RN without acute experience in management

[Kam00]

Hello,

I have been an RN for 8 years and have less than 1 year experience in acute care due to an complicated pregnancy . I was previously working in medical practice and I recently got a position as a nurse manager in a clinic. It has been tough because I constantly doubt myself since I was thrown in the water and try to learn as I go. I don't know if administration is the right pathway or if I should try to get into a hospital to get the experience I am lacking. My anxiety has been kicking in but my family thinks I should give it a chance since it has only been less than a year.My concern is to let time pass and not be able to adquire experience in acute care and not feel as competent as I want to be. I would love to get my NP but don't know in what area. Any suggestions?

[Psychcns]

In what way do you doubt yourself. Maybe give some examples. Do you think you would feel more confident in this job with more acute care experience?

Main areas for NP seem to be FNP and ACNP. Maybe read up on both (do search on all nurses) and see if one more interesting to you.

[PG2018]

What is it with nurses saying things like "my NP" or "my master's?"

Anyhow, if you're working in a clinic, which I recommend, why would you want hospital experience? The two have as much in common as pennies and quarters. The difference is even more obvious if you're a clinic administrator. You don't have to be or have been a hospital RN to be intelligent, make prudent decision, and continue to educate yourself.

As the seasons changed for me, I worked in a hospital med-surg unit as a charge nurse (my first RN job) and then correctional health administration (my second job), an urban ED, and a quaint hospital owned urgent care.

I can attest that nothing from M-S was worthwhile in corrections, and nothing from either one of those was relevant in the ED. The most relevancy I had was the primary care training and experience I got being the speerhead for some good family practice docs in the jail clinic and the later transition to urgent care. I think urgent care was, hands down, the best working experience (re: knowledge yield) that I had as a RN. Now, I'm a psych NP. I spent a couple of months, in what I called my retired, lame duck phase working in a hospital psychiatric unit and found little about that actually translates to my outpatient psych practice other than knowing what the inside of the hospital looks like when my patients leave. I had some critical care experience, but I hated that so much. Lines and tubes and wires and crap all over the place. I'm too much for tidiness for all that mess.

I love clinic work especially when I'm a solo practitioner there.