Going from community health to hospital bedside nursing?

World Canada

Published

Specializes in Indigenous Health, Virtual Care & Medicine.

Hello,

I am a recent graduate nurse with no previous work experiences in nursing (other than our rotations) and was offered an interview for a full-time community health nursing position in a remote area. Community health is a passion of mine, but I am not a person who likes to settle in one specialty early on in the career. I want to gain as many experience and knowledge regarding different specialties before I finally settle. So, I hope to work in a hospital on a med/surg floor in a year or two. I know hospitals will offer orientation to any newly-hired nurses to the floor anyways, so I believe I would pick it up fast once I'm exposed to the work environment. But I want to make sure that I'm not completely limited to community health nursing once I enter my foot into it. Therefore, I would like to inquire about the feasibility and likelihood of working at the bedside in a big hospital after a year or two of working as a community health nurse?

Any nurses who have done that in the past ? What are the challenges and goodnesses encountered during the transition? Was it hard to transfer from community health to bedside nursing? How did the employers/HR at the hospital react to your background in community nursing?

Thanks a ton !

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.

I know a couple of home health nurses who had never worked in a hospital. Both of them said they could never work in a hospital now -- among other things, their time management skills are lacking in what it takes to manage 6 or 8 hospitalized patients at a time. It may just be the nurses themselves -- maybe others are OK with it. I would think it would be better to get the Med/Surg experience first and then go to community health.

Community Health in a remote area? For a new grad with no experience?

From your post, English isn't your first language. Are you a Francophone?

A year up there will seem like a lifetime or go by very fast. Will you be alone in a Health Centre or part of a team? You will need to have very good assessment skills.

I would look for hospital work now, rather than later. You need that experience when you go remote.

Specializes in Little of this... little of that....

As someone who has done both med-surg and Community health, I would highly recommend doing your med surg stuff first while the skills you learned in school are still fresh - it VERY easy to transition to CH/PH from Med surg - but I would be hard pressed to go back into the hospital after doing CH for any amount of time. In Community health the speed is slower, demands are way lower - you have time to think things through. Med surg is the exact opposite.

However - once in Community nursing transitioning to other (non-bedside) careers would be a breeze - think OHN, Case manager, transition coordinators etc.

I also think employers would be reluctant to hire someone for med surg if all they'd done since school was Community.

That said, I love my rural CHN role and have little interest in going back to life on the floor.

Just my two cents...

Specializes in Medicine.

You could do part time in both for a while, if you feel that you'd be able to balance 2 jobs

You could do part time in both for a while, if you feel that you'd be able to balance 2 jobs

Remote is a location without a hospital

Specializes in Medicine.
Remote is a location without a hospital

OOPS! I didn't see that part lol

Specializes in Indigenous Health, Virtual Care & Medicine.

Thank you for the advice everyone.

I'm actually quite looking forward to taking up the role as a community health nurse despite the lack of experience. They are willing to train me and are excited to get me on board although knowing that I've just graduated. The area I'm working at is some kilometres away from a very small 25 bed hospital, so I hope I am able to drive to the small city and work casual on weekends. Eventually, I want to become a wound care nurse, so I guess community health would be a helpful experience to get. It would be even better if the weekend casual work in the hospital works out as well.

Specializes in Indigenous Health, Virtual Care & Medicine.

Thank you for the advice. I ended up accepting the CHN position, and I'm so far enjoying it.

Specializes in 25 years NICU 5 years Telephone Triage.
Thank you for the advice. I ended up accepting the CHN position, and I'm so far enjoying it.

I would stay with this job if you still have it. I do not recommend telephone triage for a new grad.

+ Add a Comment