Work or Volunteer for Experience?

[Casie23]

Hi everyone. I am in need of advice. I graduated from my BSN program in 2010 worked for 4 months in Telemetry then married an active duty Marine and we moved to Hawaii. While in Hawaii I was not able to find a clinical nursing job and worked briefly as an RN home visitor with the Army's new parent support program. It was more like social work nursing providing education, support and resources. Shortly after that contract terminated my husband and I started our family and I now have a 1 1/2 year old son. I haven't worked in a clinical position since January 2011.

A few months ago we moved to California and I think its the perfect time to get back into nursing and focus on my career. My passion has always been labor and delivery and I want to possibly be a WHNP or even a Midwife some day. I was just offered a full time RN Case Management position with a home health hospice facility. I'm really hesitant to accept it because its not the pathway I want to take, its not acute care and to leave my son full time for something I don't really want to do makes me very anxious. With that said, I have found a volunteer position in L and D as an RN in a military hospital. If I volunteered would that count as experience?

My dilemma is take the full time job that pays great and get some working experience or should I follow my passion, volunteer on a floor that I want to work on take NRP, STABLE and fetal heart monitoring? What would be the best choice for my career? Could I get hired with just volunteer experience? Thanks for any insight.

[Islnd_RN]

Hi Cassie,

As a former nurse manager who did a lot of hiring in the private sector, and as nurse who's been around awhile, my advise is to go for the volunteer opportunity. The worst mistake I made as a nurse was pursuing the almighty $$ versus my passion. If you've found an area of nursing you love, then this is the place you need to be. Nursing is hard enough, don't spend your time pursuing an area where you have little interest or desire. You run the risk of being absolutely miserable and possibly quitting after a few months (which will not help your resume either). Many companies, hospitals, and the federal government take into account volunteer experience. It demonstrates your passion for the specialty field and your desire to remain current in your skills. The only disadvantage is you will not be able to practice your actual RN skills (IVs, administering medications, etc). I would also recommend keeping abreast of current trends and issues in your chosen field by subscribing to journals or becoming a member of a professional association. Many times a volunteer opportunity opens the door to networking and meeting people who will lead you to an actual job opportunity. Hope this helps and Good luck!

[Casie23]

Thank you for your response! I feel the same way but I want to make the right career choice. Which do think would be better to help me land an acute care position? It's so hard just to get in an acute care position and I figure that'll be my first stop before working towards a specialty. Work as a case manager in home health or volunteer on an acute care floor? Thanks again!