I'm in an RN program and I could use a little advice. Before starting the RN program, I worked in a hospital as a nurse aide in med-surg and hated it. I also work in a primary care clinic (mostly in pediatrics, some in family practice) as a medical scribe and I really enjoy it. It's early at this point and I just finished my rotation at a SNF, but I still dislike everything about bedside care.
I really like the patient flow and the vibe of the community clinic I work at. Patients come in, they get help, then they leave instead of needing to be tended to and monitored all day and all night. Obviously there are patients who need to be in hospital, and those hospital nurses are great, but I don't feel like that's a good fit for me personally. My clinic job is not easy and most days everyone hustles pretty much all day. We see about three patients per hour depending on complexity, but generally we see them one at a time. My previous job at the hospital was just crazy busy, especially for aides like me with 10 to 12 patients each. I'm never doing that again if I can help it.
Should I try for a new grad job in public health or primary care without doing time in a hospital first? I could probably do a couple years in hospital if absolutely necessary to gain experience, but I'd rather not. In the hospital setting I felt stretched too thin with too many patients to care for at once, and the nurses were not impressed with my performance (mainly my speed) even after a year. In the community clinic, it took only a few months before everyone respected me and wanted me to be their scribe. I'm very concerned that if my first job is in a hospital, I'll do poorly and get a reputation for mediocrity that might have a lasting negative effect on my nursing career.
I'm a bit torn by what I hear about the ICU. It's bedside care but only one or two patients at a time, and I've heard you get great experience doing detailed assessments which increases your medical knowledge. However the ICU patients are fragile and very ill, so they have multiple problems to manage and as a new grad maybe i would not have the necessary knowledge to care for them.
At the clinic where I work they just hired a new grad RN to train as a pediatric triage nurse, so I know at least a few of those jobs are out there. However, they tried this several months ago with another new grad RN and she quit for a hospital job saying she felt like she needed the experience. The veteran pediatric triage nurse does have misgivings about new grads in triage without hospital experience. The RNs in the clinic do mostly triage and case management but also help with catheterization, etc. I actually love talking to patients. My dream job would probably involve wellness checkups, triage and patient education.
Helpful advice is much appreciated. Telling me I'm lazy for wanting a day shift clinic job or that I simply won't be a real nurse if I don't do bedside care is probably less helpful, but if that's the way you feel go ahead and share. I'm so sorry for this long post I can't stop writing! Thank you for any help!
Typically the very best way to avoid bedside nursing is not to become a nurse as a lot of non -bedside positions still requires some experience, which is typically acquired in some facility type of nursing.
Having said that - I do not agree that a new graduate nurse has to work in a hospital or nursing home as a new graduate. It is nice to have some solid experience and it certainly can make working in other areas easier or the nurse more proficient. But if somebody is going a different path that is ok as well. I know nurses who never set a foot onto med/surg and who decided to go directly to the OR,to a MD office, clinic, psychiatric hospital and so on and forth. They seemed to be doing ok because they love what they are doing and they do not plan on going into acute med/surg or ICU or such. There is also a hospice agency in my area that has a new graduate program for nurses who love community nursing but have no solid acute care experience.
I think that it is good that you realize where your weakness is and what you want. Since you write that you like talking and are not too good with multitasking and on the slower side - have you consider mental health nursing? It used to be that they wanted nurses to have med/surg experience but to be honest - I do not think that this is really that much the case anymore.
There are places like eating disorder facilities, outpatient partial programs, psych hospitals with a variety of floors to choose from, community programs with psych VNA and so on and forth. Perhaps investigate if that sounds like something you could be interested in. Nurses medicate a lot but otherwise it is a lot of talking and such.
A good nursing job that does not pertain to bedside care is school nursing. I did school nursing for about 10 years. The schools that I worked in were private schools. One was a school that has kindergarten through 12th grade and the other school was preschool with the ages of 16-18 months to 5 years old. I did student's charts, gave medications, and checked first aid kits. For a nurse, it was great and I really enjoyed the aspect of nursing.
martymoose, BSN, RN
1,946 Posts
I'd love to see the want ads for these job..... Do they really exist? not where I live