Tuesday, May 22, 2007

First Clinicals

I signed up for my first clinical yesterday. I could have chosen to work with:

  • -GI, kidney, and liver transplants
  • -General surgery and oncology
  • -Bone marrow transplant and oncology
  • -Orthopedics and trauma

What would you have chosen? I'm particularly interested if you are a nurse. I'm hoping I didn't make a horrible decision. It's hard when you don't particularly know exactly what kind of nursing you want to do. I'll tell you in the next post what I chose. But seriously, if you are a nurse, I'm really really interested in hearing from you about this. I can probably change my clinical until about 2:00 today.

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11 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well I hate ortho, so that would be out. Transplants are interesting and you learn quite a bit, but they aren't really my thing either unless you're talking heart/lung transplants (I was a cardiac nurse). I'd probably go for general surgery and oncology.

Man, I did my first clinical in a nursing home. It sucked, but I learned so much from those patients that helped me be a better nurse.

8:53 AM  
Blogger frog said...

I'm not a nurse, but I know some nurses. ;)

Given what the Village has been through of late, I think I'd choose ortho and trauma.

9:45 AM  
Blogger Anna said...

Not a nurse, but a medical illustrator. I love ortho and trauma, and transplants are fascinating. Oncology seems sad, so I'd have to pass on that.

I hope Cricket is feeling better and his skin condition is reasolving. How are you all doing on that front?

10:04 AM  
Blogger Display said...

BMT or GI transplants. B used to do BMT research, and my mom once had most of her liver removed, so I find those two areas particularly interesting.

1:21 PM  
Blogger Sami said...

I'm an ortho/trauma gal... that will always be my first love. General stuff bores me, but it does give you good variety. So what did you choose?

2:30 PM  
Blogger nbm said...

I'm a nursing student and I just finished an ortho/trauma clinical. The trauma part was AWESOME. The ortho part? Um, is it mean if I say it was boring as hell? Blah blah knee replacement blah blah.

4:33 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ortho - no no. Helping people get up and move around all day. Blah. Same with post-surgical.

Since I'm an oncology nurse (and fell in love with it during an oncology clinical), I'd vote for transplant and oncology! :)

5:07 PM  
Blogger Mother Hen said...

depends where you want to end up. i work in emergency so i'd go trauma any day. oncology is heartwrenching, transplant is riveting, general is a mixed bag. cqan't rem the other one. good luck!

6:38 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

With the GI/Renal/Transplant option, you'd probably get lots of exposure to:
1) Bodily Fluids - cleaning up, measuring and talking about
2) Labs - though with a first clinical, you might be less likely to get into labs and more into making beds, taking histories, memorizing meds...
3) Speaking of meds...lots of good meds in GI/Renal/Transplant
My first clinical (I was a second degree nursing student a mere 2 years ago) was on a Renal floor, and to be honest, I spent A LOT of time finding things on the unit and cleaning up Poo.
Good Luck with the one you do choose!

10:43 PM  
Blogger Mermaidgrrrl said...

General surg or ortho would be my vote. You need to develop good basic skills before you get too bogged down in the fancy schmancy stuff like transplants and haematology stuff. The basics might seem boring to someone more experienced, but I've seen too many junior nurses get experience mainly in specialist fields and not enough generalised knowledge and skills. It doesn't help them later on to do this.

3:46 AM  
Blogger daisy said...

I have to agree with mermaidgrrl. I was a nurse for the first 15 years of my working life and I was mostly ortho/trauma. I worked at a major trauma center and even some of the worst injuries were healed. Very satisfying to see your patients get better. I could go with general surgery too. Oncology is a heartbreaker as someone said. I couldn't do it.
Good luck,
Daisy

4:41 PM  

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