Does working at a small hospital make me less of a nurse?

CalArmy · Dec 9, 2016

Absolutely not!!! Will you see some things you never have in a larger facility? Probably but people are people whether in a small or large hospital. Feel good about the difference you make regardless of where it is.

djh123 · Dec 9, 2016

Not in my opinion!

tokmom, BSN, RN · Dec 9, 2016

Over the years I have worked in large teaching hospitals to my now critical access of 22 beds. I was surprised how acutely ill my patients are and we have to care for them without all of the "ologists", resident docs, IV teams, code teams etc, We pretty much have one of everything when it comes to people. It has it's own challenges where we are forced to think outside the box. Every nurse that has come to work with us thinks they are going to be working in a small hospital and sort of kick back. Yeah right, lol. Same sick people, just less resources to depend upon. My skills have grown exponentially.

Davey Do · Dec 9, 2016

SororAKS, ADN, RN · Dec 9, 2016

Noooo. I've worked in both, and find small hospitals have their advantages. Nurses can have more practice opportunities and wear more than one hat. It is easier to be noticed, and to take a leadership role. I didn't find the experience a hindrance at all.

pogues60 · Dec 9, 2016

Absolutely NOT!! There is no right way to be a nurse. A nurse is a nurse no matter their field of practice. I simply do not know how and why this nonsense gets thrown around--ignorance and insecurity I suppose. These RNs that say these things to other nurses are straight up bullies and give nursing a bad name. Being a nurse is about the patients and providing quality care no matter the place of practice. It's not about the RN and feeding their ego. They need to get off there high horse. I honestly have the ought most respect for mental health nurses and some say this isn't real nursing either. Don't listen to these people. You do you and be great at that.

VegGal, BSN, RN · Dec 9, 2016

I was told that working in a small, 30 bed hospital as a med surg nurse makes me less of a nurse than one who works in a large hospital. Is this true?

No, absolutely not! You're still a nurse, still serving a patient population, and still doing a job that a NURSE needs to do. Please don't feel that just because you work in a small hospital, that it makes you any less of a nurse. Do you think that an MD who works there would feel any less of an MD for working in a small hospital? No, of course not.

Don't let others make you feel small, or look down at you and your job as a nurse. Someday, if you feel that you want more experience with a different population of patients, or a field of nursing that's not available at your hospital, for example ICU or peds, or whatever your hospital doesn't do, then you could move on to something else. However, if you want to stay there until you retire, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.

MsJenniferYang · Dec 10, 2016

I worked in a small rural hospital for 4 years and now work in a larger hospital. I have to say that working in the small hospital taught me to be independent and able to care for a huge variety of patients and cared for patients with illness I would never see here. In fact, I actually feel as if I do a lot less in the larger hospital. Working in a smaller hospital can be great. Make it what you want it to be. Don't listen to the naysayers!

dlgrn715 · Dec 10, 2016

I have worked at a smaller hospital for almost 20 years. I have not worked anywhere else. But I imagine that at a bigger hosp you would never have the same atmosphere or experience as in a smaller one. First of all, we are like family. Especially living in a small town, everyone knows everyone. Fewer patients often equals fewer nurses and direct patient care staff. That means we all work together more often and get to know each other better. I believe this means better care for our patients in the end because we really come together to help our patients. Also, you may be getting more experience as far as variety of patients since it's a small hosp. So, no, I would never say that you or I are less of a nurse because we work at smaller hospitals! No job, no person is more important than another. Even doctors and surgeons. They may have the authority and skills, but they depend on the nurses and staff to be able to accomplish the end goal. Don't ever question your own importance. And don't let comments from others bring you down. They only do that because they think it makes them look better. But it doesn't.

Janetnzrn · Dec 10, 2016

Absolutely not! You are a generalist, ortho and renal in the same room, paeds and copd in the next. All of those are in seperate wards in the big hospital. You are also caring for your neighbors and your community rather than the "pancreatitis in 4B". That said, I spent time doing L&D, SCBU in a tiny hospital, when we relocated I was able to fulfill a career goal of working in a level 3 NICU. There are some opportunities you won't get, but you are actually better at problem solving than the bigger hospital nurse.

nightbychoice · Dec 11, 2016

Usually the people that make comments like that are people that have very limited experience.

In my experience, a smaller hospital forces you to master many different areas of expertise thus differentiating you from most large hospital nurses. In our critical access hospital we draw our own labs, start our own IV's, do our own EKG's, do our own respiratory treatments, set up oxygen and CPAP's, admit/discharge our own patients, act as a resource for a nursing home attached and a local Vets home, go to pharmacy and obtain medications and mix antibiotics, we enter a lot of our own orders and run codes until our mid-level providers arrive.

We may have a chest tube today in a teenager and have another patient with a trach. We do post partum, med/surg, ortho, ICU and ER. We care for neonates through geriatrics. We may rehab patients for months. Our national certifications rival those of nurses in large hospitals but in most cases we possess more certifications as we will most likely care for a more diverse population.

If a person were to try to call myself or my coworkers "less of a nurse" I would challenge them to walk a night in our shoes. Our teamwork rivals that of a professional athletic team and I wouldn't have it any other way.

CCRN_CSC_0710 · Dec 12, 2016

I've done both--massive teaching hospital with residents everywhere, IV teams, and even a Foley team...and a small hospital where night shift had 1 ER doc in the building and that's it (no NP, just the RN's and a "call if you need anything.") Neither staff is better or worse. I think my skills and assessments were astronomically better in the second hospital, whereas I took care of some of the sickest patients with crazy treatments in the first. Neither was better or worse and the nurses were great at both.