Clinic vs. hospital nursing?

[TanyaBRN]

Hello, wondering if anyone has any advice on working in a clinic vs a hospital for a RN looking to go to grad school in the next few years. I have been a nurse for 2 1/2 years. I worked 2 years in a long term care/group home setting for adults with DD/MR, and have been in homecare now for 6 months. Both jobs have been salaried, involved working 50+ hours/week and had a lot of working from home, and I need something different. I know that my experience makes me much more qualified to work in a clinic than a hospital, but I want to get a masters or DNP some day and I wonder if working in a clinic will be enough experience? My top choices would be nurse midwife, nurse educator, or nurse practitioner in peds or family practice. Any insights for me? I am interviewing for a clinic position next week and wondering what I should do if they offer me the job.

[linguine]

Hi TanyaBRN, if you want to be a family or peds NP, a clinic is great experience as a nurse! I work in a clinic and many of the nurses are actually NP students working part time. As a nurse in a clinic, may you do a lot of triaging, which will develop your interviewing skills and physical exam techniques you will use daily as an NP.

In a clinic where the staff is close, you may have more opportunities to pick the brains of the providers and learn a lot from them.

goodluck