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I currently work in a really fast paced surgery center and have worked in surgery for 13 years. I have worked as a scrub and nurse at a trauma center and now I'm the charge nurse at the surgery center. I've recently been approached by a group of doctors I use to work for about working in their office but they are afraid I will get bored as am I. Has anyone made a transition similar to this? Pros & cons?

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Specializes in Ambulatory Case Management, Clinic, Psychiatry.

about a year and a half ago i transitioned from inpatient psych to outpatient float in primary care (and occasionally urgent care and rheumatology). my background was inpatient and outpatient psych, health/wellness teaching for mental health pts, and case management- so definitely different than yours

if you get bored easily with routine and are looking for an adrenaline rush, outpatient is probably not the place to go

depending on the clinic and your role, it can definitely be fast paced, but routine

will you be doing more telephone triage, rooming pts, case management, vaccines? find out.

pros: hours (i work 830-5), no weekends or holidays, very low stress, unlikely to kill anyone, you generally dont have to tolerate one pt for more than 15mins in a shift, drs generally treat you very collegially/with respect

cons: pace can be slower at times (again, depending where you work), triaging colds/utis/ nv can get old after a while, pts think their cold/1 day of vomiting/bs of 300 is a BIG DEAL, lots of time on the phone, if you are not rooming there can be lots of time sitting, there may not be other nurses to consort with- you may be in the minority with most of the staff being mas/mds/pas/nps and secretaries, and the most hands on stuff you generally do is injections and vs

urgent care has more variety, some adrenaline (the chest pain w new ekg changes, the pt with new onset confusion, weakness, headache, and slurred speech), and more movement. also more hands on stuff (assisting w i/ds, more complex dressings, triage, ivs)

i wouldn't have stayed this long if i wasn't a float- the variety keeps me going, and if i don't like an office or role, it is never permanent

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