Clinical Placement

[lbernie7]

I am currently a BSN student and about halfway finished with an accelerate program. My biggest problem right now is clinical placements. We spent our first round of clinicals in long term care and we dealt with that for our Med/Surg I class hoping we would be well placed for Med/Surg II. Now we are heading off to the second part of the class and our school is unable to guarantee that we will all be in hospitals. In my opinion, I don't feel that we can learn acute care nursing well in a LTC facility and that we are missing out on valuable experience by not being in hospitals. Our school over admitted students and doesn't have enough placements for everyone. Is this going to reflect poorly when we apply for jobs later? Do you feel that you were prepared well enough with your clinical experiences in school? I'm nervous that I won't have enough experience once I finally graduate...

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

I am so sorry you have been caught up in this situation, but this is not the first time I have heard about this. . .

At the same time that nursing schools have increased enrollments & created new programs - hospitals are shrinking. Over the last year, there has been an unprecedented decrease in hospital admissions throughout the US, so there are simply not enough patients to accommodate the same level of clinical placements. In my neck of the woods, just about every tertiary hospital has adapted by hosting nursing school clinicals at night & weekends - just to maintain relationships with their preferred programs.

Rotations in specialty areas are very limited. Hospitals have not only decreased the number of students that they host, but in most cases, they also are aligning student clinicals in a way that will support the organization's recruitment goals. This usually means that they are giving highest priority to generic BSN students.

I think you have been given a very raw deal, particularly since you probably don't have the option of employment as an acute care PCT to supplement your education because of your demanding educational schedule. I fail to see how they can meet all the required training experiences without access to acute care settings. This varies by state, but you may want to investigate your state's approval process for schools of nursing to see if your school is in compliance with all the clinical training requirements. If they haven't - this could potentially make you ineligible for NCLEX.