Hey all,

I'm wondering if anyone can shed some light on a question I have. I've heard a couple students (from a different school) say that they were able to choose where they wanted to be placed (floor, specialty, etc) on clinicals for their senior year.

Is this common? I don't get the feeling that will be happening at my school; at the very least I haven't heard of it. I'm sure different schools of different things -- I'd love to hear how yours does it.

Personally, I get one DAY in the ED this semester (only two more semesters after this for my BSN, so kind of like a half senior I guess) and that's where I want to be once I graduate, so I'd love to think that I could choose where I want to be the next semester or two. :)

It will depend on the school.I only got to choose my final consolidation site.

In my first 2 semester of clinicals (Med/Surg I & II and Maternity) we were randomly assigned clinical groups. In my 3rd semester (Psych and Peds), we were given a list of placement possibilities and asked to rank them in order of preference. You didn't necessarily get what you wanted, although I did in both cases. In the final semester (preceptorship), everyone wrote a proposal for what they hoped to accomplish in their preceptorship and ranked their specialties and subspecialties in order of preference. If you wanted something not so popular (I specifically requested peds neuro which no one else did, so I got my first choice easily), you had a better chance of getting what you wanted. If you wanted something like L&D or ER, which most people requested, you weren't necessarily going to get it.

How this works depends on the school.

It will probably depend on the school, and in some cases the student/clinical instructor. When I was in Med/Surg II I was able to choose my clinical placements because my clinical instructor trusted my skill level and instincts. I knew of no other students who were able to choose.

At my school -- if you started the program in the spring -- you can choose to take a summer preceptorship from a list of clinical sites before your 5th (and final) semester. You get to choose where you would like to go based on the sites available. Many students who choose to do this end up getting job offers by the time summer is over. The fall start students don't have that option. Happy I'm a spring start!

For regular clinicals for senior year we don't get to chose what floor because we have Psych, Critical Care and Emergency Care... so obviously those floors are pretty much picked out.

However, we have a Preceptorship at the end of the semester, after finals, where we do get choices as to what we want our "specialty" to be. We were offered a list of choices and had to pick 3 at 3 different locations. Then there was a draft and we were made offers based on our choices.

The faculty was responsible for accepting our placements and setting everything up etc... and at some point I hope that they will tell us what we got. There were grade requirements to chose a specialty over Med/Surg placements, but everyone gets a Preceptorship in our program of some sort.

Me I am hoping for OR or PACU.