Ask anyone on the street what nurses do, and the most common response is likely to be that nurses care for sick people in the hospital. Even many nurses themselves are probably of the mind that “real” nurses work in acute care. However, this could not be further from reality. According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) Nursing Workforce Factsheet
, 55 percent of nurses work in “general medical and surgical hospitals.” Considering that statistic, we can wonder how the other 45 percent of nurses earn a living. Ambulatory nurses comprise a sizeable segment of the nursing workforce, so there must be many good reasons why these individuals choose to work outside the hospital. Let’s explore four things you can definitely love about ambulatory nursing.
Reason #1: It’s Not the Hospital
While countless crucial emergent and non-emergent medical interventions occur in hospitals, not everyone prefers them as workplaces.
Hospitals are often seen as germ factories crawling with bacteria and viruses, and we all know how far they had to go to keep patients and staff safe during the height of the coronavirus pandemic.
The acute care setting also presents a situation where a nurse works in an environment along with hundreds of colleagues. For those who like a little peace and quiet or relative privacy during the workday, the hospital is generally not the place for such luxuries.
Hospitals obviously aren’t for everyone, and even though nursing students are often left in the dark about viable career paths outside of acute care, there’s no shortage of opportunities for those who prefer to avoid hospital nursing.
Reason #2: Ambulatory Nursing Offers a Plethora of Choices
When we think about ambulatory nursing, many settings come to mind, including home health, hospice, dialysis, telehealth, public health, community health, school nursing, and medical specialty and physician offices.
Nurses also work on cruise ships, in corporate and industrial settings, in the insurance industry and research, and in the medical device and pharmaceutical industries. Many nurse entrepreneurs also work as coaches, freelance writers, inventors and product developers, legal nurse consultants, and in other creative endeavors.
Opportunities exist in quality assurance, academia, and informatics. With the increased use of artificial intelligence in healthcare, we’ll likely need more nurses with skills in this sphere.
Reason #3: More Time with Patients
Hospitals are definitely not places where bonding with patients over the long term is common. Ambulatory nursing offers opportunities for one-on-one nursing for nurses who don’t like caring for multiple patients simultaneously during a shift.
While there may be situations and settings where nurses are able to create longer-term relationships with patients, this isn’t generally a common feature of acute care nursing. The ER, ICU, med-surg, and L&D are settings in which patients come and go at a fairly rapid pace; thus, the nurse-patient relationship is usually confined to a narrow window of time.
Relationships with patients and their families in home health and hospice may last weeks or months. Nurses in school nursing often interact with the same children for many years. And in outpatient dialysis, nurse-patient relationships can certainly be very long-term.
For nurses who relish more time with patients, ambulatory nursing offers many opportunities for establishing longer-term bonds.
Reason #4: Holidays with Family
Of the many reasons to love ambulatory nursing, this is a big one.
It’s accurate to say that nurses who work in home health, hospice, and outpatient dialysis are very likely to take turns covering major holidays with their colleagues; thus, being away from home on Christmas or Thanksgiving will be at least an occasional reality.
However, for nurses in school health, public health, the pharmaceutical and medical device industries, research, physician offices, academia, and many other positions, being home with family on holidays is a given, and many of us would love that.
Many Other Reasons
There’s nothing better on the professional spectrum for those who love ambulatory nursing. Avoiding night shifts, working “banker’s hours,” and having a higher work-life balance are just three reasons why many nurses wouldn’t trade their jobs in ambulatory nursing for anything.
While no type of nursing is for everyone, there’s room for all of us to find our place. With such a multiplicity of potential choices available to those who choose ambulatory nursing as a career path, there’s much to love, enjoy, and celebrate along the way.
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