MSN Nurse without clinical experience please help!!

loriangel14, RN · Feb 5, 2016

I would have zero respect for someone in a position of authority that had never worked bedside.

elkpark · Feb 5, 2016

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

Not in any of the programs I've had experience with over the years -- three years of solid clinical experience was considered the bare minimum to be considered as an applicant, and most of the faculty members (the people who actually did get hired) had a lot more than that.

SmilingBluEyes · Feb 5, 2016

I am sorry but to be an effective clinical leader you simply cannot get around getting some "in the trenches" experience, period. There is no fast-track to this. No one will respect you without this.

Libby1987 · Feb 5, 2016

What do your instructors and classmates suggest? Are any of them in the same situation and what are their plans?

The only area I can think of not requiring you to be on your feet all day where you could get experience would be in home health. Not the private duty care you've been doing, but managing multiple patients, coordinating their care and providing skilled hands on care. In California we have to apply and fulfill certain supervisory criteria to hire a new grad but if you could find a good company that is able to provide adequate and required supervision, that is a direction you can go in. It won't lead you to acute care mgmt but several other paths could open.

evolvingrn, BSN, RN · Feb 5, 2016

Um..... Perhaps you could work as s home health nurse manager. Without several years of acute care experience..... You shouldn't be a nurse manager in acute care. I think you shoul really focus on getting a job that moves you towards your goals .....

meanmaryjean, DNP, RN · Feb 5, 2016

Wait- you say you're trying to get away from floor nursing, but you've never done it? What is there to get away from?

And plantar fasciitis is not a life long condition. I've had it twice, once for two months, once for six. It goes away if you get it treated. And the longer you avoid walking/ being on your feet, the longer it takes to resolve in my experience.

You should take the LTC job, learn how to be a floor nurse, and THEN think about becoming a manager. Learn how to follow, THEN learn how to lead is how the progression works.

roser13, ASN, RN · Feb 5, 2016

Personally, I think it borders on shameful that nursing schools even offer an MSN program that doesn't require experience. How many of those grads realize how hard it will be to get a job?

bookwormom · Feb 5, 2016

I agree that Plantar Fasciitis is treatable. You may need to see a podiatrist. The pain can be so severe; it is hard to believe it can be treated, but it certainly can.

Oh'Ello, BSN, RN · Feb 5, 2016

I personally am concerned of your perception that nursing management is going to provide you reprieve from being on your feet all day. My unit director, clinical nurse specialists, clinical educators and evaluators are probably on their feet as much or more than I am, as they don't have just "one" place to be in the hospital at any given moment. They're giving presentations, attending meetings in satellite buildings, responding to codes, going from floor to floor to do inservice. You might want to consider shadowing some of these people to see what its really like.

Our Director of Nursing is NEVER in her office. She has a bronzed PLAQUE on her door with her pager and email address on it that says "Wherever I go, there I am". I think you're going to be hard pressed to find something even "behind the scenes" that isn't going to require legwork on your part.

blue bag nurse · Feb 5, 2016

I have not read the other responses, but I worked with a nurse recently who seems similar to your type of experience. My advice, go get a floor nursing job now. I was absolutely amazed that someone could have a Masters degree with no clinical experience. She was great person, but had really done herself a disservice by avoiding floor work.

Good luck! :)

ThePrincessBride, MSN, RN, NP · 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.

The reputable schools I know demand at least five years of clinical experience before becoming a clinical instructor and many insisted on ten years to be in charge of a nursing course.

NanaPoo · Feb 5, 2016

Part of a nursing instructor's teaching came from his or her clinical experience. Sharing stories from "the trenches" and applying those to the lesson is what made lectures so interesting for me in nursing school and was a big part of what helped me learn. Then following that instructor onto the unit, I felt confident that he or she was capable of leading me and teaching me to care for patients as I was learning.

Once I became a RN, the nurse manager I respected most was one that had spent her time as a floor nurse herself and wasn't afraid to step from behind her desk and get dirty with patients when necessary. One of the worst days I ever had on my first med-surg job as a brand new nurse, I had a patient grab me and bend my fingers backward, saying he would break my hand. He was a large, strong man and a psych patient. He was actually restrained and I had reached to medicate him via his PEG and he surprised me by grabbing ahold of me. Anyway, when I was able to pull loose from him he began spitting at me. I calmly walked out and went to my NMs office to ask her how to handle him. She came straight from behind her desk and I had 2-to-1 care for this particular patient for the remainder of my 12-hr shift. She stayed past her usual 8-5 day so I would have back up and she was in the trenches with Mr. Spitter til 7 that night. I had a million other things going on that shift and she was there for me to handle this one hairy situation. 15 years later and she's the one NM whose name I still remember. I can list all the ways she had my back during the time I worked for her and, more importantly, with her.