Where to start?

[FutureResearchRN]

I have recently graduated with a BSN in May '13 and am currently on month 3 of my first nursing job at a small hospital on a Med/Surg unit as well as the ICU. The job is going okay; I like that I am learning a lot but my dream job is to work with medical and/or nursing research and possibly get my PhD in Nursing someday.

With these goals in mind, I want to be an "experienced nurse" before I enter the research field. Anyone have any ideas as to what types of hospitals, units, etc. to work on to gain experience in research? I do plan on leaving the hospital I'm at once I hit the one year mark and hopefully find a job at a hospital (in/near Minneapolis) that performs research. Has it been possible for anyone to work a research-directed job with a BSN, or should I get started on my PhD as soon as possible?

I would appreciate any advice! Thank you!

[flyingchange]

I would recommend that you work in the specialty where you eventually want to work in research. I'm an emergency RN and I have been working in Emergency Medicine research since January; my experience on the floor has been invaluable.

In addition, you should clarify whether you want to be a researcher or a research nurse. The two are very different - do you want to conduct your own studies (for which you'd require your MSN or PhD) or do you want to be a clinical research coordinator (for which you probably need your BSN and anything more would be overqualified).

I'm a research coordinator so I could tell you about that if you have any further questions. I work almost exclusively with physicians. I do not work with nursing researchers except for one co-investigator on a study that is done by another group, so I'm not sure about the differences from physician investigators.