My first job in rural place, med/surg and ER..but

[frog12]

Hi,

I am a new grad RN and soon going to work at a rural small community hospital (very small). I will be working in a 28-bed med surg unit, possibly floating to ER if necessary.

Doctors are not always present so lots of responsibilities on nurses there (hopefully lots of learning opportunities)

Now the problem is, after gaining about 1 year of experience, I do want to transfer back to a big city (anywhere in the states) hopefully, in a step down unit or back to critical care. Do you think starting at a small hospital (really small) will help or interfere in getting another job at an urban hospital?

Thank you!

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

If you are lucky enough to encounter a hiring manager who understands the scope of rural nursing, s/he would hire you in a heartbeat!

I have been fortunate enough to work with rural hospitals for a number of years... many of them are teeny tiny "critical access" facilities that provide essential services for a sporificely populated but wide geographic area. Nurses who work in these facilities are cross-trained to do just about everything! It's not uncommon to have only one RN on duty who has to be able to function in multiple 'specialty' roles as well as serve as the in-house administrator & ambulance dispatcher. Rural nurses are top-notch multidisciplinary team leaders & masters at crisis management. They can cope with anything that comes their way.

So - yeah - your experience in Rural Nursing will provide you with a wonderful start to your career. You may have to learn to use a few more gizmos when you move to the big city, but that's no biggie.