Starting soon at a Family Medicine clinic. We get taught the ropes of inpatient nursing during nursing school but not really the outpatient setting. Any tips on how to succeed?

You'll probably have holidays and weekends off, unless you work in urgent care. It will consist of lots of injections, but not many oral medications. You'll probably do lots of point of care testing like pregnancy tests, urine dips, A1Cs, COVID/step/flu tests, blood draws, ear irrigation, maybe retinal exams, patient education, bandaging, hearing/vision exams, medical histories, assisting with pap smears and procedures. You might schedule appointments, follow up on referrals, and call patients for results. You may have to do some medication, vaccine, or supply inventory. If your clinic does telehealth visits you might assist with telephone intakes. Be flexible and open to learning, you'll probably work closely with a doctor, nurse practitioner, or Physician assistant. Preparation is very important. Make sure you have the supplies/reports/equipment you need ready in advance; its very uncomfortable to get caught unprepared with a patient. Also communication is KEY. Different providers have different preferences, ask and learn what those are and you'll be fine.

Be positive and open to guidance when you start. The practice manager and medical assistants will guide you in your responsibilities. Always ask if you're not sure and....Be a team player ! No job is below you.

Some of the things that helped me when I went from a hospital to a primary care office was learning vaccination schedules (and: women get pregnancy tests prior to vaccinations). The office I went to was small so I was responsible for ordering vaccinations, running the autoclave and reporting communicable diseases. Good luck!

You will be fine! Much easier than inpatient nursing. In orientation you will learn most of what you’ll need to do your job. Good luck!!!

I’m an advice line nurse for a very large Internal Medicine teaching clinic. So I answer calls all day for sick appointments, refills to emergency calls that require us to convince the patient to be seen at the ED. The clinic nurses room patients, take their vital signs etc/ then assist the doctors with making urgent appointments for CT scans, MRI’s, vacular studies to rule out DVT’s etc. plus addressing the med refills sent electronically- a note has to be added in the pts EMR, then routed to their PCP for approval. Don’t even get me started on the Prior Authorizations required by insurance on pt’s medications. Big headache
To succeed gotta be organized and keep moving!