NON-Patient Care Employment for new R.N.s

**canoehead, BSN, RN** · Dec 20, 2004

Good for you if you find a position that suits you, but just for interest's sake, what posessed you to train as a nurse if you didn't want to work with patients? Seems like there are lots of alternatives...?

renerian, BSN, RN · Dec 20, 2004

I cannot think of a job where you would not need to have some experience with patient care/of some capacity at least......

I will wait and see if anyone can think of anything...

I am with canoe on his question?

renerian

llg, PhD, RN · Dec 20, 2004

I agree with the 2 other people who responded to the OP's question. I can't think of any job for which the employer would not prefer to hire someone with patient care experience.

If you feel strongly about not working with patients, then perhaps a career in nursing is not a good fit for you. There are plenty of jobs out there that don't involve direct patient care (mine, for instance), but all that I can think of require a knowledge of patient care that can only be obtained by actually doing it for a while.

llg

hypnotic_nurse · Dec 20, 2004

Pharmaceutical companies love nurses as salespeople if they have the "look". You could also be a monitor for pharmaceutical research studies -- they also love nurses -- but it can require a lot of travel (hard for folks with small children at home). :) Two options for you!

California-O.T. · Dec 20, 2004

THANKS A LOT! This is the type of information that I'm looking for:-)

oldnewnurse · Dec 21, 2004

Cali OT,

I have not come across an RN program (diploma, ADN, or BSN) without a hefty clinical component. Maybe some poster knows of one which you could research for information.

llg, PhD, RN · Dec 21, 2004

Pharmaceutical companies love nurses as salespeople if they have the "look". You could also be a monitor for pharmaceutical research studies -- they also love nurses -- but it can require a lot of travel (hard for folks with small children at home). :) Two options for you!

Even pharmaceutical companies and technology companies often prefer to hire nurses with clinical experience instead of a new grad with no clinical experience. The customers want a salesperson with some knowledge and experience ... someone they can relate to ... someone who understands the work they do and the type of care they give. In other words, they often prefer someone with clinical credibility.

You might get lucky and find an exception, though.

llg

Euskadi1946 · Dec 21, 2004

Pharmaceutical companies love nurses as salespeople if they have the "look". You could also be a monitor for pharmaceutical research studies -- they also love nurses -- but it can require a lot of travel (hard for folks with small children at home). :) Two options for you!

Even pharmaceutical companies require a nurse to have at least a year of direct patient care experience. Just about every nursing job on the face of the earth requires some kind of patient care experience and I know because I have seen the job announcements and postings throughout the country. Nursing is a caring profession and most of us who go into nursing do so to care for the sick. Many of us leave bedside nursing due to the staffing situations, (short staffed all the time). Many of us go work for doctors, hmos, health departments, clinics, etc. but we all have had at least 1 year or nursing experience under our belts.

hypnotic_nurse · Dec 21, 2004

I beg to differ on the two examples I gave.

Research study monitors do not need to have had direct patient care. Not all of them are nurses; one lady I know has a BA in Music; another gentleman has a BA in psychology; a third was previously a lab tech who worked with AIDS viruses. None of these three have ever done anything in the way of patient care. The companies however tend to like nurses as opposed to other degrees because they have the medical terminology across a wide range of areas, they can spot AEs, they know their drugs so they know if a drug was being taken for an event that was not the event being studied. I think about half of the monitors I've worked with are nurses.

Pharmaceutical salespeople (and other medical salespeople, such as EKG equipment) are also not all nurses although they do all have some degree, preferably a four-year science oriented degree...but even that is not set in stone. The important thing is being able to SELL. But again, nurses do seem to be on the preferred list of job candidates.

Job postings always target the "perfect" candidate. That doesn't mean someone who doesn't fit perfectly won't be hired (or won't do a good job).

Euskadi1946 · Dec 21, 2004

I beg to differ on the two examples I gave.
Research study monitors do not need to have had direct patient care. Not all of them are nurses; one lady I know has a BA in Music; another gentleman has a BA in psychology; a third was previously a lab tech who worked with AIDS viruses. None of these three have ever done anything in the way of patient care. The companies however tend to like nurses as opposed to other degrees because they have the medical terminology across a wide range of areas, they can spot AEs, they know their drugs so they know if a drug was being taken for an event that was not the event being studied. I think about half of the monitors I've worked with are nurses.
Pharmaceutical salespeople (and other medical salespeople, such as EKG equipment) are also not all nurses although they do all have some degree, preferably a four-year science oriented degree...but even that is not set in stone. The important thing is being able to SELL. But again, nurses do seem to be on the preferred list of job candidates.
Job postings always target the "perfect" candidate. That doesn't mean someone who doesn't fit perfectly won't be hired (or won't do a good job).

I was not talking about other medical personnel I was talking about nurses needing some bedside experience before being hired almost anyplace. Most of the job ads I have read with pharmaceutical companies, acute and long term care facilities, the United States Government, public health, managed care, hmos, you name it, want nurses with at least one year of clinical experience in the hospital. Even travel nurse agencies and regular nursing agencies WANT at least 1 year of recent clinical experience before even considering hiring a nurse. You cannot escape bedside nursing even in nursing school if you want to be a nurse. Nurses who no longer do bedside nursing have paid their dues and have gone to other types of nursing.

**SKM-NURSIEPOOH, BSN, RN** · Dec 21, 2004

you could also go str8 for a nursing informatics degree, for example, which is either post bachelor's certificate or master's. one can also work in community health with minimum patient contact...i know nsg who work for the red cross, for example, who have no patient contact. there's also worker's comp/employee health where nsg will do physicials & maintain immunization records without having to do "hospital/clinical" type nsg...it would be considered primary care or doctors' office positions. many will require you have at least mastered your bls if not acls. many work in administration...which by the way...is another field one can great post bachelor's certification/master level degrees in. there are many folks with either a ba or bs in other fields who go through advance placement programs for their bsn to msn track. i personally know three people who became crnp without having any prior nsg on the job experience! they went through the typical clinicals for their bsn fast-track; then go into their apn training/internship. now, they're practing nps.

so...it *is* possible !

happy holidays ~ cheers!

moe