Where To Go?

A few of you have given your suggestions as to where I should try and go for my next clinical prac in my final nursing class. I do have a leg up on a new student in that, well, I'm already a practicing nurse, albeit one who's been out of the game for nearly 7 years. I had many clinical experiences through my original school, and while I spent the majority of my working time in a medical/surgical setting I did a few stints elsewhere and got to know the nurses in some of the other areas of the US Hospital That Employeed Me. I know what I like and I know what I'm not overly fond of.

Here is a break down of the three areas I could potentially be placed into and why they fall into my "not overly fond of" category:

CCU - CCU stands for the Coronary Care Unit, where people with cardiac (that's the heart for those who are completely hopeless with medical terminology) problems end up. Heart attacks, post-op bypasses, pacemakers, valve replacements... these are the types of patients a typical CCU could expect. Now as an organ, the heart is pretty cool and I have a fairly good grasp of the cardiac system and the problems that arise when it goes wonky in a myriad of different ways. The problem is it bores the hell out of me, and ECGs (or EKGs) confuse me. To me there are 3 types of ECGs - "normal", "what the hell is that", and "oh shit". "Normal" is recognizable to me, and "oh shit" is pretty obvious as well. It's the many, many forms of "what the hell is that" that I don't care for. At the US Hospital That Employed Me I would occasionally have to float down to the cardiac ward when they were short staffed and spent enough time there to know I didn't want to work there.

Pediatrics (or as the Aussies spell it Paediatrics) - Now I have nothing against kids - after all I have four of the creatures little darlings myself. I did two pediatric clinicals with my original training, one in an acute setting at a large tertiary hospital an the other at a Shriners Hospital and I enjoyed both, particularly Shriners. And if my pedi rotation could be all Sunshine and Rainbows where all the kids got better it would be fantastic. It's not all Sunshine and Rainbows, though. Abused kids, terminally ill kids... I'd go to pieces. Not there - I'm professional enough to hold it together at the bedside (and I say this not in a bragging way, but because I've done it) - but later. My family does not need any more stress, plus I'd never let my kids out of their rooms. I sometimes wonder if I'm selling myself short, because on the plus side the successes would be awesome and I get a tremendous amount of satisfaction from my nursing by making a difference. But my stomach gets into knots when I think about pediatrics and I don't know if it's because I'm just scared or because I really don't want to do it.

Emergency Department (or ER, ED, Casualty) - Ugh. Talk about your stress and adrenaline. Young, old, minor injuries, major trauma, medical, surgical, cardiac, pediatrics, obstetrics, violence, alcohol, drugs... all in one place! Some people love the challenge, the variety, the not knowing of what's behind the curtain. I'm not one of those people. At least I don't think I am. The ED is one area I never did any clinical work in, although I've spent plenty of time in them as a patient and as the mother/spouse of the patient. I knew some great ER nurses during my time at the US Hospital That Employed Me, but I've never been drawn to that area. It's never appealled to me for reasons that I never explored, just took it as it was. You see people - both patients and families - at their low points in general when you're a nurse, and I reckon the Emergency Room is the at the far end of that scale. There is also a far increased chance of violence there. Now I've had my share of physical abuse from (mostly) demented and psychotic patients, but no where on the scale it happens in the ER.

So there it is. What do you think? If you were me, where would you go? If there are any folks out there who have experience in any of these places, am I totally wrong? What do they have to offer me that I'm missing, that'll make me say "hey, this is pretty sweet"? Maybe I'm looking at it wrong - instead of seeing which area I can get the most out of and what will mesh with my prior experience and my interests, I should be looking at it from the student standpoint of any experience is worthwhile and I need to suck it up and get through it.

I suppose I'll find out in a week and a half, one way or the other.