Selecting Senior Preceptorship

[Miffy]

Hello,

I am currently trying to decide which area of nursing I should put down for my top choices of nursing area (at an acute car, critical care, or rehab hospital). Unfortunately at this time I have only had med-surg (surgical and cardiac step-down) and psych experience. I am an INTJ personality type, which I know is unique to have in the nursing field. I would love to move on soon after gaining some experience into a masters of doctoral program in nursing (either nurse anesthesia or NP). I would desire a placement that is highly intellectually challenging and would help prepare me for life after nursing school. Any advice you can give into which 3 nursing areas would be best (ex. rehab, critical care, ED, PACU, ICU, pediatrics, psych) would be extremely helpful!

[llg, PhD, RN]

Your personality type does not dictate the best specialty for you. People with all types of results on the MMPI go into the same fields ... and people with the same MMPI results can succeed in different specialties. Like everyone else ... the best fit for you is one that matches well with your likes/dislikes, talents/weaknesses, etc. If a certain patient population tugs at your heart and you feel attracted to the idea of helping them ... that matters more than any personality test.

So ... what interests you the most? What experiences in nursing have you liked the best so far? What have you not liked? What type of work can you imagine yourself doing for the next few years? Pick something that will help you get a job doing work that you like.

[SierraBravo]

If your goal is to become a CRNA then you must have at least a couple of years of critical care experience. So keep that in mind when you make your choice. Psych or Peds will give you the foundation to continue on for a psych NP or a peds NP, respectively. I would highly suggest that no matter which path you choose, you gain some real world nursing experience before you enter into a graduate nursing program, and if possible, continue to work while in school. The clinical experience you gain will be invaluable. Most students pick their senior preceptorship area based on which area they would most like to work. Think about it, this will be a month long job interview in essence.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

INTJ here, never ever tested anything different for ever and ever. As a student I did a senior elective in ICU and found it fascinating, started in a PACU, and then did about 20 years in ICU. But now I'm doing my own business as a nurse consultant to attorneys and insurance companies (mostly).

I think that ICU was a good place for me at the beginning because of my love of analysis and data and how-does-that-work-let's-make-it-work-better, which is pretty INTJ-ish. I am also happy working largely independently, and all of these places have large percentage of that. I also taught a lot, and the INTJ-ness of my wanting to explain in lots of different ways of looking at things was helpful there.

But IIg is correct-- your MMPI doesn't necessarily dictate your best specialty per se. Look at the milieu and see how that feels.