I am not satisfied with my assigned preceptorship unit

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I'm in my last semester of nursing school and will be doing preceptorship for about 5 weeks to get 120 clinical hours. In the beginning of the semester, we got to choose 3 units that we would like to do our preceptorship in. I chose Cardiac Progressive Care unit, because I love cardiac and that is where I did my advanced med surge clinical last semester, IMICU, and ICU (which I kind of didn't want to do but I couldn't find anything else to put down). The only unit I was sure I wanted was CPCU. All in all, I just wanted a floor I will learn a lot in and grow. I was very disappointed to find I was assigned same day surgery, which is nothing close to what I put down (the instructor did say we might not get what we want and it is based on what is available). I'm really unhappy with this because I don't think I'm going to learn a lot and I personally don't think this is a good unit to put a student nurse who needs to learn. I went to talk to my instructor about this and she basically tried to tell me I get out of it what I put into it. I emailed the dean of my SON asking if he can find another assignment for me since speaking to my instructor didn't work. I honestly don't think there is any change that can be made at this point since we are starting preceptorship next week (she put out the assignment really late). I just fear that this assignment will limit my experience and growth as a nurse and I won't get to be the good nurse I want to be. I want to work on a normal med surge floor when I graduate and I think this outpatient floor isn't going to prepare me well. Any advice or similiar experiences? It feels like I'm getting the short end of the stick. Thanks

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You are putting entirely too much weight on this situation. Nursing is almost all learned on the job after graduation. Get what you can out of the experience and move on towards graduation.

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Same day surgery should help you learn pt assessment really well. Going to the Dean about this? Not a good look.

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Specializes in PICU.

Wow... you went to the Dean about this??? Really?? Sorry to sound so harsh, but there will be a ton of stuff that you will learn. You will learn a lot about patient education, patient assessment, surgical procedures, normal responses, abnormal responses, plus you will see so much.

Please tread carefully as making too many waves can call unwarrented attention to yourself. If the school did not think it was an appropriate setting there would be no way it would even be assigned.

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Specializes in Palliative, Onc, Med-Surg, Home Hospice.

Honestly, you are going into this with the wrong attitude. If you go into it thinking you aren't going to learn anything you won't. However, if you go into it thinking you will learn all you can, you'll learn a lot. It's all up to you.

And you never know, you might enjoy same day surgery.

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Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.

"I just fear that this assignment will limit my experience and growth as a nurse and I won't get to be the good nurse I want to be."

What is ACTUALLY limiting you is this attitude. What ultimately determines how good a nurse you are is not WHERE you practice but HOW you practice.

To be blunt: Get over it. You have nothing to gain and a LOT to lose.

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Just what is it exactly that you think you are going to be doing in this preceptorship? You will be doing very little, trust me. You are a student who knows nothing. It's all about baby steps.

You will get to do a very few basic things that basically a tech can do. You won't be running the show. You will learn how to be a nurse after graduation.

Suck it up, buttercup. Same day surgery will be an awesome place to go. Different patients, different surgeries. There will be tons to learn. Your negatively will keep this from being a positive experience. I loved same day surgery PACU. I even got to go in acwstch a couple of surgeries with some docs that liked to teach.

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I did my preceptorship in PACU. You see all kinds of cool patients with different procedures and develop awesome assessment skills. I had docs wanting to show me all kinds of things and took the time to explain alot like how exactly he was doing a nerve block and showing my on the ultrasound. It is what you make of it.

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Specializes in retired LTC.

Your future may be a bumpy one if you're one to run up the chain every time with complaints because you're not happy.

Just know that some schools (even the fancier BSN ones) sometimes have trouble contracting with good clinical sites. The sites just aren't out there in the numbers to accommodate the supply & demand needed for today's academic enrollments.

You could have been placed in a downtown VD clinic and look at Pseudomonas a. under a slide microscope for your clinical hours.

Or you could have been at an Adult Day Care Center helping to do music group with Alzheimer pts.

Sounds like you got a decent placement, albeit not your first choice. Opportunities for some pt interax possible, chart review, first hand surgical observation,

chance to network with a cluster of professionals not freq avail to many, etc.

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And as they say in Pre-K.....you get what you get and you don't throw a fit.

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Your instructor was right -- you will get out of the experience largely what you put into it. Same day surgery is as good and legitimate a clinical assignment as anything else. I soooo would not have gone to the dean about this. It's lucky for you this is your last semester, because, if you still had any more school to go, that is something that would be following you (not in a good way) through the rest of your time at school.

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And as they say in Pre-K.....you get what you get and you don't throw a fit.

Hahahahaha. My kids say this All. The. Time.

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