What about office nursing?

[tsgarman, RN]

I have not been on the forum for a long time. I have been focusing most of my time on school. But I recently started reading some of the posts and I am surprised at some of the replies. I am a junior nursing student in a four year program. I have several areas that interest me in the nursing field, one of which is office nursing. It seems that most of you work in hospital settings and not in an office. I have talked to several nurses in hospitals and in the office and the office setting sounds less stressful. My question to you is this. Why not office nursing if you don't like the stress?

P.S. The other fields of interest are CRNA or some type of surgical field. In case anybody was wondering.

[mom22]

I've worked in several of office nursing positions- internal medicine, OB-GYN, and fertility. I enjoyed working there and may return someday. I'm in a hospital setting now but sort of by accident (long story).

The hours are usually pretty good, though the pay tends to be lower, and watch for your scope of practice- be sure to get documentation that you have been trained on any treatments or proceedures you perform there.

[P_RN, ADN, RN]

I did it for the most wonderful seven years of my career. My doctor was one in a billion!

It was a learning experience. He would give me the journals to read and recommend articles for him. In fact he was the one who convinced me to go back to college.

Then with all that "education" I decided that *I* needed a "real" nurses position. So I left.........

It wasn't a lot of money there. The hours were pretty bad at times, because he was the only doctor within 30 miles in any direction. And he cared!

He died 6 years ago. I never got to tell him one more time what he meant to me. Dr. W. I love you.

[PhantomRN]

I personally have never done office nursing, but I have a very close friend who does and she just loves it. She went to office nursing straight out of school and hasnt looked back.

She got very lucky in her postition in that she has some flexibility. By this I mean:

1 day a week... on the floor..seeing patients into rooms, vitals, labs and tests.

1 day a week...is for phone triage. answer incoming calls from people...make appts if medically necessary, answer questions on medications etc.

1 day a week....is for nurse visits...these are people that have been scheduled to come in specifically to see the RN... for labs, teaching, assessments, follow ups etc.

1 day she is in her office (yes, she has her own office) doing case management....she does follow up on poor people who have come into visit the nurse or MD and makes sure they get their meds, does teaching and makes sure they return for the next visit and if they can't....

She has 1 day a week....where she goes out into the community and does home visits....she checks on people unable to come to the office, follows pregnant teens, teaches at community clinics, shot clinics etc.

She works Mon- Fri 8 hours a day between the hours of 8-6. They have early and late days, some start at 8, some 9 and some 10. It changes for them. They work 1 saturday per month in their emergency triage center.

This emergency triage center handles- many things. Cuts, broken bones, they can stabilize the patient until they can get them to the hospital. They have the ability to xray, cat scan etc.

This place is very progressive as you can tell. It is not the run of the mill doc office. My friend is very happy their and If I had not moved out of the area I would be working their too.

She started their in 1998. Base 18.00 hour. Full benefits. 2 weeks Vacation the first year, 3 the second up to 5 weeks by the fifth year. 12 sick days a year and 11 holidays. She is guaranteed a 5% cost of living raise per yr PLUS she gets her annual eval raise.

I am very happy for her.

[tsgarman, RN]

Phantom RN

I am curious to know where your friend works at. I would love to find an opportunity like that when I graduate.

[PhantomRN]

I see you are from Kansas, this office that she works at is in Massachusettes.

I can tell you that it is a government funded office, and most major and minor cities have one. They give service to the poor communities. It is a nice service and the staff get government benies.

Look in your phone book under health clinics.

When we moved after I got ut of school, I checked for the health clinic in my area and they were not hiring. So that should tell you something. I havent checked recently.

[RNforLongTime]

I am very much interested in office nursing and would eventually like to work in a doctors office. Unfortunatley, in my area of the USA the doctors office jobs pay 5 to 10 dollars less an hour than staff nursing positions in hospitals. Until I have my student loans paid off and a little more $$$ in the bank, I will stay in the acute care setting.

Plus think of all the free cool pens that you'd get working in a Doctors office!

Kelly:)

[BeeStrong]

Iworked in a busy clinic with a number of different docs in various specialties; it was interesting, non stressful and had a friendly atmosphere amongst all the staff. However, the pay was exactly half the hourly hospital rate and I felt, at times, like an usherette. Welcoming the pt, usher them into the office, take temp, bp, wt, etc. ; go get the next one, etc.etc. until I started working for a urologist and helping with procedures: cysto, ultrasounds, cystometrograms, treatments, then I felt like Iwas really learning and doing things I was trained to do. Might go back to it when I am financially a little more stablized. BEE