MSN Nurse without clinical experience please help!!

RNperdiem, RN · Feb 4, 2016

What do you see yourself doing on a day-to-day basis at work? Is there a particular goal you are aiming for, like a management position?

What exactly to you mean by "floor"? Is that med-surg? Would ICU, OR, or ED count?

Clinical experience can be gained with a good job, but there is no free ride here. You will have to step out of your comfort zone and be willing to fall down a few times to get experience. Once gained, experience is one of the most valuable skills a nurse has.

You can't learn to swim by taking the online course. You have to get in the water.

Sspino · Feb 4, 2016

Thank you for your insight. I would love to do L&D or ICU, I am not afraid of hard work what so ever. I have applied countless times to all the local hospitals and have heard the same story of no acute care experience. Which I have none because I am unable to get in anywhere. Recently I have accepted a position at a nursing home, but I really don't want to be in that type of environment for a long period of time. I can see management in the future, however I wouldn't mind some type of administrative behind the scene type of work.

I'm finding it frustrating jumping through all the hoops and feeling like I end up in the same spot. The reason why I am trying to get away from intense floor nursing is because I have plantar fasciitis and long hours are difficult. Again, thank you for your input.

roser13, ASN, RN · Feb 4, 2016

I understand how this will sound (and I truly do not intend to be mean) but it's exactly how I feel: I would never want to work for a Nurse Manager or report to a Nurse Administrator who had not walked a mile in my shoes. Or 10 miles. I do not understand how a nurse can obtain any type of advanced practice degree (unless possibly in Research) without a set minimum years of practice.

When you say you're "jumping through all the hoops and ending up in the same spot," what do you mean? If you mean that you're not advancing as a nurse, I think that that's to be expected since you have been working in a (what sounds like) a non-nursing position. I expect that you will feel the same when you graduate with your MSN, without any accompanying nursing experience.

elkpark · Feb 4, 2016

... what opportunities will be available with my lack of clinical experience?

Not a lot. No nurse wants to have (or takes seriously) a boss who doesn't have any meaningful clinical experience and knowledge. I agree that I don't understand what you mean when you say you're "jumping through all the hoops and feeling like I end up in the same spot." Which hoops? The "hoop" you need to jump through is getting some significant amount of real nursing experience, like the SNF job you have now, and then going from there.

Best wishes!

Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN · Feb 4, 2016

The operative term in "nurse-leader" or "nurse manager" is nurse. I really don't see how one can effectively lead a team of nurses without having been on a team of nurses.

Consider some real-life issues nurses face:

Skeleton staffing. Med-surg nurse already has 6 very sick patients and is then given an admission. Nurses are so busy that it's difficult if not impossible to get a proper meal break. Or if they do, it means that they will be staying late (incurring OT) to chart because they spent 1/2 hour of their shift eating and putting feet up. Every nurse on your unit is swamped, and need the manager to step in -- this is an allusion I've made before, but nurses not needing a boy king, but needing Earnest Shackleton (you can Google his story if you're not familiar with it, to learn how his leadership style contrasted with a boy king's.) What do you do?

Difficult families. The type who nobody can please and has resorted to verbally abusing staff, or even threatening staff. What do you do?

Similarly difficult patients who manipulate and will complain about everything. Maybe the nurse didn't ask "how high" when said pt said "Jump," because the demand to "jump" does not align with best practices. But the satisfaction survey, oh the SATISFACTION SURVEY!!! What do you do?

Self-important MDs who think the RN is there to help them, not the pt? Maybe who resorts to toddler tantrum behavior? What do you do?

How do you decide which nurses are the best candidates to hire for the floor, if you don't know what it takes to be a nurse on the floor?

I could go on all day.

Just because a school agrees to confer a master's degree to someone who hasn't even been a novice, doesn't make it a good idea. In my experienced opinion. I really do think the hoop you NEED to jump through is time in the trenches where you hope to be a leader.

ETA: I really don't mean to sound nasty. It's just that like many (most?) brand-new nurses and students -- of which you are both -- you haven't been around enough to know what you don't know. There's no shame in that; it's just how it is.

Extra Pickles · Feb 4, 2016

Having some dejavue: one of my first posts was on a thread where someone was asking how to become a nurse practitioner right out of the gate, without working as a nurse (or something like that). It seemed weird to me that someone could become an advanced practice nurse without ever having actually practiced nursing! And here's why. Sorry for you and hope it works out!

SmilingBluEyes · Feb 4, 2016

Agree with the above. If you REALLY want to lead, you are gonna have to learn to FOLLOW first.

No one will want to work under you if you have no clue what they do, or what they are going through.

I will say this for you; at least you care enough to ask. I appreciate that. Listen to the advice above. It's sound.

OCRN3 · Feb 5, 2016

I think you should try to work as a nurse in which ever department you plan to be a nurse leader. It is not really necessary to have clinical experience to be a manager, but you will feel pretty dumb when new grads start asking you questions you can't answer.

When I work as a charge nurse on the floor I have nurses ask me the most simplistic things that they don't understand. If I was a new grad, I would be asking the same things. As an experienced Clinical nurse for the most part I have the answers or know where to find them.

This is not to discredit your MSN, you have a lot of knowledge in nursing And theory, but theory and the real world are so different.

I would highly recommend you work in a area that you plan to move up in so that you can become familiar with what you will be dealing with.

For example, you want to be CNO of a hospital, work a year in medsurg just to see where all the money goes, how nurses can be wasteful or not wasteful, what works and what doesn't. See what good things can be done.

You will have such a better view of being a nurse leader after being a follower for awhile.

toomuchbaloney · Feb 5, 2016

The BON might consider you without clinical experience.

You can probably work as a nursing class instructor or similar without much clinical experience.

It always seems crazy to me that nurses are elevated to positions of authority and leadership when they have never actually done the work that they are supervising and evaluating.

Editorial Team / Admin · Feb 5, 2016

The BON might consider you without clinical experience.
You can probably work as a nursing class instructor or similar without much clinical experience.
It always seems crazy to me that nurses are elevated to positions of authority and leadership when they have never actually done the work that they are supervising and evaluating.

As with the management positions, one shouldn't be teaching without the clinical experience to back it up and know what they're teaching. Not the instructor I'd want.

OscarTheOwl · Feb 5, 2016

As with the management positions, one shouldn't be teaching without the clinical experience to back it up and know what they're teaching. Not the instructor I'd want.

I agree. The nursing instructors at my school had many many years of clinical experience, at least 10. This experience showed as they were able to answer questions with ease and explain it in a way you wouldn't be able to unless you've done it.