What is Ambulatory Care?
Ambulatory care is the care that patients receive in outpatient hospitals, clinics, and facilities. This care can also be given in departments outside the hospital that are dedicated to outpatient surgery or outpatient departments, or dialysis centers. The main distinguishing feature is that ambulatory care does not require hospitalization, so treatment usually lasts less than 24 hours.
ambulatory care significantly reduces costs and may be better for the type of disease they have.
Some of the main centers that provide ambulatory care are:
- Outpatient surgery centers
- Dialysis centers
- Ambulatory care centers
- Physicians' offices
- Outpatient departments in or near the same facility or hospital
All these centers that provide ambulatory care are also called outpatient care centers, although in some cases, ambulatory care can be provided in inpatient care centers when the patient does not need to be hospitalized for treatment, something quite common in the emergency room (ER).
What is the Difference Between Inpatient and Outpatient Care?
The main difference between inpatient and outpatient care is that inpatient care requires the patient to stay in the hospital for 24 hours or more, while an outpatient patient is considered to be able to return home without risk to their health, having completed the necessary treatment. Some examples of treatments or diagnoses that are given in outpatient care are:
- Routine physical exams with a physician or nurse.
- Tests such as mammograms, colonoscopies, blood work, x-rays, MRIs, CT scans, or any type of imaging.
- Small surgeries that do not require hospitalization, i.e., those that use minimally invasive techniques and do not need as strict a follow-up as those that do require hospitalization.
- Specialty consultations or follow-ups
- Chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or dialysis.
- Urgent care that might be treated on the same day.
Outpatient Surgery Jobs are on the Rise: Find Out Why
If you've been wondering if outpatient care is for you, you can look at the main advantages of working in outpatient care. Some of these advantages are:
- Great hours! Healthcare workers often have shifts in inpatient care that are quite exhausting. Whether it's night shifts, weekends, holidays, or even 12-hour shifts (which are preferred by nurses), they are exhausting either way. In outpatient care, most shifts are 8 hours during the day, which is usually excellent for health personnel who have families or other activities or who simply prefer to work more "normal" hours. In addition, it is usually less stressful to work in outpatient care.
- Solid pay. The pay received from providing outpatient care is quite competitive. According to the US Bureau of Labor and Statistics, an outpatient nurse receives $72,000 on average per year or $35 per hour. Of course, when getting extra PRN shifts, they get to make more money.
- More holistic treatments and more time to focus on educating a patient. In general, inpatient care tends to prioritize curing the reason the patient is hospitalized. In contrast, most outpatient nurses report that they have more time to get to know their patients well and educate them more holistically when in outpatient care.
- Less stressful or less exciting. Having more time to treat each patient is a positive factor for some, and the lack of excitement can be a negative for others. In outpatient care, it is more likely that there will not be emergencies that require healthcare staff to act quickly and have to think and act fast, but that there will be fewer emergencies in general.
How to Know Whether I Need Emergency Room or Urgent Care?
When you need care right away, you should go to an urgent care clinic, as long as the illness or injury is not life-threatening. If the emergency is severe in symptoms or could be life-threatening, or there is a risk of losing any part of the body, call 911 to go to the emergency room without hesitation. Generally, waiting times at an urgent care clinic are shorter than at a general hospital, and the costs are not as high as at an emergency room.
Urgent care clinics are considered ambulatory care or outpatient care, given that the patients who go there do not usually need hospitalization, but if they do, they can be referred to inpatient care. At both facilities, acute care nurses will take care of the patients to assess their situation, support them in their needs and answer their questions and educate them.
Find Out Whether You Should Go to the ER or Urgent Care
Can I Find PRN Jobs in the Ambulatory Care Nursing Model?
Yes! Ambulatory care needs all types of healthcare personnel and also suffers from the shortages that affect inpatient care, especially in the area of nursing. Getting PRN jobs in ambulatory care is easy with the help of Nursa, which aims to connect outpatient facilities and other healthcare centers directly with PRN workers looking for gig jobs.
