Ambulatory Care Nurse – Career and Education Profile

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Ambulatory care nurses typically work in outpatient care facilities, seeing as many patients as possible as quickly as possible. This is a great nursing field to consider if you like a fast-paced work environment that changes from day to day.

Job Responsibilities

In ambulatory care nursing, your primary goal will be to help patients and their families get the care they need as quickly as possible, but without compromising care quality. Ambulatory nurses can work promoting health and wellness, can provide triage in emergency situations, and more. A large part of your job, in many cases, will be working directly with patients and their families to teach them home care. In this job, you’ll work with a variety of patients, from children to senior citizens, dealing with many different kinds of illnesses and injuries. Depending on the facility where you work, you could be in charge of a specific task, moving from patient to patient to complete this task (such as checking vital signs or recording patient history), or you could work patient-by-patient, serving as their nurse for their entire treatment process.

Salary and Career Options

The salary you can expect as an LPN working in ambulatory care is around $40,000 annually. If you go back to school to become an RN, that figure jumps to $55,000 to $60,000 annually. You can also choose to become an advanced practice nurse by getting a master’s degree. In ambulatory care, the highest paid advanced practice nurses are nurse anesthetists, who make an average of nearly $130,000 annually.

Educational Requirements

While you can work in ambulatory care as an LPN, it makes sense to become an RN for most nurses, as this allows you to make more money and have more job opportunities. Since you’ll work with such a wide variety of patients as an ambulatory care, your education will focus on teaching you how to deal with as many problems as possible. You’ll take classes ranging from emergency first aid to triage, as well as participate in hands-on clinical learning.

LPN to RN College Programs

While several schools have online nursing degrees available, few offer LPN to RN programs. What's the good news? We have listed some accredited schools below that do offer the program in addition to schools with other bridge programs available. Find out more information and contact each school by using any of the links below.

LPN to RN (BSN)	Indiana State University—Indiana State University offers a robust online program designed for LPNs wanting to become registered nurses and earn their BSN degree. Since ISU's credits transfer to over 80 campus majors, this is an ideal program for people wanting to open opportunities for their career down the road.
LPN to RN LPN to ADN LPN to BSN	The College Network—The College Network is a partnership with several universities and organizations like the National League for Nursing that focuses on online education and programs, with several courses for nurses or those interested in a nursing career. Specifically, TCN helps students prepare for their PN and RN licensures and move on to earn graduate degrees.
	Select a subject and degree level, then click "Find My Degree" to browse 100+ online nursing schools offering relevant accredited programs.
BS in Nursing RN to MSN MSN in Nurse Education MSN in Nurse Informatics MSN in Nurse Management	Walden University—Walden University is typically a graduate school with several masters and doctoral programs available, but they do have BSN and RN to MSN bridge programs available. Walden is based out of Minneapolis and offers several options in transferring your previously earned credits to and from (or even within) the school.
RN to BSN RN to MSN MSN in Nurse Administration MSN in Nurse Education	Kaplan University—Kaplan University is one of the nation's largest and leading online educators and offers several bridge programs for registered nurses to earn their BSN or MSN degree. If you have previously earned credits, Kaplan makes it easy for you to transfer to any one of their undergraduate or graduate programs.
MSN in Nurse Education MSN in Nurse Management	Herzing University—While Herzing University does not offer an undergraduate nursing degree, it is a great choice for working nurses wanting to pursue leadership positions in Nurse Education or Management. With over 10 campuses and 45 online programs available, Herzing has a massive network that makes it easy to transfer to or from the school.