Welcome back!
And I mean that for both of us. Thank you for sticking with me through maternity leave. Our baby boy is here, our family is adjusting, and I'm happy to be back in your inbox with a new interview.
This month's role is one I think many of you will like: it gets you off the floor without taking you away from patients.
The Nontraditional Nurse spotlight
Juliet Pippin - Admissions Coordinator
Juliet has been in nursing for 13 years. After her second baby, 12-hour shifts stopped working for her family. So she looked inside her own health system and found her current job: RN admissions coordinator for a 36-bed inpatient rehab unit (IPR, called an acute rehab unit or ARU in some states). She works about 8 to 4, has a flexible start time, and is on site two days a week.
See the full episode here
Key Takeaways
Your bedside experience is the qualification. Juliet uses pharmacology, disease trajectory, and nursing documentation all day long.
The biggest adjustment is how you prioritize. You go from handling the moment in front of you to planning hours and days out for patient trajectories.
You still get patient contact, especially on in-person days. This is something that might mean a lot to many nurses that aren't ready to fully give up patient care.
Look for this job inside your own system first. If you are working at a larger hospital system, chances are there are admissions coordinators for facilities in the same system. Finding a role internally can be much easier with less of a learning curve.
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“
The ones that really fill my cup are those that you get to see the patients literally walk out and make tremendous recovery, tremendous resilience. That just gives me chills."
— Juliet Pippin
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Career Deep Dive
Admissions Coordinator
Admissions coordinators decide whether a referred patient is a clinical fit for the rehab unit and manage the move from acute care to rehab. Juliet's facility specializes in neuro, so patients are mostly recovering from strokes, head trauma, spinal cord injuries or other neurological illnesses.
A typical day for her means two or three EHRs open at once, secure chat with several systems, Teams, phone calls with patients and families, and standing meetings with colleagues and stakeholders. In her words, it's "pretty synchronous work as opposed to asynchronous kind of long-term projects."
Perks
The schedule is the obvious one: weekday hours, some weekends, a flexible start, and a hybrid setup. "I get to walk my dog if I'm at home, which is really lovely."
The deeper perk is staying connected to patients. On her on-site days, Juliet talks with patients and families face to face and catches colleagues for quick case questions. And sometimes the good outcomes come back around to her:
"The ones that really fill my cup are those that you get to see the patients literally walk out and make tremendous recovery, tremendous resilience. That just, you know, gives me chills."
Challenges
Insurance. At the bedside you never had to think about a patient's payer. In this role, prior authorization is part of the job.
The cases can also stay with you. "The cases that stick with me are the ones that I look at and think, that could be me, or that could be my spouse or someone I know."
Then there's communication. Between chat, Teams, phone, and in-person conversations, each with its own expectations, Juliet says you "have to be a chameleon" with other professionals while staying neutral and positive in a high-stakes setting.
Salary
I love to dig into salary, but since not all admission coordinators are RNs, it is tough to find accurate numbers. Pay depends on the setting (hospital-based IPR, freestanding rehab, or SNF), your region, and whether the job requires an RN or accepts non-clinical staff. RN-required roles tend to pay more, and credentials like the CRRN or a case management certification can give you leverage.
Work-Life Balance
Work-life balance can be great in this role. Regular hours, breaks during the day, and depending on the facility you may be hybrid or remote. How hybrid the job is depends on the facility. Juliet's unit takes most of its referrals from outside systems, so remote work made sense after COVID. Coordinators at larger, self-contained systems, or ones who visit referring hospitals, may be on site more.
How much experience do I need?
Juliet had almost a decade of bedside experience first, and her employer required a BSN. Plan on needing solid acute care experience. Med-surg, neuro, rehab, and case management backgrounds fit especially well. Having some exposure to case management or insurance also helps you get ready for the payer side of the job.
Certifications
None are required, but a few could help:
- CRRN (Certified Rehabilitation Registered Nurse): a great fit if you want to stay in IPR
- Case management certification: more widely recognized if you want to move into case management later or shows that you have experience with how a patient moves through the medical system.
Nursing skills to leverage in interviews
- Pharmacology and disease progression. Knowing what a typical recovery looks like, and what an atypical one looks like.
- Reading nursing documentation well and quickly
- Seeing the patient behind the chart and thinking through what could go wrong
- Communicating with patients, families, and providers during hard moments
Practical steps to get started
- Check your own system first. Does it have an IPR, LTAC, or SNF? Internal transfers keep your seniority and remove one unknown about getting a new job.
- Talk to your case management department. Ask who your referral partners are and what exists in the community.
- At a standalone hospital? Look at pre-admissions for elective surgery as a starting point.
- Research local facilities. Juliet suggests the CMS Medicare website to see which rehab facilities are in your region.
Your laughter injection.
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What's a nurses favorite kind of music?
One with a good rhythm.
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