the clinic's untold story

Being a nurse in a clinic is very different from being a nurse in a hospital.

A few clinic and hospital comparisons-

In the clinic, you are not required to work holidays or weekends. If you decide to work on a non-traditional day, there's a sweet bonus involved and you're usually done by noon.

• In the hospital, you're required to work holidays and weekends. There is no sweet bonus, unless you include a free Thanksgiving cafeteria meal with slick ham and instant potatoes.

In the clinic, you can park your car and get to where you work in five minutes.

• In the hospital it takes five minutes to find a place to park your car. Add ten more minutes from where you park to where you actually work, maybe more if the elevators are down.

In the clinic, drug representatives want to wine and dine you. They cater lunch. They bring snacks in the afternoon. Ice cream. Chocolate fondue fountains. They sponsor educational events at fancy restaurants. They bring ink pens and notepads.**

• In the hospital you pay for your own lunch from the cafeteria. If you want to go to a fancy restaurant, you foot the bill. You're also required to complete a certain number of extended educational hours, but you pay for them yourself.

In the clinic, I work between 8-9 hours a day. I come home and have supper with The Hater.

• In the hospital I worked 12 hour shifts and came home part-zombie.

It's been a good move. It's true that I've been slightly disheartened by the hospital scene, but the benefits of clinic-life have been good for me.

** Special note on drug reps: they're salespeople pushing a product. They push their drugs to anyone who will listen. Although treats and goodies are nice, the bottom line is patient care, not selling-out to who has the coolest toys.