Are doctor offices likely to hire new grad RNs?

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i am strongly considering seeking employment in an office as a new grad. are offices open to hiring new grads? or do they prefer experienced rns? i would very much like to go straight into an office over a hospital. another question:

as a new grad rn, are you more likely to be hired into a hospital or an office? the job market for nurses is not very good where i live, so i will most likely be limited to what is available to me when i graduate. but, like i said, i really would like to avoid a hospital setting if i can help it.

I was a new grad and hired at a pediatrician's office. It was a large practice and they did have several RN's. HOWEVER.....the pay was extremely low. Could never live on that now that I am a single mom.

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They generally hire LPN's or MA's, not RN's.

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Specializes in Trauma, ER, ICU, CCU, PACU, GI, Cardiology, OR.

Certainly, most doctors offices like to hire MA's & LPN's since they are less cost to their pockets. Having said that, I have two colleagues of mine that graduated with me long ago, and they got hired by a doctors office & a out patient clinic. By the way, they love it. Good luck to you in all of your future endeavors~

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Specializes in FNP, ONP.

We hire one MA for every provider, and we have one RN that supervises all the MAs and handles all the various and sundry things that come up: she does wound care, starts IVs when necessary, gives meds the MAs cannot, does phone triage and a million other things I am not even aware of. The RN is, without a doubt, the busiest person in our building. I think we pay her about $22 an hour (the MAs are making between $8 and 9). She had been a ED RN for 5 years before she she came to us. No, we would not have hired a new grad because we depend upon her to lead the rest of us, lol. If she were green, we'd all be in big, BIG trouble.

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Specializes in Emergency, Trauma, Critical Care.
No, urgent cares (at least ones that are any good) do not hire new grads. They need nurses who have more than rudimentary assessment and critical thinking skills. Most ambulatory facilities require experience. I'm sure there is an outlier here or there but as a rule these are not the places for new grads. I now work in an oncology clinic. Nurses we hire must have at least 5 years of ICU or ER experience. I'm not saying that you won't be able to find an office position...it's just pretty unlikely. You may have to bite the bullet and get a year or two of acute care under your belt.

depends on the facility. First job offer I had as a new grad was an Urgent Care.

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Specializes in Level II Trauma Center ICU.

The overwhelming majority of the docs in my area use MAs. Outpatient RN jobs are hard to come by even for experienced RNs as they are usually filled via word of mouth. The only graduate nurses I know of who were hired into outpatient jobs had worked as MAs in the office they were hired into while studying nursing.

I've always found it odd that the powers that be say that healthcare is moving into the outpatient environment thus requiring more nurses. I don't know who or where they are getting their information from. The docs in our area are struggling with decreased reimbursements so they have become part of the hospital's health system. And that system does not want to pay a RN when they can get a MA for less than half the cost.

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I live in NC also. Have you looked into Long Term Acute Care (LTAC)? Technically it is a hospital, but it's nice because you get time to develop a relationship with the patient and family. From what I could tell, the doctors and nurses work as a team and its not like taking on 8+ patients on a med-surg floor.

It'd probably be pretty hard to find a job in a doctor's office right out of school, I guess it depends on what area or NC you are in... the larger the population, I guess the better chance you have, I assume larger medical practices would be located around the bigger cities.

Whatever you choose, good luck!

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It depends on the office. Some will hire new RNs, and some are looking for nurses with 5+ years of experience. It really depends on the number of nurses in the clinic, the workload of the clinic and the job responsibilities the RN will be expected to perform. For example, a cancer clinic is less likely to hire new grads because of the complexity of the chemo and such.

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Specializes in Cardiothoracic ICU.

Yes, if you are attractive.

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I work in LTC. I'm an RN & have another RN or an LPN, and 4 CNA's for 54-58 residents. Each of us nurses have to give out pills to half the residents, work in the dining room for an hour, go back to passing out meds, taking care of residents, doing treatments, etc. I was hired right out of school. Some of my classmates got into the hospitals, some don't have jobs, yet. Working in LTC is HARD WORK!

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I appreciate everyone's comments thus far. Well, it sounds like I may have a chance at getting into an office, but it will depend on the climate of the offices in my area.

I am willing to take a paycut to work in an office. It is not worth it to me to work in a high stress environment like a hospital. I am doing this to supplement my husband's income. I want a job that I can do PT and still be around to raise my children. I would rather not be coming home frazzled every night or miss seeing my children for 3 days every week. I went into nursing partly because I wanted to be able to help people. However, I had no idea how high the stress is in a hospital. I find it very mentally stimulating, but when I consider the amount of stress, the work hours involved (12 hour shifts), etc., it's not worth it to me. I am holding out hope that I can find an office job when the time comes. I think I would thrive there and be content, even though the position may be a bit mundane compared to a hospital environment.

Does anyone have any suggestions for other areas a new grad RN may pursue that are similar in stress level to an office? Any other outpatient environments? I really enjoy working with the geriatric population and would consider LTC. I wish my school offered rotations in other areas aside from the hospital. All of our clinical experiences have been at hospitals. We have had a few observation experiences or short half-day rotations in a handful of other areas, but that is all.

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Specializes in telemetry, med-surg, home health, psych.

In my area (in the South) there are NO RN's in any Dr.'s offices......you are lucky to see an LPN...$$$$$$$$

My suggestion for you is to get a year experience in a hospital on the floor first !!!

Then you will be an more of a position to pick and choose..........you need that clinical experience for ANY job you may get....................Don't start off in long-term, it will limit you in the long run.........

Take advise from one "ole nurse" to a younger one........:cheers:

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