Hi! I'm new!

[Nire83]

Just wanted to say hi and introduce myself!

I passed the boards on Monday and am trying to find a job. I have the option of staying at the pediatrics office i work for (as an MA) and doing phone triage (as an RN), but I'm really looking for a more clinical position. Got some good connections and prospects with a liver transplant floor at a great teaching hospital, and also at a pediatric rehab nursing home a few towns over. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Has anyone started out doing phone triage and been able to enter the hospital setting a year later? I'm just afraid that if i accept staying where i am, that i wont get the floor nursing experience i really need, and that a year from now i wont be eligible for a new grad hospital program. Thoughts?

[RN4S22]

i think it would be best for you to get a hospital job b/c you would be able to get the new grad orientation and stuff. but now days it's so hard to find a job if you can't then you should do what is best for you. but as a new grad you want to learn and be in a hospital enjoinment and i know that's what you want. good luck and congratulation on passing your nclex.

[Coffee Nurse, BSN, RN]

I have no personal experience with phone triage, but I'd be leery of doing it as a new RN. It's tough enough learning to do a really good, thorough assessment of a patient when you've got them in front of you; I can't imagine trying to do it over the phone until I'd had the chance to practice that skill a lot in person. I'd probably end up sending pretty much everyone to the ER, lest I miss something important and be on the hook for someone going bad.

That said, a job is a job, especially in this economy. I don't suppose there's a chance you could stay on as an MA, could you?