Question about preceptorship

Only choice we get is which hospital, and which shift. We do not get to choose the type of floor. I'm sure this differs per school.

We had to do at LEAST 24hrs in medsurg. My school uses ATI, so when we took our ATI Comprehensive Predictor, we had to make over a certain score to do a specialty and then we could do ICU/ER. I was able to do medsurg 24hrs, then I did 8hrs in MICU(medical ICU), and the rest in Surgery(great exp to watch the nurse and learn to circulate and scrub).

We didn't get to choose the hospital, time, or specialty. We all did either med-surg, ICU, or ER. Schools are usually limited in preceptors.

At my school we choose the hospital and then they figure out what is available..then we request the specialty based on our preferences.

We had 2 preceptorships at my school, med surg (48 hrs) and specialty (118 hrs). For med surg, we were just placed where the school put us but for specialty we were allowed to choose our top 4 areas of interest and every effort was made to place in our top choice. I ended up in my third choice (OB) and they were night shifts, I survived!

I enjoy working with kids and some think I'm crazy but the adolescent psych unit is interesting to me also but I'm allowed neither of these choices. I wish I would have known this a long time ago because I don't really like med surge or the icu.

My school you pick your shift which floor you want to be on (Med Surg), (CV), (ortho) or (oncology). I was told the reason we do these floors is because you will get to see patients that will most benefit you when you take the NCLEX. We were able to do OB and Psych rotations second semester, but for our preceptorship we stay with the same nurse the whole semester.

I attended a well known university based nursing program in a large city. We were allowed to be VERY specific with our requests... they asked us to rank general specialty (adult health, maternity, pediatrics or psych) in order of preference and then list sub-specialties that interested us. I requested and was placed in pediatric neurology which is where I spent my first five years of nursing as well. You most definitely would have been allowed to choose (and likely would have been placed in since it's not exactly a popular request) adolescent psych in my school.

My school based whether we got specialties or not on our HESI scores. If you scored well, you could work a specialty - ICU, L&D, Psych, etc. Otherwise, you were placed on a med-surg floor. However, the school took the top three choices for hospitals and types of units from everyone, with a sub section for first three types of med-surg choices just in case the person didn't score well on the HESI. I got my first choice hospital and first choice unit, which was awesome.

We can request specific areas and they try to work it in. The only requirement is that you finish your clinicals in that area before you go. Meaning if you want L&D, you do that class before you do that. If you want peds, you do that first. We've had people in the NICU, burn unit, ERs, med-surg, psych, etc. I picked burn unit because it's an ICU that does have med-surg and ICU overflow. I put down an ER but I don't want that. I have heard they do send some people to long-term care facilities and to health departments, but I may argue against that. I would be more ok with the health department.