taylor925

Hi Everyone, I apologize in advance for the long post and I appreciate you taking the time to read through it. I am posting here looking for some advice as to what to choose for my senior preceptorship in my BSN program. I have narrowed it down to either pediatrics or labor and delivery/postpartum...two very different specialties. I've always been the type of person that likes to leave as many doors open as possible so that I do not limit myself in the future. With that said, my predicament comes from a fear that if I choose one or the other it will lock me into that specialty and will later severely limit my opportunities when it comes to looking for a job post graduation. I understand that a preceptorship does not define you as a new nurse; but as I have been researching new graduate programs, I have found that many prefer that you have precepted in that field prior to applying. So now here I am completely torn between the two. So far I have completed my OB rotation and I am currently 5 weeks in to my pediatric rotation. Before I even began nursing school I had an interest in becoming an L&D nurse. I truly view child birth as a miraculous process and I honestly feel honored to have the opportunity to be apart of such a special day for someone. L&d nursing encompasses many of my loves; women's health, being in an emotionally supportive role, and the fact that you also get to care for mom and baby as a dyad. Side note- I also once had an interest in NICU but after my shadow day there I ruled that out as something that I am not interested in diving right into straight out of nursing school. Anyways, the major things holding me back from choosing L&D is the fact that in my OB rotation I was at a very slow hospital and I unfortunately only got to see one birth from start to finish along with never getting to observe a C-section. I was incredibly disappointed because I did not feel that I got a very good sense of what exactly the L&D nurses role/tasks were. I really wish that I could have witnessed more births so that I could have paid more attention to what the nurses were doing rather than the birth process itself. I did gain a ton of postpartum experience and I truly enjoyed every minute of it. I loved all the opportunity for education and getting to care for mom and baby. I'm worried that if I do choose L&D for my preceptorship, it will be incredibly hard to transition to PEDs if I decide that L&D is not for me. As far as peds is concerned, I have always loved working with kids. I've been a babysitter/nanny/tutor since I was very young and working with kids of all ages truly does have a special place in my heart. From my adult med/surg rotation I know that I would much rather care for kids than adults (aside from women in L&D). I find working with kids very fun and in my 5 weeks on the surgical floor in my peds rotation, I have felt more comfortable that I ever do in my adult med/surg placement. Although, my rotation is somewhat limiting because I am placed on a strictly surgical floor and most of the children are not super ill. Many of them are there for elective surgeries and are otherwise healthy. In the coming weeks I will get to do two observation shifts, one in hem/onc and one on a somewhat more acute surgical floor. If I were to go with peds for my clinical placement I am leaning towards choosing PICU so that I can gain the critical care experience that my regular clinical rotations have not provided me with. Like I mentioned earlier with L&D, I am afraid that if I go with peds it would limit me if I did decide to go with L&D in the future. So now I turn to my nursing community, what do you advise I should do? I would love to hear your thoughts on the pros and cons of choosing either one. Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone! I'm a level 2 BSN student and I have been applying to CNA or any direct patient care jobs that I qualify for for the summer- although I am not having much luck. I started searching outside of the box as summer is quickly approaching and I now have an interview with Gateway Learning Group tomorrow. It is for a behavior technician position working with autistic children and they would provide the necessary training to become a RBT. My question is, if I am offered the position do you think this would be a good summer job for a nursing student? Or should I hold out and wait for a CNA or other direct-patient care job to potentially come around?

I would love to be in the facebook group, how do I join?

I live closer to the Sequoia program and I like that it is a bit of a shorter program than most.

I got accepted! See you all in the fall :)

Still nothing, the wait is killing me!

Hi there, I also applied to this program and am praying that I get in, it is my top choice. Did both of you go in for an interview?

Hi everyone, I'm a bit late to this thread but I also applied to CSUEB and i'm anxiously waiting on the results. My stats are: Overall GPA: 3.62 Prereq GPA: 3.77 TEAS: 78% I also applied to SF state sequoia program, CSUSM, and a few community college programs. I am praying that I get in somewhere!

Hi Alnsulayao, I also applied to Cal State San Marcos but I have not heard a peep from them. Where did they inform you that your admission was denied, mail or the student center website?? Good luck to you for the rest of the schools that you applied to!