New Grad Leaving Hospital for Office Job

Nurses Career Support

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  1. Office or stay or in hospital for future NP?

    • 21
      Hospital
    • 6
      Primary care office

27 members have participated

Hello everyone,Just need some advice on leaving a hospital job for office work. I just graduated a few months ago, and took a job in a hospital. At first I absolutely loved it, but now I hate it and no longer want to work in a hospital. I find the work demeaning and labor intensive - boosting, cleaning excrement, etc. My ultimate goal is to be an FNP, so I don't plan to be a RN for long before I go back to school. My concerns whether office work in a primary care clinic is good enough training to be an FNP? I feel like skill wise, I'll be doing less, but I will get to see more and work closely with other FNPs. I have been offered a job in a primary care office, and I need advice if I should do this or not.

Specializes in FNP, ONP.

My point here is, PAs and NPs are both midlevels.

Do NPs HAVE to work in a hospital to have the ability to be a good NP? Do NP programs themselves not teach the required information neccesary to diagnosis and treat without one having prior experience in a hospital?

I just want an honest answer here so I can plan accordingly.

I am very, very booksmart, and that's what we need in the NP world. As a patient, I would rather have a well-educated competent NP than one who tells me she happily cleaned up poop before becoming an NP. We are all different, and there is a place for all of us in the world of nursing. I have every right to be an NP, and while I may not be happy about cleaning up excrement, I think my intelligence will make up for that as a provider.

So much juicy goodness, but I snipped the best parts. I will address these one at a time.

First, just as an FYI, speaking only for myself, I am not a "middle" level anything, thanks very much. I have attained the terminal degree in my field and am at the very peak of my profession.

Regarding your second and third comments, I addressed this for you already. I regret that you did not like the response. I gave you the "honest answer" you requested so you could "plan accordingly." To reiterate, yes, you need probably 5 years of acute care experience if you want to be competitive to a quality NP program and if you want to perform well. What you do not have to do is stay exactly where you are at the present time if it is making you unhappy. There are other a myriad of other acute care learning opportunities available to you, I'm certain. Look for one you do not actively despise so much.

Regarding the final comment, book smart helps, but no, it is simply not enough. Experience will make you or break you, and compassion will make the difference between a full panel and an empty one. And of course, it should go without saying that you have no such "right" to be a NP. None of us has. That is a patently ridiculous assertion. You do have the right to strive to be one. At the end of the day, you are entitled to nothing more than that. Best of luck.

I hated clinicals in the hospital setting. As soon as I got my LPN degree, i started working in an assisted living facility and have continued working there after getting my RN. I am now almost finished with my BSN and looking at NP programs. I want to focus on geriatrics, so I feel with the path I have chosen, I don't think the hospital would benefit me much. Not sure how much a doctors office would help, but not everyone likes the hospitals!!!

Specializes in Telemetry, OB, NICU.

Hospital is the way to go. Office doesn't have much of anything to offer you for FNP no matter who you work with and whatever you do there.

And by the way, if boosting a patient or cleaning up poop is the hardest thing you do as a nurse, then you are either lucky or you don't know what you're doing. Heck, I wish I could complain about those too. Those are the last things on my stressors list as a nurse on the floor.

The reason you are getting the answer you have received is because your posts are offensive.

I do not like beside nursing period. I'm in school for another bachelors degree to get away from the bedside. Then after I graduate with the 2nd bachelors degree I'm headed to law school for healthcare law.

With that said I would never ever say that bedside nursing is demeaning. Are you kidding? Just because you don't like it doesn't make it demeaning and beneath you. You have insulted a lot of the members on this site just by saying that. What you should have said was I don't like bedside nursing do I have to do it to become an NP. Trust me none one likes cleaning up poop. I know I don't and I'm not one to just leave them sitting in it to run find the PCT. Heck I cleaned up a code brown today twice. I have had doctors help clean patients up. Cleaning up poop is the least of my worries working at the bedside.

If you take the other job you might want to work PRN in the hospital to remain competitive for the NP program. And think about what you post on this site. Don't ask for advice and insult the people you are asking the advice from. Maybe you should look into medical school instead of becoming a NP.

Specializes in Pediatrics.

By any chance, was your original plan to become a doctor? Just wondering.

You mention ll the things you'll get to do alongside the FNP you'll be working with. Have you been given a job description? Just remember, you will be an RN, not an FNP intern.

Some of most meaningful moments in the hospital involved poop. Diarrhea. Sometimes uncontrollable, along with blood pouring out of many orifices, and hematemesis. On a pediatric oncology unit. Dying children pooping themselves in their darkest days, some of which never saw their homes again. It was my humble pleasure to do anything to make them feel even an ounce of comfort.

Poop or not, I think hospital experience is crucial for any graduate/AP degree in nursing.

You're gonna have poop in an office setting too. People poop everywhere. I'd rather clean up some poop than deal with a nasty wound vac, gross toenails or a dirty peri area. Nursing has tons of gross aspects, and they are not limited to the hospital.

Also, like someone already said, you are going to be working as a RN at the office and are not there to shadow the FNP. Why not just ask to shadow a FNP somewhere to get the closer look you are seeking?

Specializes in STICU, MICU.

Have you thought of just going back to school to be a PA? Nursing is not for everyone. Some love it, some don't. Nothing bothers me except peoples deliberate nasty attitudes, you can almost always control your attitude but not your bowels! If you do a PA program, I don't think it really matters where you work in the healthcare field.

I was going to ask, "with all the booksmarts and amazing intelligence, why did you choose Nursing and not something like Neuroscience?"

If you really want to do health-care related things but not so much hands-on stuff, there's plenty of academia-level career paths as well. You don't mention your age, but if I were to make a guess from your posts, you're probably still pretty young and have plenty of time left for all the schooling involved.

Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
Thank all of you latest posters - I was starting to think all nurses were this crabby! And I agree with the quoted above...as a floor nurse, I feel I do learn more nursing skills...but these are skills I would rarely use as a provider. In an office, wouldn't I be doing a lot more thinking in terms of triaging and seeing patients, etc. in a hospital you don't seem to do as much critical thinking, ICU aside.

I'm glad you got some answers you wanted. The nurses who responded to you aren't crabby they are offended and your statements were....to be honest offensive and rude. I actually think the membership has showed restraint in their responses to your statements and you have gotten some very good advice.

I also don't believe that nurses are "task monkey's" that can "no longer think or communicate or collaborate" effectively......I find that personally offensive as well. Bedside nurses are the back bone of the medical machine who might have plenty of tasks that they have to complete..... but are far from mindless robots performing endless repetitive tasks. I guess that is where we will have to agree to disagree.

If you find med-surg so....demeaning .....then seek another area of expertise like critical care or emergency medicine......I truly believe, in going to the office setting, that you will lose/not develop critical thinking skills that will be an advantage to you in being the better candidate when you apply to a FNP program. I also believe it will make you a superior NP when/if you complete a program.

You have had members that are NPs, some of which do have a doctorate level education, tell you to remain in the hospital setting to gain valuable experience. It remains however....completely your choice. But once in the office.....your responsibilities won't be to shadow the FNP....you will have most of your tasks on paperwork and other duties independent of the FNP....I truly think you will be disappointed.

I wish you the best.

There should be no offense taken. Nursing is a job and jobs change. Much of nursing is all about customer service now - especially in hospital nursing. Does this mean you intended to be a waitress and are only capable of being a waitress when you went into nursing? No, but there it is. It's changed before our very eyes. Don't take it as a personal offense. These are not good times for nursing, because that is what the job has regressed into being for most nurses, and it has to do with making the case to remove nurses from the picture. It's been a calculated move by administration.

All the magical talk simply is silly. I agree a person needs experience before becoming an NP, but then again, NP is not nursing, and the road to becoming an NP has requirements and of course you must meet those requirements. So, basically I am all for cutting the crap and getting down to it. OP, Go get experience in the area you intend to work. Having the right or what ever to become an NP is just more of the silly stuff when all you need is to meet the requirements and to pay the money. Just go find out what your requirements are and then figure out how you will meet those. There is no magic in nursing, or being an NP. But healthcare is full of BS and you have to try not to get taken for a ride as you well know.

My poll is showing 75% recommending the hospital. Really?

The poll is showing this because the voters are bedside nurse. Poll some NPs working in primary care and see what they think

Specializes in CCM, PHN.

Ummm. I'm not a bedside nurse and haven't been for 4 years. How are you so sure the responders are bedside nurses?

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