How to become a RN Qualty Coordinator with no experience

[nurselynn20]

I just graduated with my BSN and have a total 5 years RN nursing experience 1 in LTC, 2 in Home Care, and 2 in Hospital Acute Care setting. I was thinking of getting a certificate (Not certification) in Quality Control through the NAQH website. The course is 200 dollars with a certificate at the end ( but not credential behind your name). Do you think having this would help get my foot in the door as either a quality control nurse or care coordinator with no experience except for what I listed above? Has anyone done this certificate course ? I don't want to waste time or money on a certificate but if it would help it would be worth it to pursue.

I really would like to get away from bedside nursing.

[Lizfuf7]

I know this is an older post, but i thougt i'd respond. I actually am an rn working in the quality department. Thankfully I got in with no quality experience. They did see management experience, and i think it helped. I did ask once about the quality certificate and i was told it honestly wouldnt matter unless i wanted it for my resume. Im still considering it if they'll pay for it, but thats what i was told when asking about the cert.

[delphine22]

I would not get that certification. After you have been working in quality for a while I highly recommend the CPHQ certification (that does go behind your name) as that's a very respected certification in quality, also available from NAHQ.

I went from the bedside to quality through the sepsis and stroke coordinator route.

Basically a quality professional needs to have good bedside nurse understanding (so you can read charts and see what might have gone wrong) and ability to deal with all sorts of people, especially physicians, and getting people to do what you want, lol. Half of my job is cajoling physicians to document correctly, follow protocol, and gently educating them on how to do better when they've gone astray.

Most people don't expect you to have prior quality experience for an entry level position, as long as you have solid bedside knowledge, excellent interpersonal skills and enthusiasm. Good luck. :-)