Placement

Hi, just wondering what everyone thinks are the best placements to do as a student nurse? I have the option of going to a neurological centre as an alternative placement, which has general wards, surgical wards, outpatients, ICU, HDU and rehabilitation. Obviously these all differ in different trusts but generally what ward does everyone think might be the best to learn the most from if I get the opportunity to give a preference?

You could learn a lot in any of these areas - there are very few placements where you wouldn't learn much. Most areas will also allow you to spend a day or two in a related area, so you may get to experience more than one of these. What placements have you had so far? Do you have any plans about what you want to do when you qualify?

I’ve had an orthopaedic ward and a dementia nursing home so far! Have no clue what I want to do, I did spend a few days in theatres and outpatients neither which I enjoyed as much as the ortho ward. I really enjoy anything hands on if that helps ☺️

If you didn't enjoy outpatients then we can safely rule out outpatients. There is little point suffering through something if you've tried it and didn't enjoy it.

Rehabilitation and surgical are more likely to be in line with the experiences you've enjoyed previously - rehab tends to be for patients who are not quite ready to go home or to a different care facility so is fairly 'hands on' and you're likely to have the patients for several weeks/months and see some improvement.

Surgical wards can be quite busy, with preparing patients for surgery and then providing the care afterwards, and managing potential complications. Obviously if you didn't like theatres you need to consider whether you just didn't like working in that area, or whether you didn't have much of an interest in the surgical care of patients. If it was just the theatres environment, then surgical might be worth considering. General wards can really include anything depending on the area you're in. You should, as with surgical, be fairly busy and have a high turnover of patients.

In terms of ICU and HDU they're both going to be quite different to what you've experienced so far. You'll have much fewer patients - maybe only 1 or 2, but they will need much more care. It either really suits people or really doesn't - it isn't something all students get to experience so it may be worth at least trying to spend some time in either if you think it might suit you. You get to work with a lot more equipment and very complex conditions, but you won't have the same volume of patients