Best first RN job for the goal of APRN?

[number41]

Hey everyone,

I know it is difficult for new grads to be at all picky in their first job search, and really we should be grateful to be hired, but if I do have any opportunity to choose one area over another, my question is this:

As a soon to be graduate (June 2013) with a year of experience in the hospital as a tech, and the eventual goal of becoming an FNP in the next few years, is there one avenue I should seek a career in or is any experience good? For example, would it be detrimental to take a job as a school nurse or in public health? Is a hospital the only way to go? I'm not anticipating that I'll have much of a choice but in the event that I apply to a lot of openings and do have a choice, I'm just looking for some insight :) Thanks in advance

[pockunit, ADN, RN]

Hey everyone,

I know it is difficult for new grads to be at all picky in their first job search, and really we should be grateful to be hired, but if I do have any opportunity to choose one area over another, my question is this:

As a soon to be graduate (June 2013) with a year of experience in the hospital as a tech, and the eventual goal of becoming an FNP in the next few years, is there one avenue I should seek a career in or is any experience good? For example, would it be detrimental to take a job as a school nurse or in public health? Is a hospital the only way to go? I'm not anticipating that I'll have much of a choice but in the event that I apply to a lot of openings and do have a choice, I'm just looking for some insight :) Thanks in advance

Take the jobs you're offered and you'll find you get more interviews once you have something besides school on your resume. If you want FNP, you might want to consider Planned Parenthood, since most of the NPs there are FNP and you'd have good exposure to one side of that career path.

Otherwise, I'd go LTC or med/surg, whichever comes first. School nurse is okay, but it's a job that a lot of districts give to CNAs with supervision, so it may not be as helpful. Public health for sure, if you have the credentials (my state requires BSN).

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

If you think about the role that FNPs fill, you can probably figure this out for yourself. Their most important skill is assessment of ambulatory patients - identifying the underlying cause of the patient's complaint & effective use of diagnostic testing. So - you'd benefit from any job in which you can hone your assessment skills along with becoming familiar with diagnostic procedures/tests & treatment protocols on a wide variety of patients. That being said, MedSurg would be better than LTC due to greater variety. You may also want to get some Pedi experience along the way.

Planned Parenthood (or similar settings) would limit the patient population to women of childbearing age & (maybe) young children. This may not be optimal unless you plan on becoming a WHNP.