Preceptorsip

[flipflop]

Hello all,

I am a long time lurker and first time poster to this site.

recently, i was assigned my nursing preceptor ship and was disappointed in my assignment. I thought perhaps someone could show me the bright side of things here because what i am assigned is so far from what i wanted to do for preceptorship.

I have been assigned to a skilled nursing center. I looked up the floor online and it looks like it focuses on sub acute/ rehabilitative issues.

From what i can tell it seems like i am going to a nursing home type of environment.

Originally, i wanted/requested multiple times to do ER.

I'm trying to look forward to doing my preceptorship but all that i can think of is that i don't think i'm going to get to practice any of the care skills related to emergencey/acute care that i wanted to learn and practice.. I don't know what skills i will get to do on this floor but i'm wondering if it will be anything interesting...

Beyond this. Will precepting in a nursing home translate to experience i can use after school (I do NOT want to work in a nursing home)?

Anyway, i don't know if anyone else had to precept in a similar environment or not but i am looking for something to look forward to. I have searched the forum a couple tomes on this topic and didn't find anyone else who's done this.

[Mom2Chaos]

Flip flop, I felt exactly the same way as you when I received my assignment. I was on the top 25% of my class and when asked- I said I wanted ER or ICU. I was assigned a hospital that I thought was LTC and was devastated. But, it turned out that the facility was a LTAC, and it turned out to be the best experience. The patients had very complex, multi-organ issues and more than half were on vents. I did so much every shift, and really learned a lot! It was definitely not what I thought it would be. Make the best of it, get through school, then you can focus on getting into your preferred specialty. Best of luck to you...

[flipflop]

Hi Mom2chaos,

Thank you for your comment. With a little luck maybe I'll end up in a similar situation to yours. :)

[Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN]

Usually students really don't get much of a say where you can have your preceptorship...it all depends on where your school can place you. Very few of my classmates got the preceptorship they wanted, and of those that did, it happened by dumb luck and not by grades or social/class status. A lot of people wanted ER/ICU, but there were only 2 spots that could be offered so the students assigned were chosen at random. Some wanted peds, but there were no peds placements available.

Only one classmate angled her way into her dream speciality preceptorship...it helped that she was already working at that particular facility for several years.

Look at it this way: this is a chance to try out an area of nursing that you might not have even considered...and you will learn things that will carry over to your desired speciality.

Best of luck!