New Grad Hospital vs. Community Health Clinic

Oh definitely go to a hospital first - if you are able. You will learn alot that you can draw on later if you do go to a clinic.

I would say the salary is probably about 5 dollars an hour different with the hospital being higher. You will see and do more in the hospital. The one benefit to the clinic is developing strong professional relationships with the docs bc you are working with them all day everyday.

take whatever you can get as it is experience. Waiting for the perfect job and getting zero experience you lose opportunities. Alot of times your first job becomes your speciality because the longer you're in it the more you know and the harder it is to move. BUT blame it on economy there's alot of qualifyed nurses who are unemployed so employers can be picky. Ideally we would all have 2-3 yrs of medsurg floor exp before going into a specialty or community heath clinic. You learn on the job well good luck.

What do you think are pros and cons? if possible work for a facility that has a hospital affiliation and vice versa once you are in the system can move around.

HOSPITAL: 24 hrs 7 days a week, you as new person would get the worst hours and perhaps not even get full time status but perdiem, they call you when they need you.

Pts are sicker and weaker so you need to do more physical labor, pt are more acute and unstable so need more care, pt are in and out you never see them again. reactive care you see them only on acute episodes of unmanaged diseases. skills: depends on specialty . school prepares us for floor nursing, so those are the basics.

CLINIC -- hours M-F 9-5 almost, day hours, no holidays, no weekends, pts are healthiery so can walk, you have more continuous time with pt so can follow up on them, education, preventive care. you get to know your pts. skills its different .. you gain a different skillset but yes you lose the floor nursing type skills like foley, IV, wound care but again this depends on specialty. The word clinic can mean primary care, out patient surgery, cancer, GI etc clinic.

Don't think clinic work means its slow, boring and relaxing .. i am constantly running around, and ocassionally we do have situations that come up and hopefully never need to use bcls on anyone. I do wish i had the chance to get some medsurg exp first but this was the opportunity so yep. Good luck

I'm also wondering if it would be career 'suicide' to start at a clinic. Med Surg just seems totally 'reactive' as you say, nurses rushing and giving meds. I'm not sure how that can be satisfying, other than the pay.I'm in my last semester of an ADN wondering if I should precept at a clinic or build hospital skills in Med Surg

can one switch to hospitals after starting at a clinic for 2 years?

I'm also wondering if it would be career 'suicide' to start at a clinic. Med Surg just seems totally 'reactive' as you say, nurses rushing and giving meds. I'm not sure how that can be satisfying, other than the pay.I'm in my last semester of an ADN wondering if I should precept at a clinic or build hospital skills in Med Surg

can one switch to hospitals after starting at a clinic for 2 years?

As for precepting : Even if your goal is to work in the community in the future, it may be good to go to the hospital to build some skill sets. You will be more diverse in your skill set.

Having said that - hospital new grad is high stress, more pay, but weekend/holiday/at prob day-night rotations. Some people like the clinic because their goal is not to work bedside nursing to begin with or their family or health situation asks for regular work times.

It is possible to work in a clinic and to get hired to a floor, though perhaps harder to get in with the job market.

If you plan on continuing school working 9-5 can make that difficult and a floor job with working 3 x 12 may be better.

BUT since the market is rough for new graduates - you may have to take anything you get because otherwise you could end up without RN experience and since a lot of employers asks for BSN it may be harder to get a job to begin with...