Precepting Questions

[JLA]

Hello-I am in my 4th semester of nursing school and getting ready to submit my precept/floor request. Basically we put down our top three choices and my clinical instructor matches us with a nurse/floor. No guarantees that we'll get our first choice, but they try and accommodate. Anyhow, my options are: surgical, ortho, tele, AMCU, oncology, renal/diabetic, Peds, or Mom and Baby. Any suggestions on what you'd recommend. I want to be well rounded and obviously hope to get hired after. My interest so far lie with oncology and anything to do with babies. I feel that precepting Mom and baby might not give me enough of a foundation in case I ever wanted to do something different. Your thoughts? Thank you in advance for any input.

[psu_213, BSN, RN]

My interest so far lie with oncology and anything to do with babies.

Then I would go with one of these. The best experience for you is going to occur if you are passionate about the type of unit. Also, just because you precept in a given type of unit, that does not mean you are tied in to the specialty when you go for a job.

[JLA]

Thank you for all the great feedback! I put Oncology as my numer one, second I put ortho (i liked that floor), 3rd I put surgical floor (thought this would give me a good variety). Will find out in two weeks which one I get...

thanks again!

[Halcyonn]

I'm in my last semester too and I requested surgery at a decent-sized hospital for my preceptorship. I got it, but now I'm second-guessing. The nurse manager in charge of students told me she had no trouble getting me in because "nobody wants surgery". She said she thinks nobody wants it because they want rotations that will "actually help with NCLEX". Ugghhh. So maybe I made a poor choice.

Eh, I don't think you made a poor choice. Everything you learned in school will help you pass that NCLEX, not a preceptorship. All that knowledge won't be lost if you decide to choose a specialty. In class, we have instructors warn us about "picking up bad habits" in the clinical setting. They always tell us, when it comes to the NCLEX, go with what you were taught in school, not what you see on the floor. Were it me, I would pick a specialty that interests me!

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

I'm in my last semester too and I requested surgery at a decent-sized hospital for my preceptorship. I got it, but now I'm second-guessing. The nurse manager in charge of students told me she had no trouble getting me in because "nobody wants surgery". She said she thinks nobody wants it because they want rotations that will "actually help with NCLEX". Ugghhh. So maybe I made a poor choice.

I think if I could choose over, I'd probably go with med-surg or something more general so I could get some useful experience to apply to NCLEX. Good luck, hope you get what you want.

Yeah, well, those people are idiots. :) Besides, they're students, and what the heck do they know? You think that people who have surgery don't have medical conditions, psychological and teaching needs, fluids and electrolytes, screwy labs, and pretty much everything else in NCLEX? Bah. You'll be fine and you'll learn a lot.