Floor Nursing vs. Doctor's Office

Dranger · Nov 24, 2015

Money, floor nurses on average will be paid more. As a new grad with differentials I made close to 40 an hour. How many clinic nurses make that?

RescueNinjaKy · Nov 24, 2015

On a personal level I would be bored with working in a clinic. I like the acuity of most hospitalized patients. And you see so much more in the hospital.

dream'n, BSN, RN · Nov 24, 2015

Loved working in a physician office. M-F, no holidays, much less stress, and developing longer term relationships with my patients.

Farawyn · Nov 24, 2015

I made the same money I made in the clinic as on the floors, because the clinic was associated with my hospital.

I actually made more, because they kept my PD rate of pay when I went FT at the clinic.

After all my years at the hospital, it was the clinic that did me in. Often times you are one of the only nurses in the clinic, and you work with MAs who are in session, getting the patients in the rooms, etc.

Yes, weekends and holidays off. That is big, but...

You are working with the same people day in and day out. I had a love/hate thing with the girls- it can get very incestual, for lack of a better term. Every one was up in everyone else's crap, docs included.

If one person calls in, there is no float to replace her/him.

I "owned" the work more in the clinic, because it was my work- there was no night nurse to come in and continue working. It wasn't boring. I was busy, and being pulled in many directions as "The" nurse.

I left because management was running the place in to the ground.

I loved the clinic too, for many reasons, but I should have stayed in the hospital.

RNperdiem, RN · Nov 24, 2015

Hospitals have more jobs available, pay more, and offer more opportunities to transfer to different departments for other nursing specialities. The drawbacks are shift work and job stress.

Doctors offices do not hire nurses the way they used to. The MA has taken over. Most nurses I find working in offices are NPs. There are a few spots that may require RN skills (my OB had a wonderful telephone triage nurse), but they are hard to find, and from what I hear, don't pay as well. The pros would be: regular hours and less stress.

klone, MSN, RN · Nov 24, 2015

I made the same money I made in the clinic as on the floors, because the clinic was associated with my hospital.
I actually made more, because they kept my PD rate of pay when I went FT at the clinic.
After all my years at the hospital, it was the clinic that did me in. Often times you are one of the only nurses in the clinic, and you work with MAs who are in session, getting the patients in the rooms, etc.
Yes, weekends and holidays off. That is big, but...
You are working with the same people day in and day out. I had a love/hate thing with the girls- it can get very incestual, for lack of a better term. Every one was up in everyone else's crap, docs included.
If one person calls in, there is no float to replace her/him.
I "owned" the work more in the clinic, because it was my work- there was no night nurse to come in and continue working. It wasn't boring. I was busy, and being pulled in many directions as "The" nurse.
I left because management was running the place in to the ground..

All of this, but mostly just the good stuff. :) I work in an amazing clinic with awesome staff and providers. I truly LOVE all my coworkers and actually look forward to going into work every day. It helps that all the providers are part time at the clinic, so each day there are typically new providers that I work with. The only people who are there every day are me, the MAs and the clerks (whom I also love). If I disliked any of my coworkers, I could see how it would be an unbearable situation.

And management at our facility is good. Upper leadership have great vision and goals, and my immediate manager is wise enough to give us what we need to do our jobs, and then gets out of the picture and lets us do our jobs.

I love having weekends and holidays off. I hate that I have to work 5 days a week, and my commute is when everyone else in the world is commuting. Yes, I "own" my work, but it also means that it's still going to be there tomorrow. If I call in sick, then I'm screwing the entire clinic because there is no "float pool" or 7 other coworkers who can pick up the slack. Which also means that I have to plan days off months in advance.

If I were *just* a nurse at a clinic, I would probably be pretty bored. My job is a weird nurse/manager hybrid which means that I do a lot of problem-solving and putting out of various fires throughout the day which usually makes my job pretty interesting.

And like Farawyn, my clinic is one of several community health clinics that is part of a large hospital network. As such, the pay is great (same as the inpatient nurses) and there is ample room for transfer and advancement. I feel like I get many of the perks of working at a hospital, without the drawbacks. But really, there are pros and cons of both.

Oedgar · Nov 24, 2015

Hospital pro's... pay, keeping your skills up, and availability of health insurance/etc (even though it may be crappy-the hospital here has crappy, expensive insurance). Hospital con's -difficult working hours, increasing acuity, constant lack of adequate staffing to feel like you can be a good nurse, the stresses of dealing with very ill/dying people and their families.

Clinic pro's- M-F schedule, no holidays/etc. Less acutely ill patients, nobody dying, and so on. Getting to develop relationships with the patients you see often. Clinic con's- Less money. If you work in a private practice insurance probably won't be available. This would still be OK of you have a spouse who can cover you. Also, it is very hard to be off for sick days, dr appts, or your kids' appts because there is literally no one else to do your job. As the nurse, you can only be gone when the doctor is gone. Also, there are some more challenging patients that you might get to see a whole lot of if they have frequent issues.

LPNtoRNin2016OH, LPN · Nov 25, 2015

Your definitely paid less in clinic nursing but most of my LPN career has been in clinic nursing and I haven't worked a holiday since 2010. I don't mind too, we are just never open. Your generally off on time and usually only work one weekend a month if your office is big enough to rotate and it's usually a half a day at that. Some cons is that you can't get rid of needy patients lol and after they get to know you, they will specifically call YOU for everything under the sun, even things not related to their health..

mago8388 · Nov 25, 2015

Dr office is way less stressful. You make better relationships with your co-workers (other RNs, NPs, MA, LPNs). Even the neurologist I used to work with would hang out with us outside of work. (She was young as well) No weekends, No on call, no evening, no holidays, on snow days you get to come late or leave early, the pay was the same I had at the hospital but that depends on where you live. If you find yourself too stressed out at the hospital you should give it a try.

Ayvah, RN · Nov 25, 2015

Working conditions are a major difference between the two. It is SO nice to be able to go to the bathroom in the clinic without your phone ringing in there. You can get an actual lunch and sometimes even breaks, and, depending on the department you are in you can have a lot more opportunity/time to educate patients on preventative care.

Regarding the hospital, it is a far, far more physical job. You get to keep up with the latest skills and personally I felt like I was using my nursing skills to the max in the hospital setting, whereas in the clinic it is a subset. However, hospital experience is a fantastic foundation for use in the clinic and will serve you well. Many clinics do operate into the evenings and on Saturdays, but nights and Sundays are basically always off so you can schedule family events on Sunday with confidence far into the future.

RN jobs in the clinic more and more are focused on the phone so some people may be bored. Personally I loved the work of floor nursing but physically it was too much for me, and, the constant short staffing made me feel like I was not allowed to be the type of nurse I wanted to be. I really enjoy the education aspect of nursing so that's a big plus to working in the clinic too. Its all about what works best for you personally.