Clinical PT. info

[ASPEN.88]

Hi everyone,

My question is ... How far in advance are you allowed to pick up your patient's chart info once you're in clinicals? I received word that we'll be picking up our information after 3PM the day before our clinical (that starts at 0600). I was wondering if this is average or what because this seems really rushed. Our school is VERY strict on care plans (which I totally understand and actually like doing them). It just doesn't seem like enough time considering we were told it would take us about 14 hours for our first care plan on a real patient.. Thanks in advance everyone

[Mama_Cashew, ASN, RN]

We don't find out anything about our patients until day of clinical.

[nlynrob]

We're given our patient info for the day when we arrive at 7am. The instructor gets there at 6am to work with the nurses on who we should be assigned to.

[christina731]

At the hospital I'm doing my medsurg rotation at, I get there at about 5pm the night before clinical and get my 2 pt's info which takes about 2 hours. Then I go home and write everything up which usually takes no more than 2-3 hours. I have to be at my medsurg clinical no later than 0600. It does make for a very tiring day but unfortunately that's the way it is. I have mental health clinical from 7am-3pm on the day before medsurg, so I'm very busy those 2 days. I usually sleep right after my medsurg clinical because I'm so wiped out.

[classicdame, MSN, EdD]

in "real life" the census changes so fast that the patient may not be there the next day. So a few hours ahead is what some schools do, but be prepared to chuck it all out the door if the patient goes home

[LoveNeverDies]

My school does 7 or 8 so that we are out of everyones way. We used to go earlier but it was a nightmare with Doctors and Nurses having charts.

[Summer Days]

We are advised not to do pre-clinical during shift change so any time between 9am - 5pm is acceptable. Most of us arrive at the hospital at the earliest time possible and pick a patient with high acuity then work up a careplan the rest of the day. 3pm is slightly late, which means you'll be up the rest of the night writing the careplan. The first careplan usually takes the longest time to complete but as the term goes on it should take you less time.

[green34]

We are supposed to research the day before but most research before we go in since we're afternoon. What it usually is you research basic information then do the careplan after clinical. Like our paperwork is due that Sunday.

[NICU Guy, BSN, RN]

We get patient assignments when we arrive to clinical. We are expected to assess the patient and review the chart for relevant info on the patient and start caring for them. Nurses don't come in the night before they work and look at their patients for the next day, so we don't either.

[ChrisMarie09]

Last semester we would go in anytime after about 6:30 the night before.

This semester we get our assignment with hand-off sheet, we all quickly print the SBAR sheet (which is more all-encompassing and everyone, including nurses, likes it better), notify the nurse and PCA assigned to our patient and we head to report.

[NICUmiiki, DNP, NP]

This semester we go to pre-clinical at 1pm the day before. Our instructor tries to choose patients that were just admitted so that it's unlikely that they'll be discharged for clinical.

[ScientistSalarian]

For LTC (our first rotation) we have a week to research the patient's chart and prepare all of our clinical paperwork. For the rest of our first-year rotations (med-surg, L&D, peds) we're allowed to go in the afternoon/evening before the first clinical day of the week. In our second year we don't get any prep time at all - we're assigned a patient when we show up in the morning, get a quick rundown from the nurse we're working with and are expected to be able to take it from there.