OB/GYN Outpatient RN in CA

[mrm805]

I'm interested in starting my RN career in OB/GYN, but I'd prefer to start in an outpatient or clinic setting. I have been digging around the internet using different search terms, but I don't really see any outpatient RN jobs in that field near me. The few times I've found some, it's usually in another state. I live in Oakland, CA, so maybe the scope of practice here for RNs is more limited in that setting? I don't know.

Does anyone have any insight into this?

P.S. Not interested in working for Planned Parenthood only because I've worked for them before and although it was very rewarding, the pay was tragic :/

[Sour Lemon]

I'm interested in starting my RN career in OB/GYN, but I'd prefer to start in an outpatient or clinic setting. I have been digging around the internet using different search terms, but I don't really see any outpatient RN jobs in that field near me. The few times I've found some, it's usually in another state. I live in Oakland, CA, so maybe the scope of practice here for RNs is more limited in that setting? I don't know.

Does anyone have any insight into this?

P.S. Not interested in working for Planned Parenthood only because I've worked for them before and although it was very rewarding, the pay was tragic :/

I've only seen medical assistants in OB offices ...and occasionally NPs. An RN would be unusual. And I assume the pay would be "tragic" if you did manage to find a plum position like that one.

[Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN]

I've had five babies, besides well-woman appts. All of my clinics...let's see...6 or 7 of them? had one RN for telephone triage, sometimes teaching. That one RN tended to have years of experience, which is absolutely necessary for triage. I would be highly skeptical of a place that would allow a new grad to do triage. The vast majority of the staff I've seen were MA's, and the others LPNs.

[MyAimIsTrue, BSN]

I have a friend who is an OB phone triage RN in the East Bay. She works for Sutter. So those jobs do exist! I believe she had minimal experience as an RN when she started, maybe just some kind of internship in women's health. BTW, she totally loves her job!

[klone, MSN, RN]

The best bet would be to look at large networks, such as Kaiser. They will typically hire RNs in clinic settings, at least to work in a charge nurse capacity over the MAs. If you find a large multi-specialty practice (such as high risk OB, urogyn, gyn-onc, etc) you will typically find they hire RNs because they need them in the role of case management.

Clinics that are part of a hospital network typically pay all their RNs the same, which means you won't get a drastic pay cut working in clinic.

I worked as the supervisor of a HUGE OB/Gyn clinic in Denver before I took my current job (it was the largest OB/Gyn outpatient practice in Colorado - we typically saw around 220-250 patients/day, and were part of a large safety-net hospital that also had a dozen outpatient ambulatory clinics around the Denver area), and I LOVED it. There were about 6 RNs who worked there, in addition to a dozen MAs. It was a fabulous job, and I recommend anyone who is interested in OB nursing should spend some time in the outpatient setting.

For large practices, phone triage is not the only option for RN roles. Our practice hired newer nurses (not new grads, but we have hired RNs with one year of experience). A good nurse can be trained, and we would not put her in the triage role right away. For large practices with sub-specialties, there are lots of other things an RN can do.

[klone, MSN, RN]

Okay, just went to Kaiser's website, and found an outpatient OB/Gyn RN position in Santa Clara.