[loisane]

I would like to ask a question of the board SRNAs. I am trying to get some information for an educator friend.

In their integrated nurse anesthesia program, they have a recurring problem with student schedules. They have been unable to devise a good, easily workable system.

So, to the SRNAs: How do you get your daily assignment schedule? How do you know which days are class, which are clinical? How do you know which clinical site to report to on a clinical day? How far in advance do you know your schedule? How is this schedule given to you-handed to you on paper, posted on a web site, etc. Does this system work for you? Anything you wish was different?

I realize that SRNAs only see the finished product. I would imagine most don't have any knowledge about how the schedule is actually devised. But I am hoping your experience might give them some insight into some different models to explore.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

loisane crna

[WntrMute2]

My clinical schedule covers 3 months, It is sent out by E-mail to all of us at once. In other words you see everyones sched. It is done on Excel. We know from our class schedule that say every Friday is class and Monday evenings are class. So the rest of the week is clinical. Some rotations such as OB and a few others you are technically schedualed for clinical monday-thursday but in reality you have the freedom to do evenings, weekends, 8,12,16 hour shifts to do your clinicals. I'm in OB this month and this week I'm doing 12 hrs Saturday, Wednesday night and Sunday. Clinical sites/specialty rotations are 4 weeks long, so you know from day to day where to be. Those schedualed weekends, or off shifts have that noted on the schedual 3-11, 11-7, etc. It works OK, I'm not sure any improvements are in order. The CRNA who does ours is absolutly wonderful, very flexible. That is a real blessing as crisis do occur in the life of a SRNA. Any other questions I'll try to answer.

[rexhuber]

Hi Loisane

I'm in the second semester of a front loaded 28 month program and have been in clinicals going on 6 weeks. We have didactics on thursday and friday with clinicals monday, tuesday and wednesdays. In my particular clinical location, we are given our assignments when we walk into clinicals on the morning of the case, however at other clinical sites, my classmates have to call in the night before and get their schedules for the next day. We also use Excel but use it to maintain our case counts. Our program makes heavy use of technology and many classmates have migrated to using PDA or tablet PC.

[smiling_ru]

Schedules are a month in advance. class days are set, so we know where we are supposed to be (class or clinical).
With some rotations we can call and get our assignments the night before, with others we pick our assignment when we arrive in the morning.
We are assigned a clinical site for the entire month, so which one to go to is not a problem.

[loisane]

Thanks to all for the information.

I think there may be some help here. For instance, I think they may be trying to go too far in advance.

Maybe we'll get a few more ideas. Thanks again.

loisane crna

[nilepoc]

As I am not in the clinical phase yet, this information may be a bit wrong. But here goes.

We will know all of our rotations through graduation, at the start of our clinical phase. As far as picking up assignments, I have no idea how this will work, mostly because my primary clinical site is not on the GU campus.

During the clincal phase, we will (at this point, could change, its a new idea) only have class every two weeks, and then only for a couple of hour block in the AM. However, if you were on call the night before, you are still responsible for attending the class. For me this is going to require a 60 mile drive.

Anyway, this was probably not real helpful, but thats my answer and I am stidking to it.

Craig

[Brenna's Dad]

We get our schedule (for the next month) a few days before the end of the month. Difficult to contend with originally, but then I quickly came to the conclusion that I knew where I was going to be anyway. ie. in school 5 days a week.

However, for the summer expecially, when we only have two didactic classes, we pretty much know what we'll be doing from day-to-day. We can pick up our case assignments (which I understand can change frequently) at 1500 the day before clinical. This summer, we'll be doing 3 or 4 days of clinical I believe.
Some things in the schedule never change, for example, we usually get Fridays off or at least a half-day on Friday. Class for the seniors is on Thursday, etc.

In the Fall as in the Spring, I imagine the schedule will be dictated mostly by the schedules of the didactic instructors. Fall will rev up again with 4 didactic classes and at least 3 days of clinical.

Program is pretty low tech, but then again there are only 7 students. We receive our schedules on paper.