Ambulatory Surgery: where does my career go from here?

[Lulu Belle, RN, EMT-B]

Hi All

I'm making a somewhat unexpected switch from night shift in the hospital to circulating nurse in an ambulatory surgical center, and will eventually train to PACU as well. It's 9-5 M-F, comes with a 30% raise, and no weekends or holidays, which is what my family needs right now.

I'm okay with the fact that this may mean I will never work in the hospital again. But out of curiosity, I'm wondering how hard it would be to switch to a circulator role in inpatient surgery if I ever decide that's what I want? Is there no coming back from the ambulatory setting?

Thanks for the advice!

Lulu

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

You can make the transition to inpatient at a later time. Be up front with what you find your self comfortable with and that you expect to need a longer orientation than a nurse with experience within an inpatient setting. We actually had a nurse join our inpatient team from our free-standing outpatient team and she is doing quite well. We also at one point absorbed our outpatient staff (this was an outpatient facility within the same building, sharing the same locker room, it was just a different hallway) into our inpatient staff. With the exception of those who chose to leave as it meant taking call, they all did fine orienting to the more complex inpatient procedures.

[Lulu Belle, RN, EMT-B]

On 5/15/2020 at 1:04 PM, Rose_Queen said:

You can make the transition to inpatient at a later time. Be up front with what you find your self comfortable with and that you expect to need a longer orientation than a nurse with experience within an inpatient setting. We actually had a nurse join our inpatient team from our free-standing outpatient team and she is doing quite well. We also at one point absorbed our outpatient staff (this was an outpatient facility within the same building, sharing the same locker room, it was just a different hallway) into our inpatient staff. With the exception of those who chose to leave as it meant taking call, they all did fine orienting to the more complex inpatient procedures.

Thank you, Rose_Queen. I appreciate the feedback.