Specializes in Tele, ICU, Staff Development.
Congrats On Your Graduation!
The short answer is "No, you do not have to do bedside". The beauty of our profession is the almost endless career choices.
You do, however, have to do some strategic planning and make some key decisions.
The crucial decision new grads need to make is "Do my long-term goals require acute care experience?" It's very important that you gain bedside nursing experience as a new grad if you think you may ever need it to achieve your career goals.There's a narrow window of opportunity (one year) for getting hired into acute care as a new grad. It is difficult to land a job inacute carewhen you are no longera new grad and when you do not have acute care experience.
You can always look at investing 2 yrs at the bedside as a means to an end. You ask if hospital work is undesirable and therefore suitable only for new grads.It is not undesirable, and that's toobroad of a generalisation. I love acute care (for the most part!). Many of us findacute care rewarding and challenging when it's the right fit. Hospitals hire new grads because there's a shortage of experienced nurses.
You describe yourself as slow, and that may mean that you perform better when there is not constant stress, urgency, and interruptions. All jobs have some level of stress, but acute care nursing is high stress and involves cognitive stacking. You might be happier in a job that is more linear, where you can thoughtfully approach one task at a time.
You are interested in public health, behavioural nursing, teaching and outpatient. The good news is thereare many opportunities to work outside of acute care in your identified areas of interest.
If you plan to go into teaching and academia, you will need acute care nursing experience. You could start as a clinical instructor after you gain 1-2 years of clinical experience, and advance from there.
Public Health
Public health nursing is very broad, offering the opportunity to workin different clinics and with different patient populations. It includes a lot of patient education, and resources can be scarce. Counties in So Cal (San Diego, LA, Orange counties), do hire Level I Public Nurses.The ability to speak another language (Spanish, Farsi, Tagalog) is advantageous and if you've done any volunteer community work, be sure to include it on your resume.
There are migrant clinics, immunization clinics, free clinics, and more. The work hours are great, Monday through Friday with weekends and holidays off, and the benefits are usually good.
Public health nurses can work in community settings that include homes and public health centers. You may be assigned to various programs such as Tuberculosis, Maternal Child Health, Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs), and Foster Care.
A California Public Health Nurse Certificate is required, and you can usually obtain that when you apply for your licensure through your nursing school. If you haven't already done so, you should start applying for that right away (go to the CA BRN online). You may have to complete an online child abuse reporting course to obtain your certificate.
Also, look at federal and state jobs. The US Department of Veteran's affairs hires RNs for clinics and considers a new grad RN with a BSN but no experience as a Nurse I, Level II. Experience is preferred, but not required.
BehaviouralNursing
Behavioural nursing, also called Psych and mental health nursing, also has a lot of opportunities for you. There's acute care psychiatric, there's outpatient settings and there's theprivate as well as the public sector.
Behavioural nursing meets your concerns about being weak with clinical skills and Behavioural nursing doesn't routinely require heavy physical work.
I recommend you take a look at Indeed. com, using the filters to find job postings in your areas of interest and preferred locations. You will quickly gain a feel for the types of jobs, settings, and qualifications. Note if a job listing specifies "experience required" then you should not apply. If it says "experience preferred", then youshould apply.
Best wishes ?This is a very exciting time for you, and I wish you the best in your decisions.
Be sure and check out the Speciality Psychiatric Nursing and Public Health Nursing forums here on allnurses as well as the allnurses Nursing Specialties Guide (ebook).
