Lost

Congrats! I am graduating in May too! I see that there is no choice for me but to do med surg for a least a year. I have worked in the medical field for 6 years now. I did 4 years in an outpatient setting as a medical assistant and then 2 years as a PCT and later as a student nurse extern in the inpatient setting. I decided that I love an outpatient setting much more. I also applied to the part time adult/geriatric NP program for fall 2008 and I was told I don't necessarily need a hospital experience while I am in the program, since after I am done I will be practicing in a non acute facility. That's why I decided to find a part time RN position in an outpatient clinic. Well, I did find few openings and applied. Even though my school is in the top ten nursing schools nationally and I have good grades, experience and great recommendations, no one ever called me back... I realized I am competing against people who have years of inpatient experience and do not want to work nights, weekends, holidays etc. Also all RN managers I know have years of inpatient/outpatient experience (depends on the setting they work at) and those who don't, just suck... You have to know the game before playing it... Maybe you should go part time for your MS (if you want to do administration) and work part time at the hospital? Anyway, good luck!

I'm going to graduate in May, and I still don't know if I want to work in a hospital. My concerns are that I am well aware that doing at least one year on med-surg floor would really increase my skills and If I ever moved I could easily get a job at a hospital due to my experience of working at a hospital for at least a year. My major concern is that if I do decide to work there for a year will I stay. You know how you plan on doing things temporarily and then you find yourself 5 or so yrs. down the road still in that work place. I really want to do some type of adminstrative position, but is it available to a new grad who has no experience in this field?

What specifically do you mean by administrative? You really need experience to have most other positions in a hospital.....it makes sense - if you have floor nursing experience you can manage information and staff better.

I think it would be difficult to go into administration without any experience on the floor. I cannot imagine someone in administration making decisions on issues that they have no experience with. I know this happens in a lot of fields, but I have personally seen it in the field of nursing. The nursing administration that I have had experience working with have all "paid their dues" on the floor prior to moving into their position. As a nurse, I would have much more respect for someone with the experience and who had actually done the job, not just learned about it in school. Just my .

I think it is better to have at least a year of medsurg. That way you can back up your staff and know what they are going through as nurses, not just assume. I also think your staff will look up to you and respect you more if they know that you actually know what you're talking about. Set your goals if your worried about gettting "stuck", and then stay with them.