[Student_Nurse_WV]

After completing different clinical rotations during nursing school, have you changed your area of interest that you had before beginning the program?

I thought it might be fun to see some of the answers!

[locolorenzo22]

Actually, I LOVE doing surgery clinicals...will request off-sites whenever I can, clinics....work has actually helped me change my ways on a few folks...Looking at tele, ICU, possibly home health....just a few ideas....

[Maverick80]

um not really changed, i kept and open mind but i've certainly crossed a few things off my list, like i can't stand med-surg, i know they say your supposed to start there but i can't stand it!!

i loved L&D, didn't like postpartum, liked peeds, which i didn't think i would!! i still have my love for the ER, i work in a level one trauma center, and got my job as a tech after i started nursing school, and nothing except maybe L&D (a little) gives me the rush that i love about the ER. So i think i'm going to start there, i love it, and being a tech there is the only way you can get hired in as a new grad plus you have to be in a BSN program also!!

so yes clinicals has helped me lots with choosing. I don't let mean nurses (not that all are mean and plus they might of been having a bad day) ruin my clinical experience either, i just don't like the basic everyday stuff of a med-surg setting.

[luvs2readlots]

I started nursing school thinking I would end up in labor and delivery. I had done natural childbirth for my own birth and coached my sister and a friend. I was sure L&D possible midwife was my path.

Then I did my OR rotation...this is funny because I always thought OR would be the dullest job in the world...I was absolutly fascinated. I love everything about the OR! A local hospital has an internship that accepts new grads for the OR. It's a 9 month program. That is my goal now to become an OR nurse!

[NRS2bNFL]

Hi,
I just completed my first semester and we were assigned sadly to a skilled nursing facility. So I can say one thing I DONT want to do. But due to the hospital paying for my education and my salary while in school, I am obligated to tech for them through summers/weekends/holidays while in school. With that being said, I'm on a med surg floor, so I am seeing how that goes and so far I really love it. I couldn't be happier with how thingsare going. I've even learned more than what I did in my first clinical and classes because I'm actually using the information in a practical manner. Sooo...I'm still keeping an open mind. Oh and also, our instructor took us for a tour of the OR and I got to see a triple bypass. I kid you not his heart was within 2 feet of my reach. It was sweet I tell you! Anyhow, keep an open mind and just know as you go into clinicals that who you think you are and who you are just might be two different things. I hated old people and although I did NOT like the nurses at the skilled facility we interned at, I loved those patients....remember all their stories to this day.Heather

[Megsd]

It's starting to come together for me, sort of. For my first two clinicals, I was on a telemetry unit and then an advanced care unit and CICU, and I really liked all of those. This quarter I'm in peds, and while it's okay, it's not my favorite.

That said, last quarter I got to spend 2 days in the ER and it was the most fun I have ever had in nursing school, and last week I spent the evening in the peds ER, and it was the most fun I have ever had in pediatrics. I love that you never know what you're going to get, the problem-solving, the additional autonomy of the nurses, the close working relationship with the ER docs (well, the nice ones, anyway). Watching them come together and work as a team is really awe-inspiring to me.

So... that's really where I want to end up. I'm applying for the critical care/ER internship at the big level 1 trauma center for after I graduate. I will at least have a rotation through the ER and even if I don't end up there, it shouldn't be difficult to transfer after 6 months to a year, and as I said, I liked the critical care unit I was on at that hospital before, so I don't think I'd mind starting there either.

Of course, I have OB and Psych this summer. Maybe I will radically change my mind, though I'm not excited about those rotations yet.

[decartes]

My interests changed from OR nursing to Med-Surg to OB to ER/ICU. I wound up being offered a surgical step down position.