Nurse Navigator Offer vs Inpatient experience for first job

[deymour]

Hello!

I am considering a job opportunity as a nurse navigator for infectious disease at a hospital. The more I read about what a nurse navigator does it seems more like case management. Infectious disease does interest me but I'm concerned that this job would make it harder for me to transfer into inpatient nursing in the future because of my lack of hands on skills with patients. 

Does anyone have any advice? Should I also pick up a per diem job?

 

Thank you!

[hill3030]

I have done case management, and my friend is currently a nurse navigator. We used to work together, and when she describes her job, it is VERY similar to case management. If you're looking to get into inpatient nursing in the future, then I would reconsider doing a nurse navigator position at this point in your nursing career. You may not lose skills, but they definitely won't be being used while doing nurse navigator job. This could affect your confidence somewhat when you go back to bedside nursing. Good luck!

[starmickey03, MSN, RN]

My opinion is to take the nurse navigator position and pick up a per diem patient care job if at all possible. I say this because acute care nurses often get burned out and start looking into case management, quality, etc but have a hard time getting those roles because they often require experience and are very competitive (so if it was offered to you that’s amazing). I think the nurse navigator role will be good to have on your resume. What setting is the nurse navigator role in?

[deymour]

13 minutes ago, hill3030 said:

I have done case management, and my friend is currently a nurse navigator. We used to work together, and when she describes her job, it is VERY similar to case management. If you're looking to get into inpatient nursing in the future, then I would reconsider doing a nurse navigator position at this point in your nursing career. You may not lose skills, but they definitely won't be being used while doing nurse navigator job. This could affect your confidence somewhat when you go back to bedside nursing. Good luck!

Hello and thank you for this response!

I'm thinking about turning it down for an inpatient position. I think it would be smarter to get a year or two of inpatient experience and then transition to a case management job.

Thank you for your thoughts!

[deymour]

1 hour ago, starmickey03 said:

My opinion is to take the nurse navigator position and pick up a per diem patient care job if at all possible. I say this because acute care nurses often get burned out and start looking into case management, quality, etc but have a hard time getting those roles because they often require experience and are very competitive (so if it was offered to you that’s amazing). I think the nurse navigator role will be good to have on your resume. What setting is the nurse navigator role in?

I see where you're coming from! It's just that I'm seeing that per diem jobs require inpatient experience already. I just graduated and passed my boards recently so I think it would be difficult to secure a per diem too. 

[hill3030]

23 minutes ago, deymour said:

Hello and thank you for this response!

I'm thinking about turning it down for an inpatient position. I think it would be smarter to get a year or two of inpatient experience and then transition to a case management job.

Thank you for your thoughts!

I think you'll be glad you did that! ?