New Grad RN Needs Help

Depends on what you want. I started at a LTC rehab facility and ended up in my dream job at a hospital as an ortho nurse. It may be get a job, any job to get started.

That's great to hear! I just keep getting told that the hospital is where every new grad should start and I just wasn't sure if I agreed with that or not.

depends on your definition of better. If you absolutely refuse to work nights or weekends or 12 hour shifts, then the hospital is not for you. If you work in clinics you will lose some of the hospital skills, but of course you can learn them later if you decide to work in that environment. In my area the hospital nurses earn more.

Also kinda depends on where you see yourself later: if you only want to work in a clinic, or LTC facility, then start there and you can be happy if you stay there. Don't want to stay in a clinic? Might want to take a look at the hiring practices in your region. Where I am, if a nurse doesn't have acute care experience (read: med-surg) he or she won't find employment in a hospital. New grad programs do fill up, and of course the hospitals have a choice of hiring/keeping the new grads they started with, as well as hiring nurses who are experienced and won't have to re-learn the skills they've forgotten from school, years later.

I personally think that getting a solid background in med-surg will always benefit you no matter WHERE you go: you will draw from that experience. However, if you are dead certain you won't want to work in acute care....go wherever you're happy that is hiring! :)

The reason they say to start in a hospital is because you can get the 'best" training there. Hospitals have become more picky about hiring new grads and do not have the educational monies they use to for training. You should start where ever you can find work. If a clinic setting is better for you then go for it!!!

I really like all of the answers I'm getting from everyone! It's giving me more confidence. I have been feeling kind of scared I guess about graduating, passing the NCLEX, and getting a job! It's all happening so fast. But, it's so good to know that I don't HAVE to start my career at a hospital. I live in upstate New York, so I'm trying to look for every place possible that I could work as an RN near my area.

Come back and ask us again after you pass the NCLEX.....let's see what we come up with then :)