What is ambulatory nursing?

[jead1]

What do ambulatory nurses do? Is it like bedside nursing? Meaning is it like working in the ICU or med surg or cardiac? Do they get paid the same?

[mclennan, BSN, RN]

Google says:

https://www.aaacn.org/what-ambulatory-care-nursing

......which is pretty spot on. We work with AMBULATORY patients, i.e., patients who aren't necessarily in a bed. We work in clinics, in case management, in preventative modalities, public health and patient education. There is more to nursing than taking care of sick people in the hosptial. There's trying to prevent them from getting there in the first place and taking care of them after they leave. Nurses have many, many non-hospital roles and that is essentially what ambulatory nursing is.

[tnbutterfly - Mary, BSN]

Here is an article located in this forum that will answer some of your questions.

Ambulatory Care Nursing

[klone, MSN, RN]

Or, you could just look at the paragraph at the top of this forum, which also explains it briefly.

[jead1]

Google says:

https://www.aaacn.org/what-ambulatory-care-nursing

......which is pretty spot on. We work with AMBULATORY patients, i.e., patients who aren't necessarily in a bed. We work in clinics, in case management, in preventative modalities, public health and patient education. There is more to nursing than taking care of sick people in the hosptial. There's trying to prevent them from getting there in the first place and taking care of them after they leave. Nurses have many, many non-hospital roles and that is essentially what ambulatory nursing is.

Do you recommend a new grad nurse to become an ambulatory nurse or gain some experience working in the hospital?

[klone, MSN, RN]

I recommend a new grad take whatever job they can get in this economy. The only job I don't think is appropriate for a new grad is home health.

[Delpher36]

An ambulatory care nurse is a nurse who is highly skilled in coordinating care for the holistic patient. we focus on the entire patient who presents including all the chronic diseases, acute illnesses and preventative care for each patient. Amb care nurses must be skilled and knowledgeable in all areas of patient needs in order to have healthy outcomes and preventing our patients from being hospitalized. With todays health care delivery, patients are being discharged early and requires skilled nursing care after discharge, so AmB care nurses are more skilled than previously thought. Many have experience in telephone triage. They have ACLS,PALS, NALS certification and many have Ambulatory Care Certification. Before going to ambulatory, i onced asked the same question, now there is nothing more rewarding than patient education and seeing positive outcomes because of the difference you make in their lives.