[jesa]

don't know if this is in the right spot or not, but have a quick question. I have to do my preceptorship at a specific hospital that does not have the unit I want to work on. the hospital I do my preceptorship at is paying my school, so I'm contracted to them for 2 years unless I want to pay back loans and work somewhere else. I plan to apply to my dream hospital as well as the one I'm contracted with.

here's the problem - if I can only get a job at my contracted hospital I would prefer to do L&D or mother/baby, so it would be best to do my preceptorship in this unit...but my dream hospital is a VA hospital (obviously no L&D or MBU). my dream is psych, but the hospital I am doing my preceptorship has no psych unit.

my question is this - how much of an impact does the unit I do my preceptorship on have on my getting hired? if I do my preceptor on a L&D or MBU will that lessen my chances of getting hired at a hospital that doesn't have those things?

[Megsd]

Originally Posted by jesa

don't know if this is in the right spot or not, but have a quick question. I have to do my preceptorship at a specific hospital that does not have the unit I want to work on. the hospital I do my preceptorship at is paying my school, so I'm contracted to them for 2 years unless I want to pay back loans and work somewhere else. I plan to apply to my dream hospital as well as the one I'm contracted with.

here's the problem - if I can only get a job at my contracted hospital I would prefer to do L&D or mother/baby, so it would be best to do my preceptorship in this unit...but my dream hospital is a VA hospital (obviously no L&D or MBU). my dream is psych, but the hospital I am doing my preceptorship has no psych unit.

my question is this - how much of an impact does the unit I do my preceptorship on have on my getting hired? if I do my preceptor on a L&D or MBU will that lessen my chances of getting hired at a hospital that doesn't have those things?

I know that the unit you precept on can HELP you get hired onto that or similar units when job hunting (especially for highly desired areas like L&D and mother baby). I'm not sure if that experience would hurt you if you really want to do psych. I doubt it, though. Some of my classmates got pretty crummy preceptorship assignments (like inpatient rehab -- which is a whole different animal) but still got jobs elsewhere.

The good news is you will meet psych patients on any unit in any hospital. I think you could use the L&D/MB experience to your advantage by having the opportunity to talk to your patients a lot, provide emotional support, practice therapeutic communication and all that jazz.

Good luck!