Is the transition hard from inpatient to outpatient nursing?

[Maria D]

Hi all,

I am currently working as a bedside nurse in a step down neuro floor. The day/night rotation, the workload, and the lack of support has led me to feel burnout and extremely stressed. I am considering applying to outpatient family practice clinic Mom-Fri, no holidays, no weekends. Anyone out there who may have done this transition and can give me any advise?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Nunya, BSN]

I went from a not crazy NICU to an outpatient clinic (LOL, just remembered I went from a not crazy peds floor to a peds clinic too).  The work was pretty different but what was hardest was going from 12 hour shifts, 7 days out of 14 to 8s working 10 of 14.  Yes, it was nice knowing I had every weekend off and holidays, but I really missed days off during the week.  Much easier to do stuff during the week when most people are working than to try to do them after work or on Saturdays.  Plus I only had two days to recover before working 5 more and that wasn't enough for me!  

Plus, I worked at 12.5 hours/shift or a little less, depending on how long report took.  I think we technically had 30 minutes for lunch but on nights we were a little more lax.  At the clinic lunch was an hour but that made for a 9 hour workday.  You also need to know what the plan is for staffing if a doctor (or more) runs late and a nurse has to stay, is it volunteer, assigned daily/weekly or are staff starting times staggered to cover this?