New Grad as a Clinical Liaison

Nurses New Nurse

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Hey all.

So I am a new grad as of May just passed the boards in July have been interviewing at all different types of places. I was just offered a job as a Clinical Liaison for a nursing home. The job sounds wonderful. Small travel area, good pay, phone, travel reimbursement, and benefits. My question is this a good job for a new grad right out of school. I am told I will still be using my assessment skills, as well as some clinical skills. Do you think this is wise as a new grad to take a position like this? I was never crazy about being in a hospital, and was even thinking of taking a psych nursing job since I was 100% on doing patient care all shift. Any words of advice???

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Specializes in retired LTC.

Not too sure about this position. Would you bescreening pts for admission appropriateness? Like would you be checking out their wounds or IV needs or psych med/behaviors? Some NHs do send out a nurse to evaluate pt referrals prior to hospital discharge just for screening purposes. Just to make sure the pt is an OK fit for cost & level of care needs.

Or might you be trying to increase admission rates, like a Recruiter or Admissions Coordinator for keeping your facility census up? This is often tied into sales. You're trying to garner admissions to your facility by scoping out the area NHs and establishing yourself as a referral to your NH, hoping that the hospitals/LTACs will send you their pts.

You could be a combination of both positions but I would be very careful if the position has a sales-type component. Like if you don't keep your sales quotas up your position could be in jeopardy. I've seen staff lose their jobs because they couldn't get enough admissions to keep the census up.

Facilities don't get paid for empty beds so it is critical that they keep admissions up.

Be careful if this is somewhere in the position you're looking at. (Travel & phone are troublesome signs; did they offer you a laptop?)

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I'd have a tablet to do all of my entry on the patient into the spread sheets and what not. From what I was told in my interview, I would be reading over the patients file first sort of wrapping my head around who they are, they going and doing an assessment on the patient to make sure they are a good fit for that NH. I would be doing follow ups with them after they go home too, and of course talking to the doctors and staff at the hospital. From what she made it sound like there is no sales in it. It is a transitional care nurse evaluating the patients for a safe transfer.

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Most novice and beginner nurses do not have the knowledge, skill or judgement to competently and safely evaluate and make decisions on whether a person will be a 'good fit' in a health care facility, what qualities do you have that make you suitable for this position?

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I'm not sure how to answer that, without it coming across harsh. However, my interviewer felt confident enough in my skills to offer me the job. I've been working PRN in a hospital since passing the boards, however I need something full time now that I'm out of orientation and not getting hours like I was while training. I was hoping it would lead to full time sooner rather then later. It hasn't though and I need the benefits and on paper this company is great. Along with the hours of 8-430 which works better for me then 12's.

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Alison - - just want to jump in with a couple of thoughts. I tend toward the skeptical side of life sometimes so take this for what it's worth.

1) Being that this (by all initial appearances) is a position that might appeal to many nurses, it behooves you to ask yourself why others aren't clamoring for it and/or

2) ...if they are, how does it benefit the employer to hire someone with no nursing experience? I mean, they could categorize the job however they wanted such that they wouldn't "have to" pay a ton more for a nurse with, say, a couple of years' experience. In other words, is there any reason they might want someone specifically without much experience? If so, is that for an understandable reason, or for a reason that involves shaky ethics?

Please understand that I am *not* devaluing you as a new RN, but rather, this is simply how I approach situations where I have something to lose. I ask myself these types of questions in my process of evaluating whether or not things will likely go okay for me, or whether someone else just means to take advantage without regard to my well-being.

Best of luck with your decision!

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Hey all.

So I am a new grad as of May just passed the boards in July have been interviewing at all different types of places. I was just offered a job as a Clinical Liaison for a nursing home. The job sounds wonderful. Small travel area, good pay, phone, travel reimbursement, and benefits. My question is this a good job for a new grad right out of school. I am told I will still be using my assessment skills, as well as some clinical skills. Do you think this is wise as a new grad to take a position like this? I was never crazy about being in a hospital, and was even thinking of taking a psych nursing job since I was 100% on doing patient care all shift. Any words of advice???

Yes, don't take the job.

It takes more than "some" clinical skills, you need to have at least one year of bedside experience before you'll really be able to understand the full scope and you'll be working with case managers, most of which will have a minimum between 5 and 7 years of experienced.

If your facility cannot take the patient, you'll have to explain to the physician in great detail (many, many times) why the patient didn't qualify and be able to defend that position.

You will be fighting an uphill battle every day without any bedside experience and I personally get absolutely infuriated when I have a clinical liaison who is not "getting" the seriousness of a patient's condition.

No way would I take that job. Most do not hire new grads for that position....major red flag.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

Something smells fishy, stay away.

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Specializes in Adult Primary Care.

Is it possible to speak with Case Managers / Social Workers / Discharge Planners in the hospital you are currently working in? They may have knowledge about this particular NH or job and be able to give you some good advice.

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As a nurse with many years of experience it is my opinion that this job is not a suitable entry level position, the reasons why have already been outlined by other posters.

There are many options available if you aren't particularly keen on bedside nursing maybe consider an outpatient clinic.

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That's why I am asking for help. I am always looking for what is wrong with the situation before I jump into anything. My interviewer told me she called me as a new grad because of my lpasr experience. I am a second degree nurse with my first one being in accounting. In addition to having worked in bars, and being administrative assistant I have with all three of those jobs been able to fine tune my communication skills. Which is why she said she even called me as a new grad to begin with. She likwnall of you was questioning my assessment/bed side skills but she quickly dismissed them when she met me. I would be the first new grad she has hired for a position like this. I'm so confused as to what to do. I have interviewed for a ton of jobs and only been offered a PRN and a part time. I really need full time for my family and the benefits but I don't want to kill my career at the same time.

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Ill be blunt here: hiring a new grad for this kind of position - any new grad, regardless of their grades, communication skills, prior life experiences, etc - isn't a little inappropriate. It's very inappropriate. New grads don't know enough about medicine to do the job you're considering taking. Period. And a nursing facility that knowingly hires a new grad to do said job when they could hire someone with experience is either a sloppily run mess or unethical.

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