Away from Bedside Nursing Professionals-please share

[Mac06]

Hello,

I'm a new RN, BSN with less than a year experience and it's in long term care. I was wondering what professions are out there that nurses can do that are away from the bedside. I saw a posting from a nurse who left the bedside after 8mo and is now doing Case Management for an insurance company. How is it working for an insurance company? What are other places you can work besides insurance companies? Before I started my nursing program, I met an RN, BSN who said she never worked bedside nursing. She was an inspector. All of the nurses I've known personally have worked in the hospital by the bedside working Med-surg or ICU, have been a nurse practitioner, a school nurse, or a professor.

For those of you nurses who have decided to work a profession away from the bedside could you share the details of your profession, why you chose it, pro's and con's, what your schedule is like, environment you work in, ball park salary range, state you work in, experience needed, etc?

Thanks in advanced for those of you who respond.

[NurssNicole]

I worked for the Canadian Blood Services for awhile, interviewing blood donors to ensure they were candidates, and then completing the donation process. It was fun, always travelling to a different location to set up the "mobile labs". Then I worked for a Plastic Surgeon in a private cosmetic office setting. Mon-Fri 9-5. This involved post op care and pre op education. Assisting surgeon for minor procedures and injections.

Both these jobs (in Canada anyway) did not require any previous experience, I either learned as I went or in the case of the blood donor clinic, they taught us exactly what we were to do.

As I'm sure you'll hear from others who'll respond, there are many things you can do with nursing that does not involve the bedside!

I loved both places of work!:redpinkhe

[Bettie P]

I am a WV LPN doing billing/auditing work for a hospital. I correct errors on bills before they are submitted to insurance, I audit charts for patients who have a question about something they were billed for, add missing charges or subtract erroneous charges, assist admitting/registration folks with questions relating to medical necessity issues for outpt Medicare testing, and assist in monitoring trends in admissions (appropriateness of obs admits, etc.). I work M-F days in my own office. For a position like mine, you need to be familiar with insurance guidelines, Medicare policies, CPT and ICD-9 coding, use of modifiers, and have the patience to sort through long lists of charges.

Pros- my own office, dayshift, no holidays, no weekends, no need for PPE!

Cons- um...none, for me.

[BigBee48]

There is always Nurse Liaison or Marketing, I worked for a LTAC hospital for a number of years and did not do bedside nursing. There is also case management, management, of course there is research. I'll have to keep thinking, I know there is more. Hope this helps

[dijonsmom]

I'm an RN-BSN and I work in a Pain Center which i really like. I do pre & post op on diffrent days. I sedate patients prior to their procedures, write prescriptions unfer the MD DO # and some some paperwork. My hours are 7:00 AM to 3:30PM. Good Luck

[SpringerCab]

I am an LVN working in Clinical Informatics as an educator/trainer. My job is basically Mon-Fri, 8-5, but our hours a flexible. When we were implementing we worked evenings and nights, but we haven't done that for over a year now. I enjoy working with everyone in my office including my boss. I make around $45,000 a year. After over 30 years at the bedside I am enjoying my job.