Hi everyone. I am starting Nursing school in January. I wanted to ask what avenues a new Grad can go aside from working on the hospital floors (med/surg, ICU, telemetry, etc) after graduating. I really would not prefer to work on the floors. I was looking into one day surgery, a rehab center, cath lab, etc.
I also do not handle foley catheters well and want to try not having to insert these if possible throughout my career. Another reason for not looking to work on the floors.
Is it possible to get a non floor job out of school? Any feedback would be great. Thank you.
I work in chemotherapy infusion, and my clinic only requires 6 months of experience before they'll consider someone's application. I was like you - I had been a PCT on an oncology floor all throughout nursing school and knew quite certainly that I did NOT want to be a floor nurse any longer than I had to. However, like me, you will likely have to start out there. Most non-floor nursing jobs require at least 1-2 years of experience - rightfully so, because the floor is the absolute best place to learn about holistic patient care. I disliked many things about being a floor nurse, but I'm so very grateful for the skills and knowledge that I gained in my short time on the floor. I searched high and low for jobs once the three 12s became unbearable, and I was incredibly lucky not only to find my dream job, but that they would take me without 2 years of experience. I love how science-oriented chemo infusion is, and I get to exclusively practice my favorite skills: IV starts, accessing ports, managing complex treatment regimens, etc. And one added point of interest - they started me at pay that I wouldn't have gotten as a floor nurse for about 6-8 years. If you discover that you like IVs and complicated medication administration, look into infusion.
My advice would be this - don't write off the floor entirely. Use it as a place to start, to build your foundation as a nurse and explore what you like. A lot of people are under the false impression that your training as a nurse is complete when you finish school, and the opposite is true. The floor is where you learn the most - it is your most valuable professor. There's no problem at all with knowing early on that you don't want to be a floor nurse. That's like saying someone shouldn't become a pilot if they want to fly cargo instead of airliners. But just know that your options may be severely limited until you get some experience under your belt - which is not necessarily a bad thing. Best of luck to you!
Well, I'm trying to be supportive here but it is kind of hard to do. You haven't even started nursing school yet and already know more that you don't want to do than you are curious about at least trying to do? First question that springs to mind is are you positive nursing is even the direction you want to go? There are plenty of health care positions that will never have the "working on the floor" that you would like to avoid. It's going to be difficult, probably very difficult for a new grad nurse to find one of those jobs.
If you continue on your path with nursing maybe you'll discover something that changes your mind about working on the floor, maybe you won't. It's that maybe you won't that concerns me. Do you really want to invest time and money on an education in a field that you are pre-determined not to like?
Specializes in Mental Health, Gerontology, Palliative.
The first male catheter change I did as a new graduate was a nightmare. I was so nervous to get the old one out and the new one in I didn't give it a gentle rotation prior to removing it to dislodge the urine crystals and caused the patient pain. Even worse they ended up in hospital with an infection from an unrelated problem.
Why do I labour the point? at that point I swore and declared I wouldnt try another catheter change. Then I decided I wanted to master the skill and while it's took me a while I can change a male catheter without it being too anxiety provoking.
OP its *** that it happened however don't let it run your life.
Side note - keep in mind that sometimes things are 100% different when you're the one performing a procedure as opposed to observing or helping. You might not have any trouble whatsoever when you're totally focused on performing a specific sterile procedure properly.
Shan, RN
82 Posts
I work in chemotherapy infusion, and my clinic only requires 6 months of experience before they'll consider someone's application. I was like you - I had been a PCT on an oncology floor all throughout nursing school and knew quite certainly that I did NOT want to be a floor nurse any longer than I had to. However, like me, you will likely have to start out there. Most non-floor nursing jobs require at least 1-2 years of experience - rightfully so, because the floor is the absolute best place to learn about holistic patient care. I disliked many things about being a floor nurse, but I'm so very grateful for the skills and knowledge that I gained in my short time on the floor. I searched high and low for jobs once the three 12s became unbearable, and I was incredibly lucky not only to find my dream job, but that they would take me without 2 years of experience. I love how science-oriented chemo infusion is, and I get to exclusively practice my favorite skills: IV starts, accessing ports, managing complex treatment regimens, etc. And one added point of interest - they started me at pay that I wouldn't have gotten as a floor nurse for about 6-8 years. If you discover that you like IVs and complicated medication administration, look into infusion.
My advice would be this - don't write off the floor entirely. Use it as a place to start, to build your foundation as a nurse and explore what you like. A lot of people are under the false impression that your training as a nurse is complete when you finish school, and the opposite is true. The floor is where you learn the most - it is your most valuable professor. There's no problem at all with knowing early on that you don't want to be a floor nurse. That's like saying someone shouldn't become a pilot if they want to fly cargo instead of airliners. But just know that your options may be severely limited until you get some experience under your belt - which is not necessarily a bad thing. Best of luck to you!