If you’re trying to choose a nursing specialty but want to strike a balance between “every day is different” and “my schedule is predictable,” you should consider urgent care nursing.
These nurses work at urgent care facilities, which often operate as standalone clinics. They treat patients who need acute medical care and may not be able to wait to see their primary provider but who don’t have life-threatening conditions requiring a trip to the emergency room (ER). Urgent care centers also help to reduce health costs and provide access to services without expending resources in the emergency departments.
If you are considering this career move, you probably want to take your time to weigh out all the advantages and disadvantages of the specialty, so let’s discuss the pros and cons of urgent care nursing.
Pro: Urgent Care Provides Diverse Experiences
If you like variety in your work, urgent care can be a great choice. Patients may come with an enormous number of different conditions. In a single day, you may see a patient who needs an x-ray after a mild car accident, someone who needs a strep test, and a patient who was bitten by a snake.
Diversity can make the day interesting, and it can also keep your skills sharp. If you never know exactly what will come in through the door, you’ve got to stay up to date on all your medical knowledge. And, since you’re frequently getting experience with many different conditions, it may make it easier to transition to other specialties later on if you choose.
Con: More Limited Resources
Urgent care can treat many acute-but-not-emergent conditions, but there are definitely limitations. You may have access to an x-ray machine but not a computed tomography (CT) machine. And you may be able to run some diagnostic tests—like a flu test or urinalysis—but they may be limited to the specific tests that can be run on-site.
Some nurses may find this frustrating, especially if they feel they cannot provide the care that patients need. It’s worth noting that some urgent care centers are more equipped than others to run more extensive (or varied) diagnostics.
Pro: “Urgent” May Be Less Intensive Than “Emergent”
Emergency room nurses and urgent care nurses are both typically drawn to their specialties due to the diversity of cases and the desire to help patients with acute needs. That said, ER nursing can be more intense than urgent care nursing because patient conditions may be more life-threatening or require more extensive treatment.
Urgent care nursing is still crucial; these patients all require acute care, but you’re less likely to deal with patients in life-or-death situations or have to run to patient rooms.
Con: “Urgent” Sometimes Is “Emergent”
While severe and emergent cases require a trip to the emergency room, sometimes these patients do come to urgent care first. They may not realize the severity of their situation, or it may be that urgent care is the closest medical facility to them.
Urgent cases can sometimes become emergent, which can be incredibly stressful (especially given urgent care’s comparatively limited resources). These patients need to be transferred, and even waiting with them for an ambulance to arrive, knowing there may not be much you can do, is difficult. Fortunately, this isn’t a too-common occurrence, but it can happen.
Pro: You May Have Predictable Hours
Some specialties—particularly emergency room nursing—may have unpredictable hours, especially when you’re a new hire. Some nurses may go back and forth between night and morning hours or have longer twelve-hour shifts.
Urgent care nursing opportunities vary significantly, but you are more likely to have a steadier schedule, especially if the clinic is only open during the day. Make sure you ask about the predictability of scheduling when interviewing if consistency is important to you.
Con: The Hours Can Sometimes Go Long
While urgent care nurses are more likely to work eight-hour shifts (as opposed to twelve-hour shifts, as they do in many hospital specialties), there is a risk that the hours can go longer depending on the specific clinic you’re working for.
If you’ve got patients in rooms with more complicated cases, you can’t just turn them out; it’s possible that your shift may run over at the end of the day while you get the last few cases wrapped up since there isn’t another nurse coming on for shift change.
Pro + Con: There Is No Specialization
Some nurses love to dive deep within a specific specialty, like dermatology or labor and delivery. They want to know exactly what to do in highly-specific situations so they can help physicians with intensive, specialized treatment.
You don’t get deep into specializations as an urgent care nurse—although many certifications are relevant to this specialty. Depending on your preferences, this could be either a pro or a con (or even both). Some prefer to work as a generalist, where they see different cases; others prefer to become experts in a particular field.
You’ll typically see patients with urgent care, patch them up, and send them on their way. Then, they’ll follow up with their primary physician and/or a specialist for additional treatment. You may be the first line of defense in helping patients on their healthcare journey, which is an essential part of the healthcare process. If that’s appealing and you’re okay with not being part of the follow-up process, this is a great career.
Choosing a nursing specialty and deciding which is right for you? Take a look at our Ultimate Guides to Nursing Specialties!
