Nurses who DON'T work in a hospital, what do you do?

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I would like to learn more about nursing jobs outside of the hospital. Are any of you folks out there and can you tell me (us) about it, e.g., what you like and don't like about your jobs, how long you've been in that position and how you got it (what credentials/experience were required), what a typical day is like, etc.?

I am especially curious about nurses working in biotech (e.g., FDA submission preparation), clinical trials, research, writing, law, etc.

THANK YOU!! :)

Sonoran,

It sounds to me like you're more interested in things that are tangentially related to nursing, as opposed to nursing itself.

The nursing degree qualifies you for entry level nursing positions. Someone here once compared earning a nursing license to earning a driver's license. The requirements for a driver's license don't guarantee total proficiency, just a basic level of understanding and safety. There's still A LOT more to learn. One doesn't have to have mastered merging into freeway traffic or crossing three lanes of traffic to get to that exchange to earn a license. There's still a lot more to learn. And the basic license doesn't qualify a person to take up truck driving or designing intersections or other roles that are related to driving and would most likely require experience as a driver.

I'm noting this because I have a degree in nursing and have come to realize that I'm not interested in the crux of nursing - clinical care. Which means the jobs I am interested in either want years of previous nursing experience OR don't require a nursing degree. The jobs that don't require the nursing degree generally don't pay as well as clinical nursing, at least not initially, and so employers are reluctant to hire me because they think I'll bail out for a better paying clinical job as soon as a good offer comes along. However, I've realized that even the more peripheral nursing roles such as school nurse and occupational health nurse only interest me abstractly, not in the day to day functions, especially the clinical aspects. Minimal as the clinical aspects may be, they are the crux as to why they are hiring a licensed nurse as opposed to someone without a license.

A person can get into clinical research without being a nurse. A degree in life science could work for that. A person can get into medical law without being a nurse. Paralegal? Consider why people hire nurses as consultants. Because they have years of clinical experience in a certain area. A nurse without that clinical experience doesn't have much more to offer than someone with a good background in medical terminology and medical record review. Just some thoughts!

I'd recommend holding off on nursing school and getting more information about what you might do with that education before investing so much time and money. Perhaps try to get a job in clinical research or with a law firm that specializes in medical cases or whatever else might interest you. There might be an administrative or assistant type position that you could qualify for and maybe you'll learn more about what truly interests you. If you can manage it, volunteering can be a good way to find out more. Also, informational interviews.

If, on the other hand, you truly are interested in becoming a nurse, then go for it!

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I work for a major insurance company as a pediatric case manager, the salary is not bad starting at $56,000 a year with no weekends or nights and after 6 months on the job you have the choice of applying for 10 hour days or working at home which I intend to do.;)

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I worked 2 years in L&D then went to Agency Nursing when I started having my own babies. I enjoyed Agency because I could tell them when I was available for work (when husband was home to watch the kids and we needed some extra money), (I NEVER worked Christmas or Christmas Eve, but worked the other holidays for the extra pay!) And the hourly wage was much better than being an employee for any specific facility. I've been a Nurse for 40 years now, and for the past 5 years as an Independent Nurse , with my own business "renting" myself out to various facilities (Nursing Homes, State Homes for Developmental Disabilities and Home Care, NEVER hospitals!). I've found that by "cutting out the middle man" and becoming my own Agency, I can work less and make more. When I decide I want/have to retire from Nursing, I can then become a staffer and hire other Nurses and CNAs to work for MY Agency. Agencies make between $5 and $15 an hour for each hour an employee staffs a facility for them.

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Hi Luv,

How did you get your job? It sounds great. Is it?

Toto79

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Specializes in Government.

I'm a community health/occupational health hybrid nurse. I work in an office although I'm on the road once a week giving lectures. I oversee older and health impaired driver issues for my state. That's on the 1:1 case management level as well as global crafting of health policy. I teach basic health concepts to DOT counter staff, testify at the legislature and take frantic family calls from people desperate to get their mom/dad/aunt off the road.

This is a BSN-requiring job. It also mandated a lot of background and experience that you may not often see in an RN. I have to do a lot of legal work and my first degree was in criminal justice. I also had many years of hospital experience, case management and occ health. Pay is ok, benefits amazingly good.

A lot of RNs ask me how to get a job like this. I just saw it in my state job listings and knew it would be a good fit. Be vigilant, apply for anything you think sounds interesting. Interview a lot. Expect competition. My (later) boss said that when she was hiring she saw a lot of nurses who thought they'd get the job by default=entitled.

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Thanks everyone for the wonderful job ideas. I am entering my last quarter of school so I am starting to think about job hunting and these have given me wonderful ideas.

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Specializes in L & D.
This has been a real eye opener for me. To see all the possible jobs out there is great. I appreciate everyone sharing their job information.

Thanks Everyone,

Cay:balloons:

I heartily second the thanks! Nurses are an amazing group of people.

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I found some data from the BLS that broke RN employment down by industry. It reflects some, but not all of the careers described by posters to this thread. Perhaps some careers, e.g., clinical research coordinator, are lacking in large enough numbers to be broken out by the BLS.

In any case, I thought they might be of interest to readers of this thread...

RN Employment and average wages in U.S.

General hospitals***1,373,610 (56.8%) $29.31/hour and $60,970/annum.

Physician Offices*****209,260 (8.7%) employed at $28.45/hour and $59,170/annum.

Home health care****124,470 (5.1%) employed at $27.31/hour and $56,810/annum.

Nursing care facilities*122,990 (5.1%) employed at $25.81/hour and $53,690/annum.

Employment services**95,490 (4.0%) employed at $31.36/hour and $65,230/annum.

TOTAL - ALL INDUSTRIES: 2,417,150 (100%) employed at $28.71/hour and $59,730/annum.

Data was last modified by the BLS in May 2007.

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.t04.htm

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Specializes in Occupational Health Nursing/ Med/ Surg.

Working out of the hospital has its challenges. I have worked in different areas of Nursing outside of the hospital. Let me tell you a little of each area. In 1996 I left the Hospital to work as an Occupational health nurse, meaning you work in an industry, this was a bottling plant. Here it was much differnt from the hospital because you dealt mostly with well persons. A lot of teaching, health promotions, you do pre-employment and yearly medicals ( along with the Company Doctor), audiometry testing, spirometry (lung function testing) and the usual emergency care e.g. lacerations, fractures, crush injuries etc.

This I did for four years and then branch off into home visiting. Patients who are not sick enough to be admitted to the hospital but needs daily supervison and medical assistance at home. This I did for two years and then I went into Research. HTLV-1 (Human T-cell Lymphotrophic virus type -1 ) virus research between the University of the West Indies in Jamaica and the National Cancer Institute in Washington. The study involued recruiting blood donor to participate in the study, the names are then taken to the administrator who enters them into a computer. The test results are also entered and the computer selects those who are positive and matches them with those who are negative, using age, sex and date of donation as criterion. tThose selected are forwarded to the research nurses who do not know who are positive or negative. We call the individuals and make appointments for them to come in to the clinic. There we would check weight , height, urinalysis, blood is drawn and the doctor would do a physical examination. We analyze results and entra data into the computer, ship samples and results to Washington . This is very interesting and so I stayed there for four years.

While I was doing all these other jobs I still did parttime as an Occupational health nurse and so when the Research Project ended in 2006 I returned to the industrial setting. This time at the International Airport. I am presently responsible for the Medical Post. Here I see sick passengers, airport workers, visitors and other emergencies. I do health promotions and lots of teaching, similar to what I did before. I have six other RN's that works on a shift basis, however I work Monday to Friday 7:30 am to 3:30pm.

The salary is good when compared to what is paid in the hospitals here(Sometimes twice). I totally love what I am doing and the pay is good.

I do hope this helped .

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Sheryl - thanks for sharing your varied experience.

My concern would be in pursuing such jobs is that I wouldn't be qualified or competent enough to carry out all of the job roles. For example, I wouldn't feel comfortable being the sole person evaluating random sick people who wander in at the airport. I don't feel that my RN education prepared me for that role straight off without extended training. I'd want at least 6 months of supported guidance in such a role while learning the experiential aspects of patient assessment and clinical skills in such an environment.

The same goes for roles like school nurse or occ health nurse. Sure, I could LEARN the job well enough in time, but the first 6 months I'd just be "faking it til I make it" in regard to my abilities to truly provide competent clinical assessment and care on the few occasions a more emergent situation might arise. As an RN, I'd expect myself to be able to know more than basic first aid, but how it is possible to to know this without experience specific to the situation (eg child injuries, diabetic emergencies, industrial injuries, etc)?

Of course, I unfortunately realize this is often the case in acute care as well, that is, you have to more or less "fake it til you make" for the first six months, though at least there are other people immediately around to help - even if they will roll their eyes and grumble "what did they teach in school anyway?" when you ask a question.

Any thoughts on this? Do I expect too much from myself as an RN? Is it okay to have just the most basic grasp of first aid and chronic health conditions and the like when taking on what seems to me to be a fairly independent nursing role? Nursing education is pretty broad and so perhaps no one really expects the degree of expertise I'm thinking would be necessary BEFORE taking on such roles - as opposed to not expecting more than the most basic level competency from someone new to that role. Or perhaps I'm just not suited for this type of work because I want more "hand-holding" while I gain experience before taking on full responsibility as a nurse.

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Specializes in Peds, GI, Home Health, Risk Mgmt.

I've worked 12 years doing direct patient care in hospital settings, one year doing hospital risk management, and 6 years doing home health. Plus 4 years working as an attorney in private practice.

I now work in a field I really, really like--medical reference and information services. I do evidence-based technical writing, which combines my medical and nursing knowledge, the writing and analytical skills I refined as a lawyer, together with healthcare IT skills and knowledge, and the analysis of clinical studies and medical information. It's a very specialized field and not easy to get into, but with the ongoing growth of medical and healthcare information systems, there should be more positions available in the future. It requires a four-year degree as a minimum.

I get to learn something new everyday, and there aren't many jobs where you get that level of stimulation. I work with other RNs, physicians, and pharmacists. It's a 9 to 5, Monday to Friday job with limited stress and average benefits; it pays about the same as hospital work.

HollyVK, RN, BSN, JD

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Specializes in Occupational Health Nursing/ Med/ Surg.

jjjoy!

Be not dismayed, as a registered nurse you have the base knowledge and with constant reading and researching you will grow. You will gain more confidence in yourself, your knwoldge and your performance.

Your nursing process guides you with each case you have to deal with. Being assertive and able to think quickly is essential in your decision making. Trust your education, your knowledge base and your nursing skills.

I consider myself well rounded, assertive quick thinking, lodgical individual who is a registerd nurse with a Bsc in nursing. Think highly of yourself. Tell yourself there is nothing you can't achieve and go after it. You can function independently you make your assessment and refer accordingly.

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