Perspectives/Experience Wanted!!!

[holinurse]

I am currently in my first clinically focused position out of school (I got my license about a year ago), working at an urgent care center. I took this position in the hopes that it would open more doors for me in obtaining a hospital position because I'll have had (what I thought is) acute care experience. While I am not dead set on what type of RN degreed nursing I want to do, I do have interests in ER and transplant care and my long term goal is to become an NP.

However, I was recently told that urgent care nursing is not considered acute care, but rather medical-practice/doctor's office type nursing. As you can imagine, this surprised me, considering that in the work that I do I can see a range of injuries and illnesses. Ultimately, if the nature of this current clinical experience will not open any more doors for me, than -say- a doctor's office, I need to know because I will work on moving out of this position even sooner than I intended.

A few questions:

1. What value will a nurse recruiter/future employer place on urgent care experience?
   
2. Is it considered acute care?
   
3. Has anyone out there had their first clinical experience in an urgent care center? If yes, what was your subsequent position?
   

I look forward to your response!