Preceptoship

i'm having a hard time deciding if i should go with er or med/surg. for my preceptorship. i'm unsure if i want to work in er or the med/surg. floor after i graduate. what do you suggest? i think i will learn more in med/surg. i think i would need more experience first on med/surg to work in er.

i think you'd get a lot of valuable experience in med/surg that would serve you well wherever you decided to work in the future.

I agree. ER can be chaotic and it is harder to connect the dots if you have no reference points (experience) to back it up. Anyway, you can learn how the ER interacts with other depts and that will be valuable info later on

I have different advice from the previous posters to futher confuse you! I graduated last December and did my preceptorship in a stepdown unit where I live (San Francisco), but when I wasn't hired immediately into the unit I did clinicals, I also applied at a couple ICUs - I was then told that I wasn't going to get accepted because there was a minimum qual for new grads that they be precepted in the ICU - therefore I did not meet the minimum. However, when I finally got hired into the stepdown unit where I had been precepted, I saw that 2 other new grads also were hired, both having been precepted in ICUs. At my hospital at least, having ICU experience made you desirable for either ICU or med/surg.

Two other students I graduated with also got into the EDs (different hospitals) where they precepted when many others from our class could not find med/surg jobs. I am not sure why, but it seems that here in our area when the hiring freeze came down it didn't completely affect ICUs and EDs as much as general med/surg floors.

Of course, this is only the experience of those like myself who were seeking jobs in San Francisco, not sure if it applies in your area as well.

My vote is 100% with Med/Surg. I took a Med/Surg position (not always highly valued) because at the time, nothing else was available. While it was one of my toughest nursing positions ever, I learned every bit as much on that floor as I did in Nursing School. I still (10 years later) understand how valuable that time was for me.

Med/Surg will give you a grounding for any and everything else that follows. It will also give you more confidence to go into the ED situation later.

I would 100% recommend Med/Surg...A little background about myself: I got hired to Labor and Delivery...during my interview I asked what other positions they had open...they offered me three other positions - Medical-Oncology being one of them. I went home thought it over..I thought if I started in L&D I would never be able to keep my "nursing skills." I started on a Medical-Oncology floor 9 months ago...I can honestly say I have learned more in the past 9 months than I learned during my four years of nursing school. I love my job!! :)

If you are interested in the ER and your school offers it, I would say a telemetry floor. It gets you monitor experience, ACLS certificaiton, and how to handle a code. I feel this would be the best if you want to work in the ER. Work as an RN on a telemtry floor for about a year and you should feel comfy with the ER.