

NSUNP · Mar 15, 2015

Only you know your own mind but I think it is critical to seek out a position in which you get the basics of nursing under your belt. I am not sure either of these positions offers you this opportunity. Unless you are in a unique office situation you won't get much experience other than taking VS, handing the provider instruments, and fielding phone calls. In a behavioral health setting your nursing skill set won't be particularly clinical. As a nurse midwife you will need a basic understanding of patient care, recognition and management of a "sick" patient being the most important. I think you should keep looking for at least a surgical floor type of scenario where you are caring for postoperative pain, recognizing and treating common postoperative conditions like hypotension and acute blood loss anemia so that you develop some critical thinking and knowledge to apply to your chosen field and future goal. You could easily use a year of surgical nursing as a foundation for a position in the Labor and Delivery area as well as being much more able to make contacts within the labor and delivery staff. Hope this helps.

CoolKidsRN · Mar 17, 2015

I just want to say it is not impossible to transition from an office position to a hospital position. I did it myself! I worked for a year in a pediatric office and then accepted a position at a pediatric hospital. Honestly the basic peds knowledge I acquired from working at the medical office was really helpful for my assessment skills on the floor. Best wishes with your career :)

Nurse Blondie, RN · Mar 19, 2015

As a brand-new nurse, I was happy to take a job in a community hospital on a behavioral floor. I started out on overnights, and soon moved to days. I had the opportunity to float to many other areas of the hospital. The experience I gained was invaluable and believe me we worked hard - especially with geriatric patients. Geriatric psych patients often have complex medical diagnosis in addition to the psych diagnosis they are being treated for. Out of my graduating class, I was the only one who had the opportunity to directly enter the hospital, the rest of my classmates went to MD offices. They all remain in the MD offices. I went on to have a variety of different experiences in home care, private duty, behavioral health, case management and now am contemplating two offers - to either work at a major hospital in case management or as a clinical liaison (marketing). I have also had over a year's worth of management experience at this time. I have only been a nurse 5 years. I think you need to pursue what you want to do. If you hate it, you can always leave! (I just re-read your post and I see that my response does not necessarily apply since you turned down the hospital job, but I figure I will post anyway in case it helps in any way.) Is there a way you could work per-diem at either to gain experience in both areas?