How Can You Be A Nurse With No Clinical Background?

[All4NursingRN]

I find that odd. The foundation of nursing skill and ''critical thinking'' is having some experience with bedside care.

I understand alot of new grads are running away from the bedside faster than ever, and alot of nurses are moving up and branching out into other areas of nursing with less than 5 years of clinical experience.

I know it maybe insulting to nurses who choose to do this but I just don't think it's wise.

I previously worked with a nurse who had been a nurse for 5 years and never worked in a hospital, only clinics and the operating room very briefly but had went to school for his masters of nursing in management and education. How are you going to teach or manage anything or anyone if you barely have any experience yourself. No offense but working in a clinic is a joke compared to the other areas of nursing, and you also limit and lock yourself out of alot of areas of nursing and branches of nursing (advance practice nursing for example)

He said that med-surg just wasn't his thing. I've never met a nurse who didn't atleast have some clinical experience.

Even as I was working in a clinic with him, He didn't even seem interested in learning certain things (for example using heart monitor or getting good at drawing blood) He frequently asked other to take care of it. Even the Assistant Director expressed concern about his lack of clinical experience even though it was a clinic (because of some of the daily procedures done in the clinic)

Being someone who loves all that nursing is, invested alot into nursing school, and wants to go everywhere that nursing can take me it just seems a bit odd to how removed some nurses are to the thought of being at the bedside. Sure bedside nursing isn't everyone's thing and no it's not really something you want to do for a long time, I understand. Trust me I'm burned out of it right now but to not even try?

I even dislike to see RN's who stay at the bedside for a year and think they're good to become NP's.

[T-Bird78]

I find that odd. The foundation of nursing skill and ''critical thinking'' is having some experience with bedside care.

No offense but working in a clinic is a joke compared to the other areas of nursing

Okay, as a clinic nurse with no previous clinical background you've doubly ticked me off. I'm so glad you clarified your point about being a nurse manager with no clinical background. I've worked in a place where the manager wasn't even a nurse, and another place where the manager was a nurse promoted internally. It is much easier when the manager is a nurse, even if it's in a clinic setting. Clinic nursing does have its challenges and if you've never worked in it then don't be telling everyone how much of a joke it is.

[piggypop]

I'm not going to lie, but if the implication is that you have to start with bedside care as a new nurse--that's a little insulting tor me. I just left a med-surg job in which I lasted up the three month mark before I had to resign. It was horrible. Now I'm trying to start fresh and get my experience in a doctor's office--an environment where I think I'll be more comfortable. (In fact, I should be preparing for that interview.)

I'm one of those people where, bedside nursing is just not for me. I don't think it's necessary to try and do it if you know it's not for you. I should have known that my personality wasn't going to match well with the acute environment, but--I gave it a shot as I was told to do. At the cost of many sleepless days, inability to eat, and anxiety so high that it hasn't gone away a full month after leaving. I think about my old job and I get so anxious I want to cry because I just feel like such a failure for it.

I look into OR and doctor's offices because I feel that's still experience with hands-on nursing. No, I won't be putting in catheters or giving PEG-tube feedings or any of that, but I'll still be doing patient care. I'll see patients come in, assess their condition, and use critical thinking to identify problems or possible inquiries. Nursing started as a bedside thing, but it's become so diverse of a profession that this really isn't the case anymore.

[ksgirl2012]

I definitely think there is some value to bedside nursing when starting your career. You definitely do have more credibility when you have acute care experience. However, it is not for everyone and Nursing is so diverse, you just have to find what works for you. I've been a nurse for over 10 years, 4 of those in the ER. I've been in clinics now for the last 6-7 years,and oddly enough,I'm making more at my clinic job now than I ever did bustin my butt in the ER! No more long hours, weekends off, holidays off, home by 5pm.

[jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B]

Depends on the unit/floor. I think it difficult when one has to take over a floor that perhaps has some interpersonal/morale issues and if you don't know how to work the floor then how can you solve what is inappropriate on the floor? However, if the floor is run seamlessly with a number of experienced seasoned charge nurses, then it could be possible to manage without experience. With all that being said, you do need to be able to jump in and assist if needed. And with little to no clinical experience, that may be an issue. Any good leader would and should take time to be involved on their floor, be visable, and to perhaps take a patient on each shift for the first few months. Really get to know the floor, the workings, etc. I think a lot of resentment comes from managers who need to speak to nurses about patient issues when they haven't spent a moment trying to prioritize a day. A good team is a good team, and that includes the manager.

[db2xs]

If I go straight through, I will be 26/27 years old by the time I'm finished (23 after graduating with a BSN). I don't want to be in my thirties and JUST starting a family (I would like three to five children) and I would like to be finished with having children by 35, leaving me with very little time to have those three, four (MAYBE five) children.

I was 24 when I graduated with my first bachelor's (non-nursing). I'm now 39 about to graduate with a BSN. I anticipate getting my master's when I'm in my mid-40s after getting some experience.

Life isn't a race. Enjoy your 20s, that's what I say :-)

[mariebailey, MSN, RN]

How often you use you technical skills is not directly proportional to how much of a nurse you are. Critical thinking and therapeutic patient care are required to be a qualified nurse.

I feel like you are suggesting that bedside nursing is superior to other specialties, and that is a fallacy.

[green34]

My ex's mom went into infection control. She was crazy, but she never worked on the floor. She went for her MPH after getting her BSN and met the head of the infection control department of a teaching hospital in a class. She was hired a few months later. She was looked down by other RNs when she went to a different hospital because she didn't have experience. I found it out by talking to my clinical instructor when I mentioned I wouldn't go to the other hospital she worked at due to the fact that my ex and I had a nasty breakup with police involved.