I'm a 26 y/o guy living in South Florida who graduates with my associate's in May (also have a prior bachelor's in communication). I'm an A/B student. After spending a few days in NICU during my peds rotation, I've decided it's really where I want to work. Several of the nurses as well as my instructor encouraged me to pursue this avenue.
That said, will doing my pre-graduation preceptorship in NICU be of any real value towards getting a job in NICU? I'm being told that in this economy, it's take-what-you-can-get beggar's world, and that for the most part NICUs don't hire new grads. My med-surg rotation was less than eventful (i.e. didn't get much experience with technical skills practice) so I wonder if I should just be preceptoring in med-surg instead.
Maybe I would actually be hurting my job search by preceptoring in NICU? (yet I've been told where you do your preceptorship is essentially irrelevant when it comes to the job hunt.)
The thought of a NICU preceptorship excites me (like I said, I'm confident that's what I want to do), and med surg bores me. But at the same time, I want to have a realistic outlook for the future and do what's best with my career in mind.
Sorry if these sound like dumb questions, but my college staff is less than helpful when it comes to questions about basically anything career related.
Our Level 3/4 NICU does hire new grads, and we would probably be more likely to hire someone who had done an internship (or preceptorship as you called it) in our unit over someone who had not.
I'm the person in our unit who most frequently works with/trains the nursing students doing their preceptorships and while our unit doesn't hire any new nurses very often, nearly every new grad hired in the last five years was a nurse who had worked with me during her preceptorship. Our manager regularly asks what I thought of this nurse when I worked with her and would she be a good fit in our unit.
I think ICN preceptorships are invaluable and really wish I'd had one when I first started!
I did my preceptorship in the medical/cardiac ICU (adults) because that is where I thought I wanted to be until I got hired and started working in NICU.
Yes in some ways it is irrelevant where you do your preceptorship. What is relevant is that you get an area that you are interested in. That way you will be open and eager to learn.
PrudenceNurse
1 Article; 32 Posts
Our Level 3/4 NICU does hire new grads, and we would probably be more likely to hire someone who had done an internship (or preceptorship as you called it) in our unit over someone who had not.