question for nurses re: student nurse preceptorship

[fromtheseaRN, BSN, RN]

the time is quickly approaching for my class to list our choices for our preceptorship. i am feeling torn listing my choices, and have a question. friends of mine who graduated a few years ago were hired into the unit they completed their preceptorship in, at the end of their preceptorship. do you find this happens still, even with the downturn in economy? i asked both of them, and they are not working in places that precept currently, so they didn't feel that they had accurate insight to offer.

as with any new grad nurse, i would love to be hired into a specialty i am interested in. that being said, i also know not only are jobs hard to come by, but they are especially hard to come by for new grads in specialty areas. if you do find that student nurses are being hired directly into the units based on their performance there, would it be smarter to list a med surg unit as my first choice as it would be easier to get a job there than a specialty? or just bite the bullet and list the specialty areas i'm very interested in? i feel that i could greatly benefit from some med-surg experience, but i'm also afraid that i will have a hard time moving into a specialty from there.

thanks!

[MassagetoRN]

I graduated last June as a Banner Fellow. I love love love Peds so I was chose to precept at Cardon Children's. When it came time for a job (only 1 of my 28 classmates turned their preceptorship into a job) there was and still is nothing in Peds for new grads. As a Banner Fellow, they sent me out on almost a dozen interviews for all kinds of units and the fact that I precepted in peds really hurt me.

You have to understand that when you do get an interview, you are competeing (sp?) against many other people and the manager wants to hire someone who is passionate about their type of unit (oncology, med/surg, tele, etc.) so that the new grad will stay on that unit for awhile, not just move on once they get the experience. So when I went in to PCU saying that the heart really interested me, but oh yeah, I precepted in peds, well, they knew where my passion was. And ever single interviewer asked me where I precepted.

My advise is to go med/surg. Managers know that preceptor spots are limited, so if you precept med/surg and then get an interview for a specialty, you can blame limited spots. Plus the med/surg experience will give you the stories that managers will ask you about in an interview. I guess I am trying to say that you'll be well rounded and that new grad jobs are rare and speciality new grad jobs are just about impossible (except maybe if you already work on that floor as an aide or something). Good luck!!