Nurses That Never Worked In A Hospital...

[guest1143647]

Do you find that patients assume you are inexperienced or unskilled as opposed to nurses that have worked in a hospital?

Do you feel "less than" a nurse that has worked in a hospital, or do you feel you missed out on something pertinent?

[TriciaJ, RN]

I've had hospital jobs and non-hospital jobs.  None of my patients knew where else I had worked unless I told them.

The marvelous thing about nursing is that we're needed in all kinds of places.  Nursing experience is nursing experience.  What's so magical about hospitals?

[guest1143647]

9 hours ago, TriciaJ said:

I've had hospital jobs and non-hospital jobs.  None of my patients knew where else I had worked unless I told them.

The marvelous thing about nursing is that we're needed in all kinds of places.  Nursing experience is nursing experience.  What's so magical about hospitals?

I think hospitals  are magical because you can learn everything there. 

[NutmeggeRN, BSN]

1 hour ago, Runsoncoffee99 said:

I think hospitals  are magical because you can learn everything there. 

Sarcasm, I hope??

[Elektra6, ASN, BSN, RN]

I never worked in a hospital. I started out as an LPN and no hospital would hire me. After I got my RN I never got a hospital job. I DO feel like I missed out. I wish I would have have applied after I got my RN. Now I feel I’m too old to try ?

[JBMmom, MSN, NP]

8 hours ago, Elektra6 said:

Now I feel I’m too old to try ?

Nope. Unless you are physically disabled due to age, you're not too old to give it a shot! Although I'm not recommending it because you missed out, only if it's something you regret. 

[JBMmom, MSN, NP]

When I first graduated from nursing school I did five years in long term care. When I would randomly run into a former classmate out in the community and they asked where I worked I got many responses of "oh, I'm sorry." I didn't know how to take that at first, I was employed and using my degree, what was to be sorry about. 

I've posted a few times that I think that my first experience in long term care invaluable to improving my assessment skills, my time management skills and my confidence as a nurse. After a 30 patient assignment with two med passes and a treatment pass in 8 hours, an 8 patient med surg assignment on nights isn't nearly as intimidating. Yes, the LTC patients are more stable and don't require the same level of intervention, usually, there were times were my assessment skills were vital in getting a patient the care they needed. I really enjoyed that job in many ways. However, I did transition to a hospital med-surg position and then critical care. But I'm no more of a nurse now than I was in my LTC position. Those patients needed me just as much as my critical care patients need me know. Different skill sets, same nurse. 

[T-Bird78]

I’ve only worked ambulatory care as an LPN. When I tell people I’m a nurse and they ask what hospital I work at. When I tell them I work in a doctor’s office, I get “Oh, okay” and they lose interest. I did get pulled from my office to work in a hospital during the post-Christmas COVID surge and was in a med-surg unit with postop, telemetry, and COVID+ pts for several weeks. The main difference, to my anyway, is you’re in a bubble in the hospital. You have your 25 beds on the unit, 7 pts per nurse, your CNA, and you’re fairly confined. In the office, we see 40-50 pts a day, up to 60 in one day, the phone’s ringing with people begging to be seen (or other docs or the ER begging to have their pts be seen that day), you have multiple providers with different setups, you have pharmacy requests, you have instruments to clean/sterilize, you have an autoclave to run, you have a lot of little details to keep straight. It’s a different kind of crazy. 

[LibraNurse27, BSN, RN]

Outside of nursing people don't really care what kind of nurse you are or judge you about it. Within the nursing community I think there is sometimes a glamorization of critical care/ER/trauma. I totally glamorize flight nurses. I'm sorry but if you can take care of critical pts alone in a helicopter while looking amazing in your cool jumpsuit, I give it up to you!

I've never had pts care where I work. In the community clinic some pts didn't know the difference between a hospital and a clinic (which was bad when they needed to go to ER but came to us instead!) Same in the outpatient PACU where I work now, half the pts call their ride to pick them up from the "hospital." I did get a lot of praise and attention when I worked on a covid floor. And some people seem more interested in hearing your "nurse stories" when you work inpatient, but all nurses have stories! If you work with people, you have stories. Anyway, don't pick your job based on what other people think of it. All nurses are valuable. 

[Davey Do]

On 5/2/2021 at 5:48 AM, Runsoncoffee99 said:

Do you feel "less than" a nurse that has worked in a hospital,or do you feel you missed out on something pertinent?

Guilty as charged.

I became an LPN in 1983 and badly desired to work in a hospital because...

On 5/3/2021 at 7:17 AM, Runsoncoffee99 said:

 hospitals  are magical because you can learn everything there. 

I could pontificate prolifically on my years of nursing experience in and out of hospital settings, but suffice it to say that my original feeling of working in a hospital carried with it a certain glamour.

"You're So Vain" - Carly Simon 

[TriciaJ, RN]

1 hour ago, Davey Do said:

Guilty as charged.

I became an LPN in 1983 and badly desired to work in a hospital because...

I could pontificate prolifically on my years of nursing experience in and out of hospital settings, but suffice it to say that my original feeling of working in a hospital carried with it a certain glamour.

"You're So Vain" - Carly Simon 

Do you remember where that perception of glamour came from, Davey?  Was it television or did your instructors convey it?

I ask because I'm not aware of having any such perception in my younger days but it seems to be quite the thing now.  There's some sort of a nursing hierarchy thing going on.

The most shocking example was on this site a couple years back.  Rembember the new grad who was dismissed from her hospital orientation and proceeded to apply for 30 different nursing positions in that same hospital, some of them highly specialized?  She eventually took our advice to give her LTC opportunity a shot, but she did voice a belief that she was slumming it.

I really do hope she was able to let go of silly notions and get some career traction.

[Daisy4RN]

46 minutes ago, TriciaJ said:

Do you remember where that perception of glamour came from, Davey?  Was it television or did your instructors convey it?

I had this idea from being a Candy Striper (white and pink/red striped uniform and everything!) when I was about 14yo. The nurses all wore white and the hospital was always clean, under control, patients were all nice etc. Then years later when I was doing clinical rotations I though uh oh what have I got myself into. Needless to say I will never ever never miss working in the hospital!

But I also wonder why newbies think it will be great. 

OP, there is nothing, and I mean nothing, magical about working in a hospital, the only way it will benefit you is IF you need the experience for a specific job you have in mind. Good luck!