Favorite Clinical rotation?

[reeta116]

I start nursing school in August and i am so excited. I just wanted to know from NS what is their favorite clinical rotation and why?

[That Guy, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

ICU hands down. The most pressure, the most information and responsibility.

[choc0late]

I'm sure I'll be in the minority as I was in school with this one, but I loved med surg and hated maternity. Med surg was fast paced and I learned a ton of info. It was a go-go-go type deal that I thrive in. Maternity to me was just boring. Not much to do except the one glorious day I worked on the med-surg maternity floor. I loved that one.

[in2ICU]

A lot of your enjoyment/fulfillment in clinical relates to your clinical instructor and the nurse(s) you are paired with. My focus is adult ICU. I am not a Peds person, but the Peds instructor was fabulous and I got a lot out of it. I also had one great med-surg rotation and another that was rotten.

If I had it to do over again, I would've found out who the really good clinical instructors are from the students in the class before me. Then I would've requested that clinical instructor for the next semester. It can make a HUGE difference!

[turnforthenurse, MSN, NP]

Critical care (ICU). A lot of pressure but I got a A LOT of experience and learned so much! I also love the nature of the ICU and things you deal with...MICU (medical) is more long-term stuff, like long-term vent patients, drug overdoses, renal failure/resp failure and other medical conditions. SICU (surgical) is where you have a lot of your traumas (such as gunshot wound victims) and other things. Adult med-surg would probably be my second choice because I also learned a lot.

[KattyRN]

My favorite so far was maternity and pediatrics was a close second. I always thought I wanted to do L&D so I was excited about maternity from the jump but I found out what I really love is postpartum. Maybe it's because I spent the most time over there practicing my mom/baby assessments but I really loved it. I especially love first time moms. They're so cute and eager to learn, it was really great. I also liked working in the NICU.

[amymina]

I still have another year in school, but med-surg rotations were okay, maternity was my favorite (though I eventually want to be a midwife), and rehab I didn't like at all, too slow for my taste when you only had one patient. After watching the nurses there, it would probably be busier if you were the nurse and not the student, and the nurses themselves were willing to teach and great to work with. Just give them all a shot and go from there!

[flyingchange]

I'm halfway done my degree. I've really enjoyed Surgery although I loved all my clinicals so far. I have ICU & maternity upcoming this year.

I liked Surg the best because of how fast the turnover was. I was placed on an orthopedics unit and we had an average LOS around 2-3 days. It blew my mind. The other reason I liked it was that the patients were basically well and motivated to get better ASAP. It's so easy working with patients who have their own motivation, as opposed to my Med rotation which was much longer LOS with much older patients.

Surg also gave me the opportunity to practice a ton of skills because of the turnover. There was almost always a foley to place or a dressing to change, and there were definitely assessments that needed doing. I was never bored on that unit.

That said, Med was also loads of fun because I got to know my patients (most of them were there for at least a week or two), and Psych was. Absolutely. Wonderful. I was on a geriatric outpatient unit and it was very profound for me. Older people have tons of wisdom to share.

[emtoh17]

My favs are Cardiac, Neuro and Critical Care.