Did not get ICU Preceptorship- Advice

[ganursingstudent98]

Dear all,

I am a senior nursing student who got notified of my practicum/capstone placement earlier this month. We were asked to rank a list of about 20 specialities. In past years, most students got one of their top 3 choices. Placements in the past were determined based on grades and student involvement. Over the past year, I have done everything to ensure that my grades were high, that I made an "A" in the class which determines if you get an ICU preceptorship or not, and that I remained involved in school activities. I was placed into a medical-surgical unit at a hospital pretty far away from me, which will be a good experience. I am excited to learn new things and am grateful to be placed there but I wish my school had told me that at the end of it, grades didn't matter.

I am just looking for advice on the following:

- How hard would it be to be accepted into a new grad nurse residency program specializing in ICU for a student who has not done their preceptorship in the ICU? (Looking into GA programs)...many of the hospitals I am applying to specifically say "senior practicum in ICU PREFERRED")

- What can I do to make my resume look more competitive as a new grad in the ICU? I was a tech on a progressive stepdown unit but quit due to wanting to keep my grades up...didn't pay off and wish I had kept this job.

- Any other advice that you think would be helpful for me in this situation would be appreciated.

Thank you all so much ?

[madeline125, BSN]

Thank you for posting this, @ganursingstudent98! I am not able to give you all the answers, but I am a new grad who graduated 12/19 and I am in a similar situation.

I was very involved in extracurriculars, but it turned out that, when placing students for their capstone clinicals, only clinical experience (i.e., having been a CNA in a hospital, working at that hospital, or having had an internship), really mattered.

I, too, passed up job opportunities to keep up my grades, to keep a high level student leadership position, and to publish an article in a nursing journal. I was an honors student, so I got first pick of clinical sites and time periods. But because of that, I turned out to have some of the least "clinical" experience as compared with my classmates at the competitive site. I got put into tele instead of ICU, ER, or a full stint in L&D, my first three choices. In total, I got tele, some L&D time, and a day in ICU. Tele wasn't even in my top three, though I did turn out liking it. I really enjoyed and benefited from the ICU, but I feel like it would be hard to make a case to an employer, having spent literally one day there.

I do not exactly have the answers you are looking for, but I can definitely commiserate. Nursing schools do not always fully prepare students to transition from preceptorship into a new grad nursing position. I do not have a close friend or family member who was a nurse or was in the healthcare field before me who could have gotten me "in the know." I have always been good at networking, but I was unaware of what I didn't know and I didn't know what to ask. And, like you, I tried to do everything right by staying involved.

It seems like your university's protocol changed and you were left with the short end of the stick, even though you did all the right things to work within the system that you thought existed. I wish I could exchange my student nursing organization active membership for an internship! Haha. I just didn't know the value at the time. There are a lot of unwritten rules in nursing school, and it is hard to figure them out the first time around; yet we only get one chance!

I look forward to hearing other people's response to this post, because I am generally in the same boat. Additionally, I was wondering if med/surg is as undesirable as some people make it out to be, seeing as some people seem to want to avoid it. It seems like an okay starting place even if, or especially if, wanting to ultimately go into something high acuity like the ICU to have a strong foundation. I have also read and heard about how especially anxiety-producing it is for new grads to be hired directly on a very high acuity unit like the ICU.

Good luck to you and keep us updated! Best of luck on the job search!