How important is your preceptorship placement in regard to job prospects?

[anthonyyy]

Hello!

I am currently a nursing student going into my last semester which happens to be my preceptorship! I was wondering how important your preceptorship placement is for getting a job later on. For example, if I wanted to work in emergency or ICU after I graduate, would having a community or mental health placement negatively affect my chances of getting a job in those areas? I wouldn't be using as much "hands-on" nursing skills during a community or mental health placement compared to a med/surg placement.

You may be wondering: Why don't you just put ER or ICU as your preceptorship choice then? At my school, we rank our top 3 choices and there is a chance we don't get our top choice depending on how competitive it is/number of positions there are.

[NotReady4PrimeTime, RN]

It can have a huge impact. Some units will reject your application without even looking at it if you haven't had a preceptorship in their defined areas. On the other hand, some units are willing to hire anyone with a pulse and a practice permit. Have you asked around where you're doing your clinicals to see what they're doing?

[Khow89]

I think you have to do more school for ICU and get a certificate.

It's always beneficial to have prior experience to the unit you are planning to apply to but it doesn't mean that they will reject you 100% if you don't. I've heard that ER can have high turn over rate which means that there will always be opportunities to apply.

[Fiona59]

On 3/31/2019 at 1:53 PM, Khow89 said:

I think you have to do more school for ICU and get a certificate.

It's always beneficial to have prior experience to the unit you are planning to apply to but it doesn't mean that they will reject you 100% if you don't. I've heard that ER can have high turn over rate which means that there will always be opportunities to apply.

Our ICU hires new grads, and general surgery nurses with no course or certificate. It's on the job training/education. Certification is always an option at a later date.

[Yingtsay, BSN, RN]

Your preceptorship can affect your first job placement -to a certain extent. As a relatively new RN (graduated August 2017), I can share my prespective.

Background, I did my final preceptorship in a rural community hospital medicine unit, I did not get a position at the unit after preceptorship. I got a position a few months later at a temporary part-time position at a rural hospital ER, towards the end of the temp, I applied and got multiple offers for work in urban community hospital ER and trauma centre ER.

Having work/ clinical experience in the relevant department help for sure. At the same time -a colleague of mine worked as an undergrad nurse got a casual position at a community hospital ER and a full-time position three months later. If you didn't get the preceptorship you hoped, build your credentials -get ACLS, TNCC etc. I didn't have ER experience, but my ACLS & PALS, as well as self-learned CTAS, helped secure my first position. Just because you didn't land in ICU from the get go doesn't mean you won't get in; sometimes you have to take a detour to get there. If you end up in medicine unit, perfect your time management and attention to detail (such as vitals trends, fluid in/out which are big for ICU)