Not sure quite where I am going.

[thinkingholistic]

I am in my junior year of a BSN program. As long as I make it through this month, I will graduate May of 2007!! The problem is, I don't know what I want to do. The story seems to be that you need at least a year of med surg. experience to do just about anything else. But, I really cannot see myself happy as a med surg nurse. I am also in a financial position where I can opt to be stay at home mom, work part time, or even just volunteer. But, after working so hard at this, I feel like I need to do somthing with my degree and I am not concerned so much with pay. What can I do with a BSN degree without med. surg experience???

[Antikigirl, ASN, RN]

I wasn't happy with med surge either...but darn glad I did take that first year doing it! It became a foundation if ever I needed to find a job quickly! And now that I am agency I am very glad I have that experience! I hated that year frankly, but learned so much!

After that year was up I was supose to be in a preceptorship program for the ED, and the hospital denied me the chance after putting it in writing when I took on the med surge job (was a prereq to work med surge one year to get into that program). I was flabbergasted and ticked! I left that hospital and never looked back!!!

I took on a camp nursing job which was a blast, then took on a charge nurse position at an ALF...but hit the glass celing after 4 years and now I do agency. Thank goodness I had that med surge background! Now I am able to be very flexible with my hours, and what units I will work in! Good to have that stuff under your belt!

Also, in school you can try to get experience in other areas such as labor/delivery, ED, surgical nurse, the works! I saw many of my nursing student collegues get placed right into their chosen preceptorship positions after school! I went ED, but the three ED's I went to to apply were mismanaged and were having huge troubles keeping nurses so I declined working in such chaos my first time out...wish I had focused on surgical RN or ICU! So if you can stay focused on a particular field and get experience in it during school, you have a better chance landing a job other than med surge...but med surge is an area of learning that I found, even though I complained A LOT doing it..LOL, is invaluable and quite handy!

Good luck to you!

[thinkingholistic]

Thank you so much for the advice! I understand why med surg is so important. I can't believe what I learned in my first med surg clinical rotation that i could have never learned elsewhere. But, the thought of it just makes me cringe.

I am really looking forward to checking out what Community Health Nursing is all about next fall.

That is great news that some have been offered jobs after a preceptorship. Maybe I have a chance!

Thanks again!

[thinkingholistic]

What drew you away from camp nursing exactly???