No Car for Nursing School- Urban Area- Am I doomed?

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Hello Everyone,

I am fairly new to this site but have gained a lot of great tips and really enjoyed it thus far. I am accepted into a BSN program for this fall in Philadelphia. Living in this large urban area I get by without a car. I have no financial means for a car and have been able to get by thus far. I have gone to school for 3 years here (1 year undecided then 2 years nursing pre-reqs). Now I will be transferring to a Nursing school that is right in the city and easily accessible to me! Score right? Ehh not really... I got a packet in the mail stating that "clinicals begin at 6:30 in the morning". This will make the farther clinical sites very difficult to get to because the subways start at 5:15 and if I have a long commute I am pretty much screwed?! Right? Also, I was told a car is necessary for the program because I will travel to clinical sides within the Tri-State area. Further more, during my home health care rotation I will be traveling to patients houses.

I pretty much had a heart attack when I got this letter. I choose the school based upon the fact that they have an amazing clinical sites, but I guess I really didn't think about the implications of that (ie traveling to clinicals). I would love to hear how people made out with or without a car. I do not want a stupid car to stop me from going to my dream school and now I am freaking out.

If the program is still the same as 2 years ago when I was a junior then you won't have to worry about transportation the 1st semester because everyone had either Jefferson for clinical or Pennsylvania Hospital which is just a few blocks away from Jefferson. You also won't have to worry when it comes to your Med Surg 2 clinical because everyone had Jefferson as well. You can always PM me if you have any questions about the program, I'd be happy to help! :)

Specializes in Pedi.

I attended school in another city (Boston) and it is absolutely possible to do without a car. There are some clinical rotations that were in the suburbs (psych) and required a car to get to but the school took that into consideration when assigning clinical rotations. There were always enough people in each clinical who had cars to take care of the transportation for everyone. Our clinical groups usually had about 6 people in them- we never took more than 2 cars to the hospitals. Parking at urban hospitals is freaking expensive. If you have the option to take public transportation, you should. You can also take a cab to clinicals and take public transportation home.

When you do your community health clinical, if you are placed in a home care rotation, you will be going WITH a nurse. A nursing student cannot go to a patient's home independently.

Carpool with someone. Most likely you won't be going to these clinical sites alone. Offer to pay for some car gas in exchange for a ride. Nah, don't freak out. There will be a way. :)

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