Have any nursing schools cancelled clinicals yet because of COVID-19? I hear about colleges moving classroom sessions online, but have yet to hear of clinical cancellations.
Are any of your schools requiring special screening for students prior to clinicals? What about travel restrictions? Some hospitals are not allowing staff to work if they have recently traveled to high risk areas. Are such rules being applied to students, too?
(I coordinate student experiences for a hospital and am trying to keep track of what's happening throughout the country in this regard.)
Our school has canceled clinicals for the rest of the semester. Instead they will use an online alternative for us to meet our required hours. I’m afraid of how this will jeopardize my future job opportunities as I am about to graduate this semester and will not have completed a real role transition clinical.
What state? Was that alternative approved by the board of nursing?
State of Ohio. We still haven’t been told what the alternative is and how it will meet our required hours.
Tangentially related.. how do you find what your state requires for clinical hours? When I looked it up, it said that states "recommend" hours, but couldn't find actual requirements. I thought schools set clinical hours, not the state.
Tangentially related.. how do you find what your state requires for clinical hours? When I looked it up, it said that states "recommend" hours, but couldn't find actual requirements. I thought schools set clinical hours, not the state.
I cant speak to all schools or states of course. But I work closely with the faculty at my school, and here in NY, the state is regulating what can and cannot replace our clinical hours. Right now they are proposing we replace clinical with vSims, which of course is ... less than ideal. We also have forms that have to be filled out before we sit for our NCLEX that are filled out by the school certifying that we graduated and had a certain number of clinical hours. I believe all of that is state regulated, so not entirely sure where you might find it, but I know the standards are there.
So I just received the final word from my department chair regarding clinical.
While Spring break has been extended and classes are to be held online in the future, we were instructed to attend clinical as previously scheduled. However, any students who've recently traveled internationally or any students who've experienced any recent illness or who are currently ill, are not allowed to attend clinical until cleared to do so by the department chair following clearance in writing from their PCP.
We were also told that any clinical absences resulting from illness or travel will not result in clinical failure. The department is working to determine an alternative solution to ensure all students fulfill the required number of clinical hours required for the program, regardless of the number of absences accrued.
Our Spring break has been extended for another week, the following week is online only. They SAID any clinicals and labs can be done in groups 10 or less so unless the facility bars us from going I THINK my clinicals will be okay because our group is exactly 10. Lab I am unsure how they will play that out as the class is pretty large. They so far have added one week onto the end of the semester to make this week off up. I do wonder how that will affect those in my current semester who are taking a Summer semester. I hope this doesnt last very long though... the thought of taking these classes online is just blah.
In Boston as well, they canceled classes for the semester, moving to online. Preceptorship is up in the air, but many hospitals are denying students at this point. We have heard nothing about how we are going to make up these hours. Super scary considering graduation is right around the corner.
My college in Saudi Arabia canceled all clinical BUT some internship students refused, So they will be signed "the college not responsible for their choice", and may be the hospitals refuse them.
All my clincials in Georgia have been canceled. All in-person classes have been canceled and are being moved online as well. We do not know any make-up information yet either...
I am in my final semester for my Acute Care NP program in NYC. Classes for me have been moved to be conducted online via Zoom and clinicals for now have been cancelled until end of March. I'm nervous about not completing clinical hours for graduation but we will see what happens. For my fellow New Yorkers, it is true that we need at least 500 clinical hours to sit for the board exam?
Hi, yes. Most clinical sites in the twin cities have pulled students doing practicuum. I’m about to do 60 hours in 5 days to meet minimums, but others can’t. Just spoke to a nurse where I’m an intern and we have several rule out cases on one unit that I know of. I’m the student nurse pres and talked to the BON today and they said schools here don’t have to have a magic number of experiencial/practical learning hours but the schools are about to get real creative real quick. I’m sitting for boards in may, and my pinning and commencement that I’ve been in charge of are tentatively cancelled, so lots of changes!
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What state? Was that alternative approved by the board of nursing?