Will I regret this?

pers · Jul 22, 2010

I didn't start off in an office but I have had coworkers who came to the hospital from an office. It's much rarer in my area for it to happen, less because the hospital won't hire and more because office jobs are considered desirable and generally require experience to get.

Honestly, it depends entirely on the job market at the time. You might not be able to find work in an office right now. If you do, in a couple of years there may be a shortage of nurses and you'll have no trouble jumping right in whatever area you'd most like to work. Then again, there may be a surplus of nurses in two years and hospitals can afford to be pickier then, taking only experienced nurses.

You always will have the opportunity to change specialities in your career. There may be times where it's more difficult to make the change but you're certainly not going to be locked into office work forever just because that's where you started out.

Nurseinprocess · Jul 22, 2010

I think you should start off with floor nursing of some sort. Just don't hire in for a full-time position. Look for part time so you can still spend most of the week with your baby and not get burned out or overwhelmed. Working full-time is harsh when you have young kids.

mustlovepoodles, RN · Jul 22, 2010

I think you should start off with floor nursing of some sort. Just don't hire in for a full-time position. Look for part time so you can still spend most of the week with your baby and not get burned out or overwhelmed. Working full-time is harsh when you have young kids.

I agree. I would never work full-time with young children at home, unless my back was completely to the wall. And even then, I'd have to think long and hard about that. Have you got your daycare worked out yet? When my kids were young I worked night shift 2-3 nights/week. You might struggle with that a little just because working part time it takes longer for you to feel competent.

I would strongly suggest that you get some kind of floor nursing experience under your belt before going into office nursing. Working in a doctor's office can be very stressful in itself, especially if you don't have any real experience (clinicals do NOT count as nursing experience, IMO.) Anything that can happen in a hospital can happen in a doctor's office. I would think that home health would also be a real challenge for someone with very limited experience but you could probably do that part time. Office nursing is very likely going to be 9-5 or 6 every day.

The only problem with going into a non-bedside nursing job right out of school is that you will pretty quickly lose skills. That can be overcome later if decide you want to go back to hospital nursing--you take an RN refresher course and enter basically as a grad nurse.

As to the PPD--speaking as one who suffers cyclical clinical depression and had PPD with 2 of my 3 children, PPD can be serious, even deadly. Think long and hard about whether this is the time for you to enter the work force. Just having a young infant and the sleep deprivation that goes along with that makes it very difficult to overcome. I would be honest with myself about my ability to juggle all that AND the natural stress associated with a new job. Are you sure it's worth it right now?

Just my 2 cents, for what it's worth.

soccer25 · Jul 22, 2010

My professors told my class that the best thing to do is to get at least one year of med/surg experience to hone your nursing skills. The general consensus among them was that you would become rusty on your "clinical skills" and be less desirable to LTC or acute care facilities.

I've also talked to many nurses who have made the transition one way or the other and they pretty much called BS on my professors.

I'm sure people will tell you that it both can and can't be done easily. The truth is that if you want to move from an office job to another field eventually down the road, the most important thing is not your skills but your attitude in going about the process.

lemonspark · Jul 25, 2010

Thank-you so much for your replies. Your viewpoints are truly helping me put my thoughts into perspective.

evolvingrn, BSN, RN · Jul 25, 2010

I think you should consider a part time floor job. office jobs arent' non-stresful and you aren't going to get the experience you need to try something else later. I am a new grad to and i have to say .......every day im learning a new skill that i didn't learn in clincals. best of luck and congrats on the baby!