Input, please! Need to choose where to precept

patwil73 · Feb 6, 2006

Hello,

You seem to have two areas you have enjoyed, would it be too obvious to say choose one of them? :) However, my opinion would be to go for critical care as it should give you more opportunities to choose from when you do get a job -- anything from critical care, to cath lab, to dialysis, OR, PACU, even oncology (a couple of place I have worked have had many serious oncology pts) and of course med/surg and telemetry.

I like psych also, but didn't think the experiences there would transfer over if I chose another nursing path. Also the oncology interest, that depends on how easy it is to transfer precepterships, it is nice to have this chance to experience something new, but 10 weeks is still 10 weeks and if you end up not liking oncology and are stuck there, well others have quit nursing because of bad precepterships and I wouldn't want that to happen to anyone.

Hope this helps,

Pat

Gompers, BSN, RN · Feb 6, 2006

Hello,
You seem to have two areas you have enjoyed, would it be too obvious to say choose one of them? :) However, my opinion would be to go for critical care as it should give you more opportunities to choose from when you do get a job -- anything from critical care, to cath lab, to dialysis, OR, PACU, even oncology (a couple of place I have worked have had many serious oncology pts) and of course med/surg and telemetry.
I like psych also, but didn't think the experiences there would transfer over if I chose another nursing path. Also the oncology interest, that depends on how easy it is to transfer precepterships, it is nice to have this chance to experience something new, but 10 weeks is still 10 weeks and if you end up not liking oncology and are stuck there, well others have quit nursing because of bad precepterships and I wouldn't want that to happen to anyone.
Hope this helps,
Pat

I agree completely. Cricital care is tough for new grads, and one of the reasons some units won't hire new grads is because they don't know if they can handle it, and they don't want to train someone only to have them quit early on that first year. But if you've already had ten weeks of ICU training, it shows future employers that you have had some pretty intense exposure to the environment and are serious about working ICU.

As for psych - most of that training is on the job since psych units are all so different because there is such a huge range of patient types and settings. So if you decided to do that after graduation, even if you'd done your preceptorship in a psych unit, it might not help as much if you ended up working in a very different sort of unit. With oncology, you never know - it seems people love it or hate it. Better to stick with something you know you'll love. ICUs are all different, but at least the types of skills you'll be learning (along with the intense responsiblity of caring for these patients) will carry over to whatever ICU you might want to work in down the road.

Trauma Columnist · Feb 6, 2006

If this is a large teaching hospital, I would say go with the neuro ICU where you will see a wide variety of patients, including the CVA pts. Good luck.

KatieBell · Feb 6, 2006

Definitely try for Neuro ICU. You'll be amazed. Some things happen in Neuro ICU that don't happen elsewhere in the hospital...

here_kitty · Feb 6, 2006

Thanks, everyone for you input. One more question (that might seem kinda dumb, but I'm still a student :>) The hospital I did my critical care rotation in also had an ICU, do most hospitals have this ICU step-down sort of situation?