Elective Nursing Placements

Laydee

I'm doing nursing & was advised to arrange my elective placements early to avoid disappointment. It's 4 weeks long & I'm looking to do a week in a few places because I want to get as much exposure to departments that my course won't be arranging placements in.
My ideas so far were radiology nursing, adult A&E (my course placement is in paediatric A&E & I think adult might be very different), ambulance services, anesthesiology nursing (not even sure if this exists in Ireland), working with a CNS or ANP.
If anyone has any advice as to which of these would be very interesting or if there's any ones that I haven't thought of yet I'd love the advice & recommendations.

crazy cat lady

If you're going to go with a CNS or ANP, make sure you have a real interest in their speciality because a 4 week placement of the same thing could get a bit boring otherwise. Or, maybe look to be placed in a unit which has an CNS/ANP attached so you can work both in the unit and with the ANP/CNS.

Anaesthetic nurses generally work as part of the theatre team. One day they might be on anaesthetics, another on scrub, anothe rin recovery. Very interesting placement with lots of variety.

Radiology nursing is very specialist. You'll learn a lot but it probably won't be a very hands on placement.

What year are you in and what has interested you so far? Also where are you based? I could seggest lots but half of it might not interest you at all

Laydee

I'm in first year. I was thinking of doing 1 week in 4 different areas. The placement is due to start in semester 2 of 2nd year & I was talking to a 3rd year who told me that she didn't get to do anything different or get into any specialist area during her elective placement because she didn't apply early enough. I plan to apply in the net few weeks. I haven't done any specialist placements so far, I did a general medical & orthopedic surgical placement so far.

I would love to hear any suggestions that you have, I am open to any ideas. I will give anything a try, I am just concerned that some areas are not covered in the course such a radiology & I'd love to get as much exposure & experience as possible.

crazy cat lady

Medical oncology might be a good option for you. Apart from getting experience of really basic nursing skills (compassion, caring, listening etc...) you will see alot. Most units will have at least 1 cns attached to it that you can get alot of knowledge from. You will see alot of procedures being done in interventional radiology (picc/port/hickman line insertions, ultrasound and ct guided biopsies, dye imaging) You could spend time on the inpatient ward as well as the day unit and in the radiotherapy department. If it interests you, you could also incorporate a visit or part of your placement in one of the hospices. I know cancer is a very 'common' illness, but it is actually very specialised.

Another option might be a family planning/well woman clinic.

An area that is REALLy interesting is assisted reproduction. A clinic like HARI or the Merrion clinic, or even the SIMS (although that is private so not sure if they would take students) Lots to learn about infertility, methods of assisted reproduction, genetics etc...

Anything tempting you so far?

Dozen Wicked Words

I think Medical Oncology would have been a bit overwhelming for me starting out, but as Crazy Cat Lady says it will definitely show you a LOT of different procedures and give you a whacking intro to the much neglected "basic" skills of actually caring and listening.

Colo-Rectal Surgery is interesting, and would also help with your skills in empathy and compassion, dealing with people with altered body image, young and old. Quite diverse and the idea only old people end up with a stoma of one sort or another is wrong.

Don't know if your course would allow, but working in Paediatrics is always enlightening too, again extremely challenging.

I didn't enjoy theatre nursing as there is no real interaction with the patient for most of the time.

I had 2/3 of my student placements in Orthopaedics of one sort or another, so I was brainwashed into that for a few years.

Laydee

Thanks for all the information, I'm very interested in the HARI unit suggestion, it would have never occurred to me to do a placement there.

I was talking with my CPC in the hospital I'm doing my general placements in & she said that colo-recal & oncology are placements that I will definitely be put on, she said that they're a big part of nursing & as we're a small group I'm guaranteed to have a placement in both.

I'm doing Children's & General nursing so half of my placements are in Paediatrics.

I think that I will apply for a week in the HARI unit & a week in Radiology. Only 2 more weeks to organize now. Thank you so much for your help, if you've any more suggestions I'd be very grateful.