Can family NPs transfer to primary care from urgent care?

[Pachinko]

I will be graduating from NP school next year. I'm interested in doing urgent care, but I would also like to be in a regular primary care practice someday. Does beginning in urgent care make transferring to regular primary care more difficult?

[BlueDevil,DNP, DNP, RN]

I wouldn't think so, I'm sure the variety of conditions that present provide outstanding experience. I think the only potential disadvantage could be is if you were in an urgent care that used very strict algorithmic models of practice, such as the "Minute Clinics." I have a friend/colleague who works there and outside of the differential, they are not allowed to use any critical thinking skills at all, which she finds frustrating. The guidelines for treatment are black and white, and they are not permitted to deviate for any reason or they are sanctioned.

Well private practice doesn't work that way. You would have to convince the practice that you could think outside that paradigm and not be "boxed in" by that mindset, so to speak. Once any fears of that sort were allayed, I'm sure the fact that your experience was in an urgent care setting would not be at issue. Other than not often managing complex patient cases over a long span of time (months to years) I don't think there is probably a lot that you wouldn't see there that would come up in most family or internal medicine practices. On the other hand, there is a lot you would do there you might never do in a family practice clinic! I have stopped suturing anything, for instance! It simply takes too much time for what it reimburses, so I send them to (you guessed it) urgent care.