Urgent Care Department Next to the ED

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Hello! I have been looking through so many topics and specialties. There have been some useful threads, but some have not been commented on in years.

I have been interviewing for an RN position in the Urgent Care Department of a large hospital with an extremely busy ED. We work side by side with the ED, that is why I am posting in this specialty.

I have accepted the offer and just waiting for the final paperwork to go through before I am 100% certain that I have the position. I graduated from Nursing School in May of 2014 and completed a six-month internship in the ICU, so I am still fairly new.

Any words of wisdom, advice or what to expect during my shift would be amazing. I would think to expect a lot of sprained joints, UTI's, coughs, colds, flu, strep, STIs along with scenarios where we would have to transfer to the ED. What are some topics that I should brush up on before orientation, besides lab values and vital signs, etc.

Because this is not a free-standing clinic, I was not getting a lot of advice from the Ambulatory/Clinic nursing forums. Thank you in advance for any advice,expectations, links, forums, books that you send my way. I am extremely excited and nervous at the same time.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Emergency, CEN.

Welcome to AllNurses!

I work in the ED. In our hospital, PC, ED, and CDU (Overnight obs) are all the same department but three separate sections of it.

As for what to expect, I've been told repeatedly by my friends that it's mostly STDs, pregnancy tests, and cough/colds. I've personally witnessed pretty critical patients walk into PC to say "I fell off the roof of my house onto my head on my driveway", etc.

Again, I don't have too much for your question, but I wanted to welcome you and say "Welcome to the crazy!"

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