ACNP clinicals?

DaisyRN, ACNP · Dec 28, 2008

i'm in the second term of my acnp program, and not up to clinical stage yet. we do have to organize our own though, so i'm starting to think about who i want to do clinicals with.
my major is cardiopulmonary.
the only clinical i'm sure about is working with a cardiologist that i know and admire.
i'm interested to hear what clinicals you did in your np program - especially people that ended up in cardiac areas (eg. daisy).
how early did you approach potential preceptors?

heya,

i would suggest that you start putting a bug in people's ears now. as soon as i knew what the requirements were (setting, hour requirement, objectives, etc.), i went looking... my program required the first semester of clinicals to be outpatient internal medicine clinic... so, i found an anp in an im office in the phone book. i called her up and arranged the clinical time. granted, you have to do some mandatory paperwork from the school to the site (insurance policy, etc. as determined by the school), so it's more than just finding a preceptor. all of that is just relative though once your preceptor agrees to do it. during that first semester, i started preparing for my next and knew it was a required inpatient general rotation (eg hospitalist group), so i called up the local group and asked if i could do clinical time with them. i would even tell them "i don't have all the details yet, but it will be 2-3 days per week, rounding, and i will know the details in a couple weeks and let ya know." no big deal, just making sure they remember i will be with them. done. the last two semesters were in specialties or environments of our choosing. i was actually rounding on a patient with the hospitalist and approached by a cardiologist who asked me if i had any interest in cardiology when i finished school. i said, "yes... as a matter of fact, i do..." and i knew he was going to be looking to hire, so i planned for my final clinical rotation to be with him. i wanted to do an icu rotation and there is a great icu acnp in the tdcj hospital in galveston, so i asked her if i could hang out with her. i did... then when i was about half way through that third rotation, i called the cardiologist back up to get things rolling... finished out the year with him and now he's my supervising doc

the rest is history...

allnurses Guide · Dec 29, 2008

Great, that's really helpful, thanks Daisy! I would love to do IM, cardiology and ICU as well.