How are your clinicals set up?

BoonersmomRN · Apr 8, 2006

My clinical group consists of 7 students and 1 instructor. On a typical day ( 5 hours right now) I see my instructor for about 30-45 minutes total..no joke.

Next semester when I move on to Med/Surg our groups are 5 students per instuctor for 7 hours.

Achoo!, LPN · Apr 8, 2006

I am in first semester.

We are split into groups of 8 per instructor at 2 different sites ( nursing home).

We have a clinical prep day where we get info from the pts charts, care cards, treatment books etc, prepare our pt profile and make up med cards. Then the next 2 days ( 5 hours each) we do cares. We have a care plan due each week as well as the pt profile, head to toe assessment each day, med cards, med passes, and learning journal. We also have a clinical discussion for 2 hours each week.

AmyLiz · Apr 8, 2006

Ours is 10 students under 1 instructor. We're at clinical 3 days out of the week, the first day is Assessment day, where we are assigned a patient, go through the pt's chart and fill out our processing tool (pt profile), meet and do a head-to-toe assessment on our patient and start our care plan. The next two days are pt care days, where we are the nurse on the unit for this pt. We give all the meds, assess the pt, etc.

We have one lecture day as well during the week.

amy123456 · Apr 9, 2006

We have 10:1 ratio. Ten students to 1 clinical teacher. Imagine the other way around 10 teachers to one student :uhoh3: . That would be nuts. Anyway we have clinical two days a week for 4 1/2 hours each. Along with 7 hours of lecture and about 3 hours a week of lab time. That is the schedule for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd semesters. The last semester we do 3 12hr shifts on our choice of floor.

SarasotaRN2b · Apr 9, 2006

Thanks for your responses. What kind of interactions do you have with the floor nurses?

moongirl · Apr 9, 2006

we have 10 students, one instructor.

12 hours a week of clinical, 6 hours a week of lecture. prep for the pt you are to have for your clinical rotation is done on your own time. the following week, we turn in a full completed careplan on one of our pts. I am in 2nd semester, and taking 3 pts each 6 hour rotation.

BoonersmomRN · Apr 9, 2006

I get report from the floor nurse in the Am....and then I let her know what, if any, meds or procedures *I* will be doing. After that I only see her if I have something relevant to pass on to her or she happens to come in the room when I am in there. At the end I give her report ( in the form of a SOAP note).

mom2michael, MSN, RN, NP · Apr 9, 2006

We have anywhere from 10:1 (student:CI) depending on the week.

We are in clinicals for 12 hours 1 day a week.

We have great interactions with the floor nurses. We see our CI for about 30-45 mins. in 12 hours, so we have to rely on our floor nurses for the additional help and that has never been a problem yet - every single one of them have been willing to lend the extra help when we need it.

The only time we are set up specifically 1:1 with an RN is when we are in our critical care rotations.

RedSox33RN · Apr 9, 2006

There are 8 students to one instructor, normally, but my college also has a Master's and NP programs, so we have another instructor this semester, as she is graduating with her Master's next month, and needs to supervise students as part of her requirements.

Since we are in Med/Surg 1, we have a lot more autonomy this semester. We do all the care, get all the meds done (which we go over with one of our instructors before giving, but they don't watch us give the meds anymore) and talk to Dr offices and ancillary staff as needed (like PT, OT, dietary). The only meds we aren't doing now is IV meds, but we are spiking bags and doing saline flushes. We also can't get meds out of the Pyxis because we don't have our own codes, but we do go in with our instructor to get them and do the narc counts. We then give the meds on our own, usually, but we have to be able to tell our instructors what each med is for, s/e, and any interactions.

DaFreak71 · Apr 9, 2006

Monday--lecture from 8:30-11:45, then go get patient information from facility.

Tuesday--clinical from 7:00-11:45

Wednesday--clinical from 7:00-11:45

Thursday--off

Friday--lecture from 8:30-11:45

On clinical days we have to write a daily plan which encompases what we are going to be doing each day. We also need to do a write up on all the meds (why our patient is getting them, what to watch for, how they work). The information that we compile from our time with the patient is used for our assessment and care plan due the following Monday by 3:00.

We have on average a 10:1 student to instructor ratio during clinicals. We get and give report to the facility RN before and after our shifts, but other than that, I don't think we interact too much with them. I haven't anyway.

*Karen* · Apr 9, 2006

I think we do it differently here. In a year we go to college classes for the first nine weeks of a semester, then a 5 week placement where we are on a ward 40 hours a week. 4 weeks holiday at christmas but we have lots of essays to do then. Then back to college for 8 weeks. Then another 5 weeks on a ward. Then 4 weeks of exams at college then another 5 weeks on a ward, then its the summer holiday. And the same continues for 4 years. We have a mentor whos a nurse on the ward but depending on how busy they are you might not get much time with them. But we are normally supervised doing certain tasks by RN's until they know we can do it safely. Our tutors from college only really help us with the academic side of things. On the first few placements though you'd never be expected to care plan and manage patients all by yourself you get alot of help until you're more competent. We're not allowed to to med by ourselfs here until we qualify we have to be supervised doing them.

Here ou do get a good idea of what life will be like on a ward though because you're there full time working proper shifts instead of a few hours here and there. But i suppose with the american way atleast you're on a ward every week