Jobs OUTSIDE the Hospital for New Grad??

JB2007, ASN, RN · Oct 6, 2008

You could always get a job in a nursing home. The nursing home that I work at you work 8 hour days. You will have to work every other weekend, unless you are a supervisor. Do not take a job as a supervisor in a nursing home right out of nursing school. It is a bad situation and any nursing home that offers a new grad a supervisor is not a place you want to work.

Personally, I would not suggest a new grad start in a nursing home. I would know I had 5 months experience when I started in the nursing home. It is a lot of stress, too many res. per nurse, and will chronically work short staffed. I at least kind of knew what I was getting into (worked in nursing homes as a CNA for many years) and it was still overwhelming at best most days.

I am sure there are many other places to work as a new grad, but right now I can not think of them. However, if you want the most marketable skills/experience you will want to start in the hospital setting. Just my :twocents:

SonicnurseRN · Oct 6, 2008

Hi there -

I am about to graduate Nursing school, have a bad back & have been wondering the same thing!

In my area here's what I found ... PSYCH & (high-end) LTC are good options. Also, if you are interested in the business side there are a lot of good opportunities in Nursing Informatix, education etc..

Looking forward to hearing some more ideas!

Good Luck w/ starting NSG school & Congratulations! It takes a lot of work to get there :yeah:

JB2007, ASN, RN · Oct 6, 2008

Hi there -
I am about to graduate Nursing school, have a bad back & have been wondering the same thing!
In my area here's what I found ... PSYCH & (high-end) LTC are good options. Also, if you are interested in the business side there are a lot of good opportunities in Nursing Informatix, education etc..
Looking forward to hearing some more ideas!
Good Luck w/ starting NSG school & Congratulations! It takes a lot of work to get there

Sorry, I hit the thanks button by mistake. I can tell as a LTC nurse that LTC is a bad choice for someone with a bad back. Even high-end LTC is not going to be good for your back. You push a heavy med cart up and down the hall several times a day. You have to spend a lot of time bent over to reach at least half of the meds in that cart. You still have to help potty, pull res up in bed, and transfer res. because all nursing homes work short(high-end or not). There are days I come home from work and my back hurts so bad that I think it is going to break in half and I have a good back. I do more physical labor since working in LTC then when I worked in the hospital. Of course, if you are one of those nurses that can ignore a res plea to use the restroom for 20+ min or you are willing to let the high fall risk put them self to bed because there is no aid available to help them due to working short again, then yea the work is not very physical. However, when you have to do two or three incident report per shift due to falls you will be rethinking not helping the aids out.

As far as nursing informatics and education goes, you need experience working as a clinical nurse before anyone is going to hire you for these positions.

RNperdiem, RN · Oct 6, 2008

Home health is one of the big employers of nurses outside of the hospital.

That said, most agencies require experience. They need nurses able to work independently. You might find an agency willing to orient a new grad; it couldn't hurt to try.

If you have read the threads in this forum, you will realize that lots and lots of nurses are looking for work outside the hospital too. Be prepared for some competition and the extra time it might take to land a first job.

Sl1011 · Oct 6, 2008

Home health is one of the big employers of nurses outside of the hospital.
That said, most agencies require experience. They need nurses able to work independently. You might find an agency willing to orient a new grad; it couldn't hurt to try.
If you have read the threads in this forum, you will realize that lots and lots of nurses are looking for work outside the hospital too. Be prepared for some competition and the extra time it might take to land a first job.

I know... I was figuring that I would have to put at least one year in the hospital, which I do want to do to get the experience. And who knows, I may end up liking it. I did CNA work at a hospital for 6 months, rotating 12's days... it was ok, it was on the med/surg unit. I just wanted to see if there were other things out there that don't require hospital experience in the beginning.

Midwest4me · Oct 7, 2008

Congrats on your acceptance into nursing school. I wish you the best of luck! My suggestions for jobs OUTSIDE of the hospital are: (1)medical clinics/MD offices and (2) dialysis outpatient clinics.

RNsRWe, ASN, RN · Oct 7, 2008

My best advice would be to spend a year or two, thereabouts, working in an acute care hospital before making a decision as to where to go next.

This is because most of the non-hospital jobs you'd probably be most interested in either require experience first, OR they don't and won't GET you the kind of experience you might need to move somewhere else later.

Our local dialysis center doesn't take new grads; they only want ones with med-surg experience (hemo doesn't always go as planned; acute care background best).

Most medical offices and clinics don't need much in the way of RNs; they have MAs and LPNs that pretty much cover it. So when you do find an office RN position, they tend to not be for much pay--they don't have to pay competitively.

Also, once you get into one of those jobs, you do really limit yourself on experience and skill sets: if you DID want to go to work for more money (aka: hospitals) you would be coming in rather rusty where skills are concerned.

School nurses typically need acute experience, or they have LPNs for most of the time. And, then too, for the kinds of non-hospital jobs that YOU'D most enjoy, there's a bunch of experienced nurses who are also planning on taking those same jobs...so it'd be a tough run for you.

Consider where you want to go in your career. If you'd like to do agency and travel nursing, you'd need to plan to get experience first for that, too.

Lots of decisions....good luck to you! :)

Sl1011 · Oct 7, 2008

My best advice would be to spend a year or two, thereabouts, working in an acute care hospital before making a decision as to where to go next.
This is because most of the non-hospital jobs you'd probably be most interested in either require experience first, OR they don't and won't GET you the kind of experience you might need to move somewhere else later.
Our local dialysis center doesn't take new grads; they only want ones with med-surg experience (hemo doesn't always go as planned; acute care background best).
Most medical offices and clinics don't need much in the way of RNs; they have MAs and LPNs that pretty much cover it. So when you do find an office RN position, they tend to not be for much pay--they don't have to pay competitively.
Also, once you get into one of those jobs, you do really limit yourself on experience and skill sets: if you DID want to go to work for more money (aka: hospitals) you would be coming in rather rusty where skills are concerned.
School nurses typically need acute experience, or they have LPNs for most of the time. And, then too, for the kinds of non-hospital jobs that YOU'D most enjoy, there's a bunch of experienced nurses who are also planning on taking those same jobs...so it'd be a tough run for you.
Consider where you want to go in your career. If you'd like to do agency and travel nursing, you'd need to plan to get experience first for that, too.
Lots of decisions....good luck to you! :)

Thanks so much for the helpful information :) I was just trying to see what is all out there for nurses to do other than working at a hospital. I want to do a year or two at minimum in the hospital, hopefully in med/surg and then maybe something with pediatrics (L&D, NICU, etc). I'm interested in working as a school nurse, to have the same schedule as my child... but I have time to look into that. Thanks again!