Where are you starting your clinicals?

Nursing Students General Students

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My very first clinicals will be at a birth center and I'm so excited about that!!!

Was curious on what kind of areas other schools start at?

Specializes in Aesthetics, Med/Surg, Outpatient.

The hospital I work at...

The hospital I work at...

I should have clarified I guess.

We will be focusing a lot on mother/baby/birthing in our first clinicals, which seems different than where others start. It seems that others start maybe in long term care in nursing homes. I wanted to see what areas in nursing others will start their clinicals in.

Specializes in Forensic Psych.

We did our first semester in med-surg with some extra outpatient clinic days thrown in there.

First clinicals will be in a rehab center for a few weeks. We are having one clinical day in a nursing home, I suppose as an introduction.

Specializes in Hospice.

First five weeks in the hospital, not sure what unit. Second five weeks in LTC.

Specializes in Cardiac Care.

At my school:

Semester 1: Med/Surg unit

Semester 2: first half labor/delivery/post partum & peds. Second half long-term care.

Semester 3: first half cardiac medical with rotations in OR, pre & post-op, cancer center, etc. second half mental health

Semester 4: first half community health. Second half critical care rotation - ER, ICU, etc.

Then a 4 week capstone/internship at the end. Ready to graduate this May!

Semester 1 lab at the school and nursing home

Semester 2 med Surg I

Semester 3 and 4 seven weeks each of med Surg II, mental health, maternity, pedi

Semester 5 chronic illness, community health and their accompanying clinical

Semester 6 selected preceptorship

Our first semester was at a long term care facility. I hated every minute of it. I didn't mind peri care or the smells but I hated to see the condition some of the patients were in. I had 4 patients during this time frame. Each had toe nails that resembled raptor claws. Now, I've heard different things: an employee says that it is beyond a nurse's scope of practice in Alabama to clip toe nails. Ok, I guess. I don't have a compelling argument to that and even if I did it wouldn't mean anything to anybody. One of my nursing instructors said that insurance didn't cover it. That wasn't any more of a satisfying answer (at least, in my view). I try to see it from the patient's and family's eyes. If I took my mom to a nursing home and her feet looked normal and 3 months down the road I notice that her feet could be featured on "Jurassic Park" somebody is getting thump in the head. I spoke with several other students who said their patients had the same thing. I can take seeing patients in pain and even dying. But I did not perceive that they were getting cared for (also when we bathed the patients it was clear to several of us that this was the first bath they had in some time). I don't know that I'll ever forget that feeling of disgust (towards the nursing home, not the patients). Maybe I'm being overly critical. I don't exactly have a large frame of reference. But this definitely left an impression with me. That was our first clinical experience.

I am in my second semester and we have labor and delivery/peds and med/surg clinicals in a hospital nearby. I'm not sure what we're doing for our other semesters yet.

We started on general medical floors (tele, oncology, surgical, etc). I am now in my 5th semester and start in the surgical ICU next Thursday. We also have rotations this semester in the cardiovascular and neuro ICU's, the CCU, the PACU, ER and OR. I am very excited for clinical this semester!

We find out next week and a week from Tuesday we have clinical orientation onsite. Our first semester is primarily about elder care so most will be at nursing homes and the rest at one of two hospitals.

My school:

First semester: Lab simulator & Cardiac Arrest Unit

Second semester: Psychiatry & Stroke Unit

Third semester: Maternity & Pediatrics

Fourth semester: Med Surg & ICU

Fifth semester: Seminar & Community Wellness

And then after that, I have no clue :)

But I am planning after this year, to do an internship at a hospital!

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