Outpatient Nursing for New Grads??

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I'm a 2nd year nursing student in London. After my placement experience at a hospital, I have no interest in working as a bedside nurse. I want to go into outpatient nursing straight away. 

The number of options for outpatient nursing is quite limited compared to bedside nursing. Additionally, most outpatient nurse roles ask for 6 months-12 months of experience as a (bedside or outpatient) nurse. I could still apply regardless. Although it is possible to get the outpatient job asking for experience without the experience, I don’t know how likely it is if other nurses with 20+ years of experience are applying for the same job. During the interview, they might ask tricky questions so I have to do well the interview. Is outpatient nursing more competitive? 

I am thinking of dropping out of my degree if I won't able to find a job as an outpatient nurse. Does anyone have experience applying for outpatient nurse roles as a new grad??? Thank you.

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.

To clarify, by London do you mean UK? This may help in receiving replies that will be accurate to your situation as many members here are US based.

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Yes the UK

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Specializes in oncology.
On 12/17/2022 at 1:38 PM, EMAYA said:

After my placement experience at a hospital, I have no interest in working as a bedside nurse. I want to go into outpatient nursing straight away. 

You may find you like bedside nursing in an inpatient setting after experiencing more than one. We have all hated at least one of our student clinical placements. 

On 12/17/2022 at 1:38 PM, EMAYA said:

I am thinking of dropping out of my degree if I won't able to find a job as an outpatient nurse

What you want may not be attainable right after graduation. You will have to come to terms with this. 

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Specializes in Geriatrics.

I never worked bedside and I am quite content in my career. I’ve ran long term care and spent most of my time as a hospice/palliative care nurse. When I went back to school for my Doctorate to become an NP there was no deficiency. In fact, I think my outpatient experience made it easier to transition into the NP role. 

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Specializes in ER, Corrections, Mental Health.

You need some bedside experience to gain the assessment and technical skills. 

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Specializes in Administration.

I would suggest you do bedside nursing for 1 year & then go from there. I went straight into ICU nursing & hated it. Specifically, so much death & dying. I learned to love it. What I learned was invaluable.....IV therapy, cardiac monitoring, nurse/family education,  etc. I ended up becoming a house supervisor with mega responsibilities. Best job I ever had. Unfortunately, I left that job to become a flight attendant. I enjoyed that but wish I had stayed with my nursing job. Peace.

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Hi! I will be graduating this upcoming May with my BSN. As a senior in nursing school, I had a job as a nurse extern at the TICU, and I absolutely loved it. However, my passion for nursing has always been to work in family medicine as a NP, as I am very interested in primary/preventative medicine. I plan on going back to school in 2 years once I paid off some student loans, and I was offered a job at an urgent care RN back in my hometown which I have wanted so bad. I believed it would be the best transition following school and getting experience in an outpatient setting since that is what I want to pursue with my future career plans. However, I have received feedback from some people  who are saying that I am setting myself up for failure by accepting a job in the urgent care as a new graduate, especially since I will not be caring for individuals that are acutely ill such as those in the hospital. I have always believed that starting in outpatient would hopefully set me up for success in pursuing that in the future following NP school. However, now I'm not so sure with the feedback I have been receiving. I feel that the urgent care job is what I would like for my first RN job, but I also do not want to set myself up for failure for my future career if I plan on pursuing family medicine/NP. If any nurse/nurse practitioner can please give me some guidance, I would be so SO grateful - sincerly a lost and confused nursing student

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