Acute Care NP Clinicals

[dlinetackle]

Hello Everyone, 

I have a slight dilemma regarding finding acceptable clinical rotations for my NP Program.  I'm currently working in a very remote location, think small island, with limited locations for clinical support. There are currently only two hospitals on this island and my current program requires 750 clinical hours mixed among ED, ICU, Inpatient Hospital. 

The issue I'm running into is the hospital that I'm affiliated with and currently work at has previously stated I could do all my clinicals there.  Now, out of the blue, they have stated that in order to be allowed to do clinicals at their hospital with their physicians or NPs they want me to sign a 2-year commitment requiring that I work for them. I could understand if they were offering to repay 100% of tuition or give any other financial support. But they are currently only wanting to give clinical hours.  

Now, I could potentially see how if they were developing a new program or if I was the very first NP student. But that is not the case, they have 5 previous NPs who have done all their clinicals within this hospital and were in the same program as me. But they didn't require any of them to sign a contract.  

As for the other hospital it's almost impossible to get any clinical location or support within their system. They are government run and takes months and months and months to get anything approved regarding clinical support. So, I don't see this as an option. 

So, what do you all think about this situation? Personally, I find it distasteful to even spend money for clinicals. We, as nurses, are asked to precept numerous student nurses annually without any extra compensation or even being asked. I mentioned that I think it's slightly unethical to require a contract for the privilege of doing clinicals and they mentioned I could purchase clinical hours at the rate of 75$ an hour. Which is absolutely absurd. 

[Corey Narry, MSN, RN, NP]

Are you able to do clinicals outside of your area? If so, ask you program to help you find a site that you can reasonably go to. 

Unfortunately, hospitals do make outrageous rules that do not benefit anyone but the institution. I feel that the sliver lining in this situation is that they want you to work for them after you're done, hence, the 2-year contract? Ask yourself, is it going to be a good environment to be trained as an AGACNP student and are the future job options in this place attractive or interesting enough with good mentorship support for a new NP? If so, then it isn't that bad to actually know that you have a job lined up even though you are tied with a contract.

I precept AGACNP students as a staff member of a university hospital. The students are enrolled in the university we are affiliated with. Typically, nurses who work in a specific department (in my case, Cardiology) are not allowed to be precepted in the same department they work in. It sounds like a silly rule too but sometimes rules are made for a specific reason we may not know.