Are you a non-acute care nurse?

MA Nurse · May 5, 2006

To all the nurses out there who don't work in an acute care setting, what do you do? I am a ADN student and I know I DO NOT want to work in an acute care setting for more than a year or two to get some experience. I also have a B.S. in sociology. Any career advice would be appreciated.

I have an ADN. I worked for 1 year with adults, then went to NICU. My hospital trained me for a total of 12 weeks. Somehospitals don't take new grads, but if you're interesetd in Critical Care, NICU is great. It will save some back strain, too.

Good luck;)

gr8rnpjt, RN · May 5, 2006

Hi. I worked in acute for about 2 years. After that I started working for insurance companies. I worked doing telephonic review in an office setting and on site at hospitals in my area at other times. In the on site cases, it was still an office setting as the hospitals needed to provide me wtih a desk, telephone and a plug in for my laptop. I have been working for insurance and health plans for the last 16 years. It has been great. Steady daylight, weekends and holidays off. I am currently making over $27 an hour and work for a health plan owned by a leading university in my city. They will pay 100% of my tuition to go back for my BSN.

If this interests you, I would plan to work on a med surg floor for 2 years, and in the meantime start looking in the papers for ads for insurance companies in your area. Start sending out your resume and keep trying every 6 months or so. You will get a bite eventually. I would check out the biggest health plan in your area because the bigger they are the less experience they need. Good luck.