Do you feel hospital experience is a must?

[LPNtoRNin2016OH, LPN]

Before you manage an occ health clinic or are in a position where you are the soul nurse on site?

I have 2 years experience in occ health as an LPN. I was trained way more than what I would have been had the RN on site been in good health. She has several health issues that lead to me taking on most of her role as it was still in my scope of practice. So I am competent in travel vaccinations, workers comp, temp/perm restrictions, drug free workplace, DOT/DOD/FAA guidelines, union negotiations, blood borne pathogen programs, etc.

I hopefully will be graduating with my RN in 18 months and am wondering if should try for the hospital to get more critical care experience or go directly back into occ health where I ultimately want to end up. I currently work PRN in LTC because my previous position did not have PRN for LPNs and I needed that for school. My former supervisor has asked me to come work for her in Jan 16 at an health care company that is starting up their occ health dept. Literally, it would be her and I, that's it for the time being. It's part time and they are willing to work around my clinical/study schedule.

Our previous job together was in a factory and her critical care experience was obviously in good use because she would respond to floor accidents before EMS made it there. So I am thinking hospital experience will be necessary to be fully knowledgeable in a position such as that.

Any thoughts/experiences? And if hospital experience is a must, what unit do you think would be most valuable to marketing me in the occ health field?

[Rbeck911, BSN, RN]

If your simply looking for critical care experience, get your emt cert. You don't need hospital experience as occ health is nothing like hospital care.

[InHisImage, BSN]

On 12/11/2015 at 3:15 PM, Rbeck911 said:

If your simply looking for critical care experience, get your emt cert. You don't need hospital experience as occ health is nothing like hospital care.

Yes, I know this is an old thread, but I also know that others will come along with the same/similar questions and might appreciate an updated answer.

I spent 11 years in the ER and now just a few months in occ health, but where I currently work it is very busy most days (employees literally lined up and overflowing the 3 waiting rooms) and feels a lot like the ER, especially now with covid on the scene.   No certification-except for BLS of course-was required when I was hired and the experience that was valued the most by my employer was ER experience.  There are other nurses where I work with critical care and other backgrounds, but I know that the nurses with at least a few years of ER on their resumes were the first to be chosen for interviews.

Obviously I don't have a lot of experience yet with occ health but it does seem as though my personal experience is different than some (many/most?) and perhaps not typical.  However, though it may not be typical, I think it lends an important perspective to those who are seeking answers to questions for this particular field of nursing.