Nurse refresher: Which preceptorship to request to have best chance at getting hired?

[conscientiousnurse]

• This is a discussion on Which preceptorship to request to have best chance at getting hired? in Retired Nurses / Inactive Nurses, part of General Nursing ... I'm currently unemployed after spending 2 years in the nursing educator side of things (such as...
  by conscientiousnurse Oct 3
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I'm currently unemployed after spending 2 years in the nursing educator side of things (such as being a CNA teacher). Finally I decided to take a nurse refresher course after trying unsuccessfully to get back in the clinical side of nursing. The course needs me to give it direction on which area of nursing I would prefer for my clinical preceptorship. I'd like to do what would help the most with getting another job. I have a bit of experience as a school nurse, and a few years' experience in a non-traditional office nurse setting, and pediatric private-dutyhome care, plus a bit of long-term care experience (the LTC is something I really disliked). Here are some of the ideas I have for a preceptorship: short-stay unit/ambulatory care surgical center, urgent care center, ER, primary care clinic, med/surg, acute care pediatric floor, ambulatory infusion clinic, or L&D/mother-baby. Very hard for me to figure out what would be best to do. I would love to be able to get a job that doesn't require weekends, which is why I'd like clinic, short-stay unit, school nurse, or perhaps a visiting home health type job if I could find one mostly M-F (or else try to get a supplemental position maybe in a hospital that doesn't require many weekends, if possible.) But I don't want to do a preceptorship too narrow that would limit my future possibilities. I also would love to be able to learn the skills like IV insertion, IV med administration, and phlebotomy, to open up future job prospects. (And I was thinking L &D because it might open possibilities both in an OB clinic, or in a hospital, or even something R/T short-stay surgery since L&D often does C-sections and their recovery. But, again, don't know if this is too narrow a field and not enough jobs). Overall, I don't tend to gravitate toward really exciting, fast-moving things like ER, but I figured I would get to see a wide variety of things by doing preceptorship there and could improve on triage skills/IV skills. Really, I just want the best way to open a job for me: and though I might like a clinic job, how do I know that I would really be good at that even if I was able to find a position? (By the way, I didn't mention getting a preceptorship in school nursingbecause I already know what that's about, and I feel like in order to continue in that line I would prefer to have more pediatric or urgent care experience). (I am also considering getting Master's in the future, perhaps as an ARNP, but not sure about that). Any ideas?
  
  Last edit by conscientiousnurse on 6:25 pm : Reason: Please move to "Nursing Job Search Assistance" forum for better response; also added something.
  

[conscientiousnurse]

Thanks so much to the 3 who have taken the poll so far! 2 of you thought med/surg: I am not sure if I could actually get hired in a med/surg setting, since they may notice I never had med/surg experience before, and I would have heavy competition against both new grads and experienced nurses to get in the hospital door, but I do appreciate that med/surg, (even if it doesn't open a med/surg job), could open doors to jobs like visiting home health, clinics, possibly ambulatory surgical center, and care management, as well as giving IV med experience. However, not sure if it would give me enough experience with IV starting and phlebotomy. Some home health and clinic jobs really need you to be able to do that skill at least at an elementary level. One of you on the poll answered urgent care/ER as the best preceptorship. Now I'm wondering, which of these 2 settings would be better (urgent care or ER), if I'm not planning on actually working in ER? Would I get enough experience with IV starts in urgent care? I think that urgent care would be helpful to me in getting a school nurse job, clinic or urgent care job, phone triage, or home health position too; I'd like to get better at recognizing dermatological conditions (especially in school-age children), and in triage.

[CP2013]

[*]This is a discussion on Which preceptorship to request to have best chance at getting hired? in Retired Nurses / Inactive Nurses, part of General Nursing ... I'm currently unemployed after spending 2 years in the nursing educator side of things (such as...

by conscientiousnurse Oct 3

I would love to be able to get a job that doesn't require weekends, which is why I'd like clinic, short-stay unit, school nurse, or perhaps a visiting home health type job if I could find one mostly M-F (or else try to get a supplemental position maybe in a hospital that doesn't require many weekends, if possible.) But I don't want to do a preceptorship too narrow that would limit my future possibilities. I also would love to be able to learn the skills like IV insertion, IV med administration, and phlebotomy, to open up future job prospects.

Overall, I don't tend to gravitate toward really exciting, fast-moving things like ER, but I figured I would get to see a wide variety of things by doing preceptorship there and could improve on triage skills/IV skills. Really, I just want the best way to open a job for me: and though I might like a clinic job, how do I know that I would really be good at that even if I was able to find a position? (By the way, I didn't mention getting a preceptorship in school nursing because I already know what that's about, and I feel like in order to continue in that line I would prefer to have more pediatric or urgent care experience). (I am also considering getting Master's in the future, perhaps as an ARNP, but not sure about that). Any ideas?

I voted for outpatient surgery. I think if you want M-F hours and IV skills, that would be a great place to head into.

Best of luck! :)