What about a Group practice or Clinic job?

[netglow, ASN, RN]

Any New Grads thinking of taking a job at a Group practice or Clinic simply due to the fact that it seems impossible to get a hospital job? I guess I am just thinking out loud because I am tired of looking, with nothing in sight. Keep hearing of a double dip recession in the financial news these last few days...

I just applied to a triage positon in a large clinic. I have experience with office but really, I do want "hands on" of course. They are large and maybe there is a way to move around. They are connected with a hospital I was interested in. I feel like a kid, getting in the door anyway I can. Sigh. I keep thinking that what if things turn around in a month, in two?! Usually this type of job requires 3-5 medsurg experience, etc. but the ad did not specify level of experience. So, here I am concerned already about losing my skills, being "type cast" and just watch, they don't even call me.

What do you guys think?

:aln:

[Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN]

IMO any medical experience is better than no medical experience...so apply for those clinic jobs and anything else that comes your way.

Meanwhile keep applying for hospital jobs--I think that your working somewhere, even if it's just in a clinic, looks a lot more appealing to the hospitals than an applicant who's not working anywhere.

[netglow, ASN, RN]

This is a specialty group with onsite procedures...

[PetiteOpRN]

I worked in a clinic as a new grad. It had challenges all of its own. In the hospital, the patients are all on lots of meds, but most still take a lot of meds when they go home. So you absolutely must be up to snuff with pharmacology. The physician I worked with was a surgeon, so I did most of the teaching about stopping blood thinners before surgery and being NPO the night before. I also pulled out drains, did dressing changes, and removed sutures. I was also responsible for writing the clinic notes, which took up the majority of my time.

Clinic work is different, but it can be very challenging.

[azilliRN]

It tooke me awhile to find a job in this tough job market. Currently I work in a clinic, Family Practice. Not my first choice as I wanted to work in PACU or Med/Surg but I was lucky to land a job in a clinic. It's very different from a hospital setting, that's for sure, but it can be just as challenging. If you get an offer to work in the clinic, work for at least year before moving on somewhere else. I have to stay at my current job until September before I can transfer to another department. So I am learning as much as I can and fumbling along the way - but I am learning along the way with help from other nurses and from the doctors, as well.

Try for whatever you can get, especially during these hard times. Right now all you need is experience. Good luck.

[NurseKellio]

I was also a new grad when I started working at a county urgent care clinic. No one was hiring and I grabbed whatever opportunities I had to stay in nursing. I did feel very out of place as my training were all in the hospital. But there are still a lot of things I learned from the clinic. It is still nursing and you are still dealing with patients/providers and there are still a lot of nursing skills involved: triage, meds, oxygen, wound dsg change, give report when we are transferring pt to ED, etc. In the mean time, I learned to be more confident as a professional nurse rather than a student. I also developed a new professional network references while I continued to look for a job. I did find a hospital job and the hospital actually took my 4 months clinic experience into consideration and result in a higher base rate. I also worked with a lot of retired nurse who's just doing the clinic "for fun". These nurses also went through a lot in their career and gave me a lot of good advice. Good luck 2ndwind, as the seasoned nurse would tell me, you just don't know where your nursing license will take you, enjoy the adventure. =)

[Bobbkat]

I've applied everywhere, clinics, hospitals, LTC, prisons. It's finally paying off, as I have 3 interviews coming up. One is a hospital, one is a clinic, one is a LTC.