Hospital or Clinic? New grad needing advice!

[SummerLei]

Hi guys!

I am a new grad and just started my first job as an RN on a peds unit. I LOVE children and being a pediatric nurse is my passion. However, the hospital atmosphere is VERY VERY hard and stressful. I am experiencing a lot of anxiety, and I never want to be off of orientation! I realize these feelings may be normal for a new grad to experience, but I feel like there is no way the anxiety I am feeling can be normal. I have already started to consider switching to maybe a clinic/doctor's office environment within maybe a year or two. What are yalls thoughts? Do RNs in these environments make the same amount of money as those in the hospital? What do RNs in these environments do exactly in a normal day?

Thanks for the help!

[NPinCA]

I now have almost 30 years of nursing practice but I still remember what its like to be a newbie: having anxious dreams that you forgot something; worrying that what you don't know will hurt your patient. You ARE NOT experiencing anything new. If anything, you are experiencing the right feelings for the stage that you're at. It may also be that you are used to being in control and the hardest part about being a new grad is not having any experience and therefore not being in control. I would encourage you to hang in there. Don't go to a clinic or MD office. If you have a negative day, use it as an experience that teaches you what NOT to do. Use the good days as positive reinforcement for you. Anticipate that the first 6 months to a year as a new grad will be the worst. Know that it will get better. And even if it never gets better and you leave in 1-2 years? then the experience will look good on your resume and you will be even more valuable. Hang in there!

[Megrin28]

My first job as a new grad was in a pediatric doctor's office and it was the best job I ever had. It could be stressful, but any time I had any doubt about doing the right thing for a patient, I could ask one of the numerous other nurses or one of the doctors. The shifts are usually 4-5 days a week with at least one weekend a month, but the pay is lower than a hospital setting. I was working in Connecticut, almost at the NY border and the normal for a new grad was 25/hr.

The only negative about that job would be the lack of training. You basically have someone show you the ropes for a couple of weeks, then you're on your own, but like I said there are other nurses/doctors working with you so any questions you have you can ask them directly.

In a normal day once fully trained, I could expect to do a few hours of phone triage for patients calling with sick questions, med refills, emergencies, etc. Then the rest of my day would be to interview patients, perform assessments, take vital signs and send in the doctor. Once the doctor is done, you return to the room and administer meds/give immunizations/perform tests, etc. You can also expect to do some lab work, like testing blood, testing urine, strep/flu tests, etc. It's a lot of fun and you can learn a lot because of the vast number of patients you see each day. And you get to spend your day with basically healthy kids.

[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

The money really depends. A former colleague of mine is, I'm quite certain, making more money working for a large primary care system than she was working at our pediatric hospital because the primary care system's nurses are unionized. In general I would say the money is LESS working in a pediatrician's office.