first job: clinic, home health, or LTC facility?

[firefly101]

hey everyone. like for most, hospital jobs are hard to come by right now for new graduate nurses. clinics, home health agencies, and long term care facilities are hiring new grads in my area though. my goal is to work in acute care (eventually ER/ ICU/ critical care) but i will obviously take a position elsewhere until i get experience. in your opinion, is there an option that would look "better" to hospitals to have experience in? how would you rank them? or are they all pretty equal?

thank you.

[Nonetheless]

I think they are all great places to start--if you want to work outside the hospital for the rest of your career.

if your heart is in the ICU, give yourself 6 months after the NCLEX to hardcore look for an ICU job before jumping into the outpatient world, if you do not want to stay in the outpatient world.

Take on temporary positions and volunteer for things like camp nursing or flu clinics.

From my personal experiences HR and nurse managers hiring for new grad programs prefer someone who graduated 6 months ago and volunteered at a free clinic over someone who has worked in home health and has a decent paying full time job, and has less need and more non-hospital experience.

[firefly101]

with all my student loans i cannot wait 6 months to start working so that's not really a practical option for me... so are you saying that all of these options provide useless experience if my goal is acute care?

i haven't totally eliminated the option of moving... but transitioning into the "real world" is already stressful, so i'm hesitant to be far away from friends and family :/

[Nonetheless]

with all my student loans i cannot wait 6 months to start working so that's not really a practical option for me... so are you saying that all of these options provide useless experience if my goal is acute care?

i haven't totally eliminated the option of moving... but transitioning into the "real world" is already stressful, so i'm hesitant to be far away from friends and family :/

No!!! I am not saying they are useless!!!!

It is just that I think it is harder to transition out of them than to just wait a few months after school.

Your financial needs are most important though.

[Nola009]

I was told that ANY nursing experience is valuable. It's incredibly likely you won't get your #1 dream job right out of school. If you're looking to work in ICU which is very skills-based, I would choose whichever option that will allow you to sharpen your hands-on skills. Out of the options you listed, it sounds like SNF or LTC (uugh) would be best.