New Grad Leaving Hospital for Office Job

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

    • Hospital
    • Primary care office

27 members have participated

T-Bird78

1,007 Posts

You won't learn anything valuable in an office. If you want to be a NP, you should be in an acute care environment. #1, I doubt you will be a competitive applicant for any program worth attending if you don't, and #2, you won't do well.

Really? How many office jobs have you held? You may not have the same type of patients in an office as you do in an acute care setting but you DO have patients and physicians. Yes, office nurses do phone triage and have scheduled patients. Depending on the setting, nurses are more hands-on than the providers! I worked in an ENT office and the doc and PA had a nurse in the room with him assisting with the exam. We'd hand them the appropriate equipment for routine exams and the doc would do minor procedures in the office, ranging from Botox injections to placing ear tube to an uvulectomy. Yes, the doctor removed a pts uvula in the office and I was assisting. I also worked in allergy and asthma and nurses (the practice didn't hire any MAs) did all the testing, the injections, and even had to dilute the allergy extract down if necessary. The allergy practice also employed NPs.

What I'm trying to say is don't turn down the job just because you don't think it'll be beneficial to your NP goal. Most offices employ midlevels and this will be a good way to see if that's up your alley. Working with primary care you see a wide variety of pts and conditions and are the center of their care.

allnurses Guide

Spidey's mom, ADN, BSN, RN

11,304 Posts

Go for the office job. :up: If the NP Program will not need you to work acute longer.

I didn't find your post offensive. There are many Nursing Jobs out there and not everyone is cut out for each one. It is perfectly ok not to like med-surg and want to move on. And you cleared up the idea that you let your patients sit in their body fluids - you did not give bad care to your patients at all.

You should check with the schools you are thinking of applying to for what kinds of experience they want. Two of the people in my RN to BSN class were nurses for a year when they entered the program. After graduation, they immediately applied to become NP's and got in and one graduated recently and one is close.

I worked in a doctor's office - I got to do lots of procedures; start IV's, assist with minor surgeries, help deliver a baby (pregnant mom came in complaining of a back ache and didn't think she was in labor - we checked and she was 10 cm! Baby came in the doc's office before the ambulance got there). It isn't all phone calls and paperwork depending on where you end up working. Maybe make that part of your interview process - what exactly do the RN's get to do?

Get some more information from the NP Program before you make a decision. But I'm with ya on not liking med-surg.

(Oh - and poop happens in L&D, ER, Outpt. surgery, GI Lab, Cath Lab, etc.). ;)

sharonp30

53 Posts

Are you going to feel better when you are changing out printer cartridges? Seriously office work can be quite demeaning as well. Just something to think about.

Halcyonn

108 Posts

Specializes in Med-Surg.
And after having a patient diarrhea all over the bed while working in med/surg and me being the one expected to clean it, I just decided to throw in the towel. It's not worth it for the pay, really.

I'm sorry...are you really serious?

I do this for free, it's part of being a mom.

Specializes in FNP, ONP.
Really? How many office jobs have you held? You may not have the same type of patients in an office as you do in an acute care setting but you DO have patients and physicians.

:roflmao: um, I'm crystal clear on what happens in a primary care office. I run one. I don't know how many APNs have responded in the thread in total, but I think I was the first. And yeah, the OP needs acute care experience. But don't take my word for it. After all, I'm just an independent DNP provider running my own successful practice. I probably have no idea what I'm taking about.

CrunchRN, ADN, RN

4,530 Posts

Specializes in Clinical Research, Outpt Women's Health.

"After all, I'm just an independent DNP provider running my own successful practice. I probably have no idea what I'm taking about."

:roflmao: That was funny. I was an office nurse for over a decade and my advice was to get at least some acute care experience (couple of years) also. I often disagree with you Devil, but not on this one.

IcySageNurse

133 Posts

Thank you everyone for advice. It seems most people think working in a hospital for a few years is necessary...but I just can't. I became a nurse soley to be an NP - I'm unhappy as an RN, I hate blindly following orders and not taking on any sort of provider role. I feel like I'm wasting my potential and the thought of spending a few years doing this, as many have suggested, sounds like complete misery. Kudos to all of you that can handle such a position, but I cannot. If being an NP will not work out without hospital work I will look into PA school and medical school.

Aurora77

861 Posts

Specializes in Med Surg.

I've been following this thread and now feel compelled to respond.

Of course you're uncomfortable as a new RN--you're not that good at. This isn't a dig on you personally. It takes a long time to get used to being a working nurse. It's far different than nursing school. Maybe bedside nursing isn't for you, but a few months is no indicator of success in the role.

How much clinical experience did you have a student? I'm floored that a person can actually make it through school without realizing what nurses do. If nothing else, your posts will serve as a good warning for students to research what they are getting into before they spend years of their lives and thousands of dollars on a career they hate.

Finally, there is the notion that nurses "blindly follow orders" and are "wasting their potential." I was going to respond, but this is so demonstrably false, it really doesn't deserve rebuttal. If you truly believe these things to be true, you went to a terrible nursing school and work for an even worse facility.

CrunchRN, ADN, RN

4,530 Posts

Specializes in Clinical Research, Outpt Women's Health.

We have a great PA program here in North Texas if you decide to go that route.

Do what will make you happy and not miserable. It is fine not to enjoy nursing. It means nothing about your worth as a human being. There are many Nursing Jobs that do not consist of that type of patient contact that you can do while you return to school.

allnurses Guide

Spidey's mom, ADN, BSN, RN

11,304 Posts

CrunchRN]We have a great PA program here in North Texas if you decide to go that route.

Actually it was a PA who took me under her wing when I worked at the doc's office. She wanted to get rid of my "nurse brain" and started off with the very first patient asking me differential diagnosis questions. She was a middle-aged, cantankerous, gay, rancher who branded cattle and rode horses. I responded to an emergency with her at a lumber mill across the street from the clinic and started my first IV outside of the training in nursing school.

She died a couple of years ago. I so appreciated all she did for me.

I'm sorry if this offends you, but your post kind of makes it sound like you don't like your job because you have to work... 'cleaning excreatment'?? That's simple patient care... It sounds like you want the rewards of nursing without the 'dirty' work. This maybe the opposite of how you feel, but that's the impression I get from your post. I agree w/ the PP that an office job will not give you any of the needed experience & may even set you back.

I found this post to be unreasonably mean. Yeah, it's simple patient care, but she doesn't want to do it and that's her perogative. I hate it when people keep trying to kick others out of the field, who want to be in it, but want to take a more alternative route. It's possible.

OP, to be honest with you I've been looking at Grad schools myself and there are schools who are willing to take you right out of a BSN program. You have to have the grades and stuff and pass the GRE, but schools do take you if it's what you want. I even have a professor who went straight to grad school, skipping the work part, and did very well for herself. So, it's possible.

Thank you everyone for advice. It seems most people think working in a hospital for a few years is necessary...but I just can't. I became a nurse soley to be an NP - I'm unhappy as an RN, I hate blindly following orders and not taking on any sort of provider role. I feel like I'm wasting my potential and the thought of spending a few years doing this, as many have suggested, sounds like complete misery. Kudos to all of you that can handle such a position, but I cannot. If being an NP will not work out without hospital work I will look into PA school and medical school.

You really don't have to. Many of those responding here have their own views and experience. it's what worked for them. I will say that a lot of grad schools do require you to have 2 yrs experience minimum in acute care and at the bedside, but there are other schools as well that don't. So try to find those and ask around. Do you.

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