I'm not anyone special, and I don't want to tell people what they should do, but I strongly believe that there is one area that all nurses need to work in before specializing. Most experienced nurses I have spoken to agree.
Over the last few years I've seen many new graduate nurses get jobs in some pretty intensive areas of healthcare, such as theater/recovery, emergency room, intensive care, paediatrics, and neonatal to name but a few. The young graduates are all smiles and full of excitement at landing such an interesting job. Of course the units taking on new graduates realize they will need extra time to orientate to the job, but I can't help feel that in the long run they will miss out.
I don't want to go over old ground, but the best advice I would give to any new graduate who asks me where they should work, is to spend two years in a general medical ward. The reason I chose general medical over general surgical is often the medical wards run at a slower pace than the surgical. Having a bit of extra time allows nurses to spend time with patients, it allows new grads time to become comfortable in their environment, and become familiar with how a ward should be run.
Comments such as "It's boring" or "They're all old" or "It's not a challenge" are not uncommon amongst new graduated when asked if they would like to work in a medical ward. What they don't understand is that medical knowledge and skills applies to every other aspect of nursing. Confused??? How often does a medical patient develop a surgical problem? Not often, it certainly does happen, but consider how often a surgical patient develops a medical problem. I'm thinking about Pulmonary embolism, Myocardial Infarction, DVT, the list is endless. Often surgical patients already have medical problems before even going to theater.
The point I'm trying to make it that the skills you learn in general medicine apply everywhere and will set you in good stead wherever you go. It's not the only way to do things, but you'd certainly not be harming your prospects by doing a little good old fashioned groundwork.
Monday, October 22, 2007
Advice for new Graduates
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2 comments:
My training involved 3 years of paid work in every ward that the hospital contained. Eventually I got the feel for things I liked and didn't like.
I'm not sure whether the new graduates go through anything like this. I feel for them. Considering the constant struggle with study and having towork to support themselves during their study, I doubt whether I would do it today.
Well, perhaps maybe!
After graduating I didn't specialise in anything straight away. I went from surgical to medical, adult and childrens, wards for a number of years.
About 3 years down the track I tried my hand at Midwifery. It was great for a time, but it wasn't for me.
Whether the new grad's want to specialise ASAP for its alleged prestige, I can't rightly say. It may be due to the fact that their high level of university training skills are not tested enough on the general wards.
This does seem more likely as the general wards can become run of the mill stuff, after a while. No insult intended there.
I agree that they should spend sometime after graduation in surgical and medical wards to gain a solid foundation. I call it getting "street wise" before going onto specialist areas.
To work in a specialist area should mean that you should be a specialist in the first place. But with anything, time will cover that for them. As long as they have a experienced nurse working along side them.
Regards
Peter McCartny
Sydney Australia
My training involved 3 years of rotation in elderly care, medical assessment unit, ICU etc. It is there where I learned the fundamentals of nursing. I now work in AICU, staight after qualifying and am not the only one. I did this because it was my personal preference. I was willing to work in a ward instead, however at the time there were no ward jobs available.
To some extent he transition from newly qualified to ICU nurse has been a steep learning curve, but I have enjoyed it. At the end of the day, I feel that even in areas such as critical care, you still do alot of fundamental nursing care like washing and rolling etc. Only there is alot more technical equipment.
To be honest, having ICU experience is advantageous if you then decide to work on a ward. You are more aware of the early signs of deterioration and understand what to do.
Kate
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