Is having no bedside experience putting me at a disadvantage?

[Streetnurse42]

When I was completing my clinicals in various hospital settings, I realized that I do not want to work bedside at all. I had no desire of working in a hospital setting and preferred community nursing instead.

Upon graduation I worked in home healthcare and absolutely loved it. I had to quit due to family issues at which point I got a job offer for med-surg RN position. I found out that the unit was offering only 6 shifts of orientation and I quit immediately because I did not want to lose my license over that. I was able to secure a job in public health in February and I’m loving it. 

But I’m having a nagging feeling that I “should” get some bedside nursing to help me build my career. Am I hindering my career advancement? 

[SmilingBluEyes]

Depends. What are your short and long term goals? For example, I see a lot of people on FB wanting remote jobs. I understand COVID has a lot of people looking that way. But most of them have little to no experience as nurses, especially acute/bedside. They need *some* experience to be able to do that.

If you want to be an NP, acute care experience is helpful, too. (but depending on program it's not even necessary to be a nurse first, go figure).  But if you are looking to be a clinic/Dr office nurse, you don't necessarily have to do time at the bedside to achieve such goals. Dialysis does not require bedside experience, from personal knowledge.

You have to decide where you intend to go from here. Community health nursing is possible, but often they want hospital experience, too. Good luck whatever your goals are.