Real world career path for nurses-must I work in a hospital for years post RN?

[anhero]

Hello all. Upon doing some preliminary research, I see that I'll have to deal with a plethora of different environments in "clinicals," which are generally 6 weeks long. I can deal with just about anything for six weeks, so I'm not worried about that. My concern is about where I'll have work post graduation-is it true that you generally have to work in a hospital for years to build up a resume to then explore other opportunities, like a family medicine environment? Ideally that is where I would like to be-a university clinic, walk in, etc. The fast pace of the hospital is something I could deal with for short periods of time in clinicals, but it's not where I want to be for life.

Is it unrealistic to think I could land a slower pace job at a walk in clinic or something similiar post graduation? What are most real world options once you get your RN?

Thanks so much for your time.

[JeanettePNP, MSN, RN, NP]

It really depends on what your career goals are... You probably can find a job in a doctor's office or clinic as a new grad without hospital experience. However, those jobs generally do not pay as well as hospital jobs.

[llg, PhD, RN]

It also depends on your local community. In some communities, you might be able to get a wide variety of jobs -- but in other communities, there is a lot of competition for the most attractive jobs and you will have to get experience before you will be able to successfully compete for those attractive jobs.

Also, a lot of employers who hire nurses to work as the head of a team in a clinic, or to see patients in the community only want to hire nurses with experience so that they can minimize the orientation and training costs -- and also because those nurses will be functioning fairly autonomously and as team leaders. Those roles are not appropriate for new grads.

[Sharingan]

I think you can get most clinic jobs as a new grad

[sunray12]

It's possible to get any kind of job - even the most competitive ones if you are persistent and have good networking skills. The recommendations and rules of thumbs about what's good for new grads and what isn't typically apply to people who are applying blind. If you want in on a path that's a little bit different than the prescribed ones then you will probably have to do more than fire off internet applications, but it can be done. So yes you can work in a clinic rather than a hospital floor but if you haven't already started nursing school, then you might want to start working on getting that job now rather than waiting till the last semester of nursing school.