What are clinicals like for you?

[RHIA, RN]

I am very frustrated with the clinical portion of my bridge program. We have clinicals on Fridays and Saturdays, we see the instructor for about 10 minutes before we split to the area we are in for the day. The nurses never know that we are going to be there, they don't know what we are "allowed" to do, and we don't see the clinical instructor until post conference at the end of the day. It seems very disorganized to me. What are your experiences in clinical?

[KimberlyRN89, BSN, RN]

WOAH! That sounds frightening. I just finished my 2nd semester of NS, but each semester our clinical instructors were on us like a hawk. We couldn't pass meds without them being there to verify that we were administering the right medications. When we did fingersticks, they were right there with us..basically we weren't really left alone unless it was something basic like providing AM care or making a bed..

[RHIA, RN]

Kimberly, I think the reason that we are "allowed" to be on our own so much is that we are LPNs, the frustrating part is that the staff are not expecting us and they are not prepared to have students. Then there are certain skills that we have to be checked off on by a RN and the clinical instructor is no where around, a lot of times the RN I am with is legitemately busy.

[KimberlyRN89, BSN, RN]

Oh okay that makes a little sense..since you are already nurses, they probably expect you to do some things without them having to be there "holding your hands" so to speak. But everything else doesn't sound right. Your school should let the facility know "This is our schedule .We will be bringing our students (insert list of every student here) on Tuesdays from 8-2 " or something like that. And yes, like you said, if you have skills to be checked off, your clinical instructor should be there to make sure you performed the skill correctly. Can you address your concerns to someone? Like another instructor, or perhaps the dean?

[RHIA, RN]

Well, that is why I posted here . . . I wanted to see if this is the norm for bridge programs or if I was justified in feeling like our clinicals are not handled correctly.

[MySonIsAdorable]

I am not yet done with LVN school so I don't know personally but my friend who is her LVN to RN program says her clinical's are much more independent than before. Last week her instructor gave her two patients the night before that discharged, she didn't call to verify if they were still there. No big deal for her but she was irritated because seems like they don't really care. I would say something possibly "do you contact anyone to let them know we are coming? They probably signed a contract with your school I assume...so they should already get the picture that you will be there.

If you made it this far, you can overcome this & just think maybe one day you'll come back and be a clinical instructor and do it how you wished it would have been done for you!

[Cuddleswithpuddles]

Hello everyone,

Clinicals were also pretty confusing at first. Every instructor was different. Some wanted to watch us like a hawk, others just threw us in the deep end of the pool. We did not know what to expect.

Does your school have a written policy on what is and what is not allowed during clinicals?

The freedom might be unnerving at first but if you are given latitude on what you can do with your RN buddy, make the best of it! Volunteer to do as much as you can. If things are slow, help the CNAs out. If your school does not have a formal skills checklist, make a daily diary. Sounds dorky but my checklist really help me seek out things I've never done.

[RHIA, RN]

I appreciate the responses here. I was able to speak with some other students last week and it sounds like this is the norm.