does it matter what department?

[LevitateMe, RN]

ok i'm applying for internships, lots of departments to choose from, womens, childrens, medsurg, er, or, ICU.

Does it really matter which one you go into? i know medsurg would be best but will it all be good 1st year experience? and also if the hospital lists several areas for internship to choose from should i just apply to one and tell them i am interested in many when i talk to them, or apply for everything i am interested in???

Thanks

[carolmaccas66, BSN, RN]

Apply for anything and everything.

All those departments sound good. But if you go to paeds, you may not be able to work with adults later, so you might be limited in what jobs u can apply for downt the track. Whereas if you worked med/surg or ED/ER, you get exposed to adults and paeds, so you learn more. However paeds would still be good training.

In med/surg you perform many different duties, lots of ABx, lots of meds to do. You get good post op training, doing lots of obs, working with PCAs & other opioid pumps. I like orthopaedics myself.

But I've also worked in the ED/ER & you get to learn heaps there. You never know in the ED what will come thru the door - adults or paeds. U will see lots of trauma & will have to learn ur stuff quickly. The more ur exposed to though the more you learn. You will do heaps of assessments on people of all ages, will have days where your ED is overflowing so ur running round like a headless chook, obs every hour, drips, bladder irrigations, bleeding to deal with. Lots of psych sundowner patients - lots of suicide attempts, MVAs, domestic violence cases, etc. We have a psych team & social workers who help out, but just remember on weekends & holidays, the nurses and interns/registrars are the only ones dealing with all this stuff. We have police in our ED regularly or as needed too, and security guards for many psych patients. There's lots of traiging to do, you also may have all your beds full, your chairs full and the corridors may be overflowing as well. You will get hysterical relatives, relatives who want to talk about THEIR problems etc. The best advice I can give is stick to ur nursing plan for the shift; be firm with people & don't let others distract you from ur work. YOU are in charge, not the relatives or patients. If u don't take control of your shift, it will take control of you. Be firm like I said but patient.

God I could give u tons of advice, but ultimately the choice is yours. You will get good exposure on any of those places you mentioned, but if u do med/surg & ED in my country, you will get work anywhere.

Good luck, let us know how u get on!

[Double-Helix, BSN, RN]

Apply to all of them. Nursing positions, including internships, are very competitive right now. While it would be great to apply to your first choice and get it, that's not the reality. Even if you applied to one and said you were interested in many, you would still have to fill out applications for all those areas in order to be considered. The positions are going to get a lot of applicants and it's not smart to put all your eggs in one basket.

A lot of what you learn durin the first year will be time management, prioritization, assessments, communicating with doctors and families, and med administration. You can learn that in any field, although something in the acute care setting will probably be best for learning skills.