career path advice

[chupacabracore]

hello everyone! i'm a first time poster but long time reader of this wonderful forum. i just finished nursing school and i'm looking forward to starting my career. i have a couple issues rattling around in my mind lately that i was hoping you guys could help me with.

i'm about to move two hours away from my hometown to a big city with lots of hospitals. my goal there was to find a med-surg job so i could get my skills really tight and see lots of different cases. eventually i want to do travel nursing after i get some experience under my belt. unfortunately, the med-surg jobs in my new area aren't as plentiful as i had hoped (although there are still more opportunities than in my hometown). i did come across a listing looking for an LPN to work as a "clinical research associate" at a cancer center that is walking distance from my new place. it starts out at $3 more an hour than the med-surg jobs and the hours are great. what i'm wondering, though, is if this experience will count when i decide i want to travel and will it be as worthwhile as med-surg experience? i guess the issue is... do i go after a job that will be great for me now but may limit my opportunities in the future or do i make some sacrifices now that will benefit me in the long run?

i'm also terrified that if i don't "use it" i'll "lose it" when it comes to a lot of the skills i just learned in school. any guidance or advice would be greatly appreciated! thanks for reading.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

:welcome: Welcome to our forums!

Are there any LPN travel agencies in your area? Although there are a few LPN travel nurses, they tend to be rarities. The overwhelming majority of travel nurses in the US are RNs due to their universal scope of practice across the different states.

You'll need acute care experience to be considered 'experienced' for travel assignments. Med/surg counts as acute care hospital experience. Research nursing at a cancer center generally does not.

[chupacabracore]

yeah, i already know about the limited nature of LPN travel nursing, but thanks.

i'd really like some input on doing whats great for me now instead of what will benefit me in the long run. will this research position even help me at all in my nursing career? i wouldn't technically be working as an LPN in that job. also, will i really lose a lot of my skills if i don't go directly into an environment where i will be using them frequently?

anyone else? please?

[pagandeva2000, LPN]

I think that you need to obtain a job practicing in the license you earned. I am an LPN whose primary job is working in a clinic (in a hospital setting). I have weekends and holidays off. To be honest, I would not trade it for the world and do not intend to.

However, I also know that it is beneficial to have med-surg or bedside experience. I am fortunate enough to be able to work per diem on med-surg at the very hospital I am already employed in. As a new grad, I had to work on med-surg for 6 weeks, and it was so disorganized that I ran from there since it was not to be my regular assignment. That was 2006. Since then, it always sort of haunted me that I was not getting med-surg experience, so, I decided to do something about it. My hospital does not pay overtime to people who work in different departments, but will gladly give the names of the agencies they utilize so we can work and get paid under them (which is much more money, funny enough). I had to do a two day orientation, and last week, I was on my own for the first time. I survived the shift, and am glad that I am doing it. And the benefit is that I am doing it on MY terms...when I want to, versus HAVING to. This will pad my resume, because no one has to know that I only did it like twice a month...they just want to see at least a year or two of med-surg. I call the inpatient supervisors once a week and tell them when I want to work and they'll see what is available. Usually, I get what I want. Also, this is prime vacation time, which makes it even better, because I'll be getting hours steadily at least until the end of September, and it'll probably pick back up around Thanksgiving, Xmas, etc... I also plan to eventually phase over to psych to get some more experience under my belt.

I do believe that one or two things can happen; it will be either that you will get comfortable not working as a nurse at all, or will be too afraid to because of lack of exposure. And most places seem to want to know if you have 'paid your dues'.

[chupacabracore]

thanks for the input! it was very helpful. i did find and apply for a job that sounds similar to what you described - a clinic in a hospital setting. it seems this would be my best bet right now.

again, thank you!