Primary Care or Acute Care?

[future-peds-np]

I am currently in an internship program and working on a med-surg/telemetry floor. I am learning SO much, but it really isn't my cup of tea. I'm more interested in primary care, health promotion, and public health. (My eventual goal is to be a pediatric primary care nurse practitioner.)

This program ends around the second week of September and I'm having a little trouble making a decision as to where to go. There are a couple positions in my health system that are primary care jobs. My question: do you believe that primary care experience is sufficient or that more acute care experience is vital?

[ivyleaf]

i would do acute care for at least a year, then transfer to primary if you still want to

the acute care exp you get will be invaluable and make you much more confident in the primary/outpatient care setting

plus you can always go from inpatient to outpatient, but it is harder to get into acute care if you havent been in it fore more than a few years

this is coming from someone who never did acute med/surg (i did acute psych..) and now works primary care/outpatient

i wish i had done med surg-- now that i am used to the cushy hours/schedule, it is hard to imagine going back to the hospital

[beekee]

If you are interested in primary care, health promotion and public health, telemetry is a fantastic foundation. You'll see the end result of what happens when primary care is not available, not understood and/or not accessed. Diet, smoking, stress, lack of exercise becomes obesity, diabetes, COPD, heart failure, kidney failure, neuropathy, etc.

[CCRN2BE]

Based on your end goal, I would think primary care experience would be more aligned, although beekee makes an excellent point also. Can you be involved in both along the way somehow as they would both be undoubtedly beneficial to you.