CAN I GET AN ER JOB AFTER URGENT CARE??

Sour Lemon · Jul 30, 2019

18 hours ago, lofe99 said:
I am a brand new grad (may 2019), no luck getting into mew grad programs yet. I met someone who knows the supervisor of a clinic with an urgent care and said she would speak to the supervisor about me. I would like to be an ED nurse at some point but I've heard that if i start off in urgent care is almost impossible to get into ED because urgent care is not considered acute care experience. Is this true? will I have trouble finding an ED job after urgent care? Should i keep looking into acute care? I really don't like med/surg or SNF. My dream is to work in ED or ICU.
Any tips will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.

I think med/surg would make more sense if you're hoping to transition to ER later. Any experience is better than none, though.

allnurses Guide · Jul 30, 2019

It depends on the urgent care. My hospital has an urgent care clinic, open 6 AM to midnight. They are kind of like "ER Stepdown". Patients who aren't obvious traumas or actively in a code or psych situation get funneled through there. They see plenty of MIs, strokes, sepsis, ortho injuries etc. Those nurses don't have trouble making the transition to the ER after a couple of years experience. However, not every urgent care is like this. You will want to see what kind of patients they tend to see and how they handle them.

lofe99 · Jul 31, 2019

Thank you. The Urgent care closes at 8 I believe she told me. I am actually also applying to SNF now since I haven't had any luck with Med/Surg New grad programs. I am planning on getting 6 months at SNF and continue to apply to new grad positions. Is this ok to do? Will it look bad if i leave a job after 6 months?

Sour Lemon · Aug 1, 2019

On 7/30/2019 at 5:54 PM, lofe99 said:
Thank you. The Urgent care closes at 8 I believe she told me. I am actually also applying to SNF now since I haven't had any luck with Med/Surg New grad programs. I am planning on getting 6 months at SNF and continue to apply to new grad positions. Is this ok to do? Will it look bad if i leave a job after 6 months?

Every new grad position has its own set of requirements. Working at a SNF for six months is certainly capable of disqualifying you from many of them.

And yes, it's bad to leave a new job in a new career after six months ...but moving to a higher acuity position would be more understandable than moving to a lateral position would be.

I had no healthcare experience as a new graduate nurse, and they specifically commented that they loved my employment history because it was so stable. People may be more willing to give you a chance if they expect that you'll stick around for a while.

Pryan6484 · Aug 11, 2019

I work two years in an ER ( one of them being in a level one trauma center) fresh out of nursing school. I recently became a nurse supervisor at an urgent care center and left the ER. I believe if you really want to be an ER nurse then you should start out in MED SURG. Urgent care is not going to teach you the skills you need to be an ER nurse. Urgent care is busy but a different kind. Most of these people are not really sick and the ones that are you are calling 911 for. Your hands on care is very limited in urgent care. You won’t learn prioritization, and charting in urgent care is non existent compared to what you need to chart as an ER nurse. I suggest you start in MED SURG. If you want to be a limited hand on nurse then stay at urgent care.

lofe99 · Aug 11, 2019

Thank you all for your comments. I really appreciate it :)