Help! Preceptor Advice! :)

[Kristin.]

Hi all!

I need to put in my requests for preceptor placement by Monday 1/26 and am having trouble deciding on my 3 top choices. Let me start out by saying I am an LPN student, and I have been advised to pick places where LPNs are commonly employed. The only issue with this is that I'm not interested in many of the places my fellow students have been picking. Many want to go to LTC facilities, and having been a CNA working LTC for years, that is not my thing. Many also want to go family medicine clinics, which I could see myself doing if needed. But what I am honestly interested in is critical care. Now no, I've obviously never had experience in this except for our emergency room simulation scenarios, but I've always been drawn to this type of nursing. But I know at least in our area 2 large hospitals, they want their nurses with a BSN, not LPN. I do eventually want to go back to school, but that is the future, this is now. Am I getting too far ahead of myself? There's always so much talk about where everyone wants to work that I feel like I get too excited and forget where I am in my "plan". So back to my reason for posting, does anyone have any suggestions for places I should consider going for my preceptor? I need to complete 200 hours within 8 weeks, starting after spring break. I can do either day or evening hours. Weekends are fine too. I'm just so overwhelmed with options and yet I'm too picky to make a choice. I just feel like this is my last chance to find my niche before I graduate and start looking for jobs. So I want to get it right! Other places students have gone include dermatology, hematology oncology, orthopedics, pediatric specialty, acute care, the county jail, the state penitentiary, and quite a few more. Thank you for reading, any and all comments are appreciated!

[Lev, MSN, RN, NP]

I say if you want to do critical care one day, go for a critical care placement. The skills you develop and things you learn will help you wherever you go. 200 hours is a nice length and you have a great opportunity to learn a lot.

[jamisaurus]

I don't really think it's beneficial to do your capstone in an area that has no chance of hiring you. When you do your RN-BSN, you will complete another capstone, which would be an ideal time to pick critical care.

I did my capstone in a specialty I didn't end up getting a job offer from, and when I started my job I was so behind because those skills didn't transfer. Time management is different in the ICU (2 patients) vs LTC (10-20??), and you just won't see the same things.

Otherwise you might be be looking around at all your nursing school friends who got job offers from their LTC placements and regretting your decision.

[RunBabyRN]

Be sure that the environment hires LPNs. What about a cardiac care clinic? That would really help if you later pursue critical care. Are you planning to further your degree at some point?

[kbrn2002, ADN, RN]

Yep, you are getting ahead of yourself. Save your critical care capstone for your BSN course, at least then you will have at least a chance of being hired into the specialty. If you already know none of the critical care floors in your area hire LPN's it seems rather a waste of valuable networking opportunities to spend the time there.

If you plan on working as an LPN while pursuing a higher degree, it makes more sense to spend the preceptor time in an area that you might actually find employment. I know you say LTC isn't for you after working as a CNA in one, but keep in mind working as a CNA is totally different than working as a nurse. Having done both I am speaking from experience here, they are both difficult and stressful jobs, but in totally different ways.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

No point to apply for a clinical placement in an area that doesn't hire LPNs. The point of a capstone is to perform at graduate nurse level, and opportunities for doing that in an ICU are vanishingly small, and zero if they don't have LPNs in the ICU, so they won't even look at you for this purpose.

You are definitely getting ahead of yourself. If you can get into a cardiology or pulmonology clinic, you'd be learning some useful stuff for later ICU work, and getting ahead on some of your RN classes. Try that.