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Discussion

Role Transition Advice

I'm starting my final semester of nursing school in the fall and need to choose where I want to do my role transition in a couple of weeks. My school requires us to choose an acute care setting, but I'm not feeling particularly inspired by any of the acute care floors available to us. 

I'm have an interest in women's health, but found labor and delivery and postpartum floors to be lackluster and the nurses were pretty cliquey and unwilling to teach. Obviously this may not be the case on another L&D floor, but it was a little bit scarring. I'm thinking I really want to do some sort of outpatient/clinic women's health/public health situation after graduation. Something like a free clinic for reproductive care, or maybe nurse-family partnership home visiting. 

Does anyone have any advice on choosing a floor? I'm feeling uninspired. 

Side note - if anyone has any advice on working in acute care for a few years before transitioning to outpatient/public health vs. going straight there after graduation I would appreciate that too. 

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    • Featured Replies

    Your best bet is to go with what you feel you are most aligned with. From what you have written it sounds like you have a passion for women's health. Go for that. Unfortunately, most hospital nursing jobs are known for the drama/popularity contest. The good news is you do not have to participate or fully engage in those toxic politics. If it's your passion, don't let the uncontrollable actions of others stray you away from it. You made a great point that may have answered your own question. Try for outpatient/ women's clinics if you can. If you can't get into one of them fresh out, go for the hospital job until you have the opportunity for your ideal setting. Just understand every job in any setting will have both pros and cons. Go with your gut and if that doesn't work out, you are not tied down to one speciality or setting. Explore explore explore!

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    • Expert

    My only contribution is to ignore the “p” word, “passion.” You have an interest in women’s health and in outpatient/public health, but overall you don’t feel passionate about much of anything.

    That’s really fine. You don’t have to, because you aren’t really sure what all these will entail. Remember that some people get plopped into a transition rotation (or a first new job!) and are surprised to discover that they really didn’t like that specialty. Nothing the matter c that. No learning is ever wasted.

    My perennial suggestion is to ask every nurse you see why they go what they do, but more importantly, why they DON’T do what they DON’T do. You’ll get answers that may surprise you, but some will resonate. Learn from others’ experiences.

    ”Oh, OB nursing! What a great way to get a new family off on the right foot, support breastfeeding, almost all healthy patients, not too much heavy lifting, and a family that has a good OB experience will come back to my hospital when the kid jumps off the roof and breaks an arm, or something. I’d never do anything else.”

    ”OMG, OB nursing, tits and fundi and meconium and peri pads and screaming brats, mothers-in-law, constant churn, and if I never see an entitled spoiled young woman whose eight-page birth plan didn’t work out the way she demanded it’ll be too damn soon.”

    See what I mean?

    So see if you can get into a public health women’s center, prenatal through elder care, and check out all you can. Good luck! Let us know how it works out! 

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    Different opinion here: I am not sure you need to feel inspired. This is another part of the educational process that you need to get through so you can come out on the other side. It's icing on the cake if someone ends up in a wonderful situation in an area that they feel inspired/passionate about, but at the end of the day arguably the best thing is to make selections that are somewhat related to your area(s) of interest and then give it your absolute best effort wherever you find yourself. Use your freshly minted communication skills and professionalism to get in there and develop a rapport with your preceptor and work hard to learn all you can.

    If you really are interested in women's health then consider an LDRP site if you can get one.

    Good luck ~

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