clinic nursing jobs

dishes, BSN, RN · Nov 26, 2017

How come your schedule is working every other night? Even if you are new it is not reasonable to expect an employee's body clock to adjust to that type of scheduling. Nights should be consecutive for at least two or three 12 hr shifts in a row, more in a row if working 8 hr shifts. Have you asked your manager if your schedule can be adjusted? As far as working every holiday, do other employees work alternate holidays? if so, you should be entitled to work alternate holidays as well. Every other weekend is an expectation for most nurses, new or not.

cleback · Nov 27, 2017

If it's just the scheduling that's causing you to look for another job, I think it would be reasonable to try to work with your manager first before leaving. In general, it is better for your professional reputation to wait a year before leaving your job, longer for higher acuity settings like ICU. But I totally understand nights are rough... they made me a bit depressed when I worked them. Do what you have to do for your health and sanity.

And yes, the clinics are less pay. No getting around that.

dishes, BSN, RN · Nov 27, 2017

Are the clinics that pay less located within hospitals? The reason I ask is because Canadian nurses who work in hospital clinics are paid the same hourly pay as staff nurses who work on the inpatient units. The only difference is that clinic nurses who work M-F days do not make shift differential, but the benefits of working in a clinic are worth the loss of the differential pay.

Babynurse1992 · Nov 29, 2017

I have asked my manager about the potential to switch to day shift, which would take a few years to be able to do. I have also asked about having consecutive nights in a row and was told that as a new nurse, they have to put us where we are needed because of seniority. Granted, I do think the schedule would get better as time went on, but I am just not convinced that ICU is my niche! Also, the clinic that has asked me to interview is within a hospital and the supervisor told me it would be the same base pay as the hospital but without the dif for the weekends because there are no weekends/holidays.

It is a pediatric allergy clinic where I would be administering allergy shots and titrating the doses/monitoring for anaphylaxis among other things.

Another question I have run across is whether or not clinic experience with a BSN where I will still have to utilize critical thinking skills will be enough experience for potentially going to graduate school to become an NP or a nurse educator!

Thank you for your response!

cleback · Nov 29, 2017

Stinks that your manager would rather lose staff than try to work with them.

All specialties require critical thinking. However, from my limited exposure to allergy, in allergy clinics where you'll be primarily administering shots, you may have a narrower application of critical thinking skills than in the ICU. What kind of NP or nurse educator did you want to be? Advanced nursing educational tracks usually are based on patient age and acuity. If your goal is to continue working with kids outpatient, the clinic would be fine. If you wanted to return to acute care or adults, the ICU is better experience.

But I would find your nursing niche first and then think of grad school.

Babynurse1992 · Nov 29, 2017

If i were to decide on NP, it would be outpatient setting.. possibly FNP and not completely against specializing in pediatrics (I do pretty well with children and pediatric patients are what steered me to becoming a nurse in the first place). For education, I considered becoming a nursing professor at a local university.