Where to precept?!

allnurses Guide · May 22, 2012

If you don't have a speciality jumping out at you, go with a med-surg preceptorship. Your preceptorship is one of your best shots to get a job and med-surg floors are likely to hire new grads. On addition, you get to see a bit of everything which is great for keeping your knowledge base up for the boards. Just my two cents.

Double-Helix, BSN, RN · May 23, 2012

Where you can and cannot do your preceptorship depends on your school. In our school, you were only allowed to precept in a specialty area if your GPA was above a certain mark and you had strong evaluations in all your clinicals. If you didn't, then you did a med-surg clinical. Also, not all units in the hospital will allow students to precept. We were not allowed to precept in CTICU or L&D because of the rules on those floors. So I'd suggest asking your advisor for a list of approved precepting locations and see what interests you the most.

It's a good idea to try to do your preceptorship in the area you want to work in, because it will help you get your foot in the door for a position there. But if you don't really know where you would like to work, med-surg will teach you a ton and give you great experience to jump into any job.

jpowell6024 · May 23, 2012

Thank y'all for the great advice. Ok, this is going to be a dumb question I know, but when you say to try med-surg, is that the urgent care places?

Double-Helix, BSN, RN · May 23, 2012

No. Med-Surg is a unit in a hospital that cares for a large variety of patients. Both those with medical needs (COPD, infection, etc) as well as patients who are reviving from or need to go to surgery. It's one of the places with the most variety of patients and medical conditions, so you'll get a very well rounded experience.

OB-nurse2013, BSN, RN · May 23, 2012

OKay I'm going to have to assume since you don't know what a med-surg floor is that you may not have staretd nursing school yet? If this is true, we don't precept until our very last semester so my thought is that if I was you this would be the last thing you need to worry about. Also you really won't know where you would like to until you have a few clinical experiences and see where you like or what you're really interested in. An example would be I thought I would be very inetrested in working in psych and while I enjoyed lecture I hated the clinical aspect of it.

jpowell6024 · May 23, 2012

No, I'm in my 4th semester. The thing that always confused me was when teachers said "this is where you will be doing your med-surg rotation" then I was on an oncology floor, or resp, or joint camp. I didn't know there is an actual floor called med-surg. That does sound like I will benefit from it, and learn a lot. Thank you so much

ImKosher · May 25, 2012

No, I'm in my 4th semester. The thing that always confused me was when teachers said "this is where you will be doing your med-surg rotation" then I was on an oncology floor, or resp, or joint camp. I didn't know there is an actual floor called med-surg. That does sound like I will benefit from it, and learn a lot. Thank you so much

There is no way that you would be in your 4th semester and think Med-Surg is like an urgent care. I could be wrong.

jpowell6024 · May 25, 2012

Haha, sometimes i feel like the only thing that i have gotten out of the past semesters is how to spell "diarrhea" correctly!! Too much going in, can't keep it all straight! :)

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · May 25, 2012

i agree with imkosher. if you are in your fourth semester (presumably, your last semester before you ::shudder:: graduate and take nclex), you ought to have a better idea of what the profession is about and certainly ought to have a way of dealing more successfully with "too much going in, can't keep it all straight." what do you think actual nursing is all about, anyway? how could you possibly have gotten this far in your clinical education and not have a clue?

get a grip, or we'll be hearing from you that you can't keep a job in another year or two...that's assuming you get one. also, be aware that underperforming nursing students can be and are severed from their programs even in their last semesters. try to get it together.

jpowell6024 · May 25, 2012

When teachers said i was doing my med-surg clinicals on the oncology floor, then the next semester i was told i will do my med-surg clinicals on the resp care unit, then the next semester i was told that i will do my med-surg rotation on the MICU.. With all that being called "med-surg" i didn't know there was a floor called med-surg. The only med-surg that i was thinking of is the med-surg urgent care places. I am making all high B's and doing very well. When i said "too much going in, can't keep it all straight" i was trying to make light of y'all doubting me. Either way, i don't have to prove myself, i did say that it was a stupid question. Enjoy doubting me while i enjoy saving lives!! :)

allnurses Guide · May 26, 2012

How do you define an urgent care place?