Clinical question

Do any of your nursing programs still require students to go to clinical the day before to pick up their assignments - to gather patient data? With decreasing length of stays it seems we make assignment only to have the pt discharged before clinical the next morning. I talk to the charge nurse, discharge planners, etc but we still wind up with quite a few of the pts discharged. It frustrates the students because they have spent time in their paperwork only to find the pt discharged.

Anyway I was just wondering what other school require for clinical prep.

Any input would be appreciated

[Sun0408, ASN, RN]

I don't teach but when I was in school they stopped it a few semester before I started for the same reasons you stated as well as HIPAA.. To help us get prepared for the day, we arrived 30 minutes before the oncoming staff did. Our instructor made assessments after taking to the charge. We were assigned our pts and listened to report. After report we had access to the MAR, chart etc to gather all needed info for the day..At the end of the day, we were given additional time to gather any info we needed for careplans etc.. Hope this helps :)

[chrisrn24]

When I was in school doing clinical 2010-2011, we had to go get our assignments. I never really thought that was right. When clinical is at 6 am it seems unfair to make people stay up late working on homework. I for one value my sleep and sometimes my care plan wouldn't get done. Sorry but I refused to stay up and not sleep just to do my homework.

Additionally in the real world, I don't do care plans and the staff at my work that does care plans doesn't do it sight unseen. They evaluate the patient.

Ideally, I think the care plan assignments should be done after the fact. Like go home from clinical and they are due at midnight.

[loriangel14, RN]

When I went to school you never went the day before.You just picked someone when you got there.

[delawaremalenurse]

my facility's policy is that assignments are given on the day of arrival to clinical.

[TooterIA]

At my current employer, I am required to make the assignments eary. One instructor prefers the afternoon before clinicals happen the following afternoon. My clinicals start at 1330 and I have their assignment to them by 1230. The only things I really want them to have looked up before they come are meds they will give that shift. I think this teaches students better to get ready to roll with the punches. I look forward to them one day changing it to you get your assignment when you show up.

[VickyRN, MSN, DNP, RN]

I still get information to my clinical students about their assigned patients the evening before clinical. I find that the students perform better in clinical with the opportunity to extensively research their patient the night before. The students also told me that they prefer this method over coming onto the floor with little preparation and finding out about their patients 'cold turkey.' Please keep in mind that these are only second semester students and we are on a pediatric stepdown unit with very complex acutely-ill patients.

To satisfy the many-layered stipulations of HIPAA, I post information about the patients (with all identifiers removed) on a password-protected Blackboard site that only my clinical students can access.

[Kuriin, BSN, RN]

We are required to prelab before arriving to clinical. It is suggested we do it the day before because that means less chances of having a discharged patient. I prefer doing the prelab myself because it gets me to think.

[lepew]

The big issue we are having is census. I go the afternoon before to make assignment as that is what our school requires now. I always check with the charge nurse case mgr etc but we still show up and several of our pts have been discharged. So my students have done all that prep work and their pt is gone. We are looking into other options. Just curious what others are doing.

[loriangel14, RN]

We always just got our patients the morning we showed up. When you are a nurse that's how it will be.

[lefrench123]

I am an instructor and I go into clinical about 45 minutes before my students do, find potential patients and talk to the night nurses. It has prevented some of the issues you mentioned above. I also feel it's more realistic for the students because as nurses, they won't have the opportunity to prep for their patients.

[pinkiepinkPN]

When I was in school doing clinical 2010-2011' date=' we had to go get our assignments. I never really thought that was right. When clinical is at 6 am it seems unfair to make people stay up late working on homework. I for one value my sleep and sometimes my care plan wouldn't get done. Sorry but I refused to stay up and not sleep just to do my homework. Additionally in the real world, I don't do care plans and the staff at my work that does care plans doesn't do it sight unseen. They evaluate the patient. Ideally, I think the care plan assignments should be done after the fact. Like go home from clinical and they are due at midnight.[/quote']

I'm a new PN and an aspiring educator...

We were required to go the day before to "pick a patient" and were forbidden from entering a unit, for the most part, until 4pm. It took at least an hour to select someone, find a computer and someone willing to walk you through where to find what you needed, get it all down, and get out- sometimes longer. Then he hours of work making med cards and care plans an writing patho reports. It was often 11 or 12 before I got to bed after prepping my uniform and supplies and lunch, and I'd have to get up by 0400 for most rotations.

It was freaking miserable, and I agree that he care plans should be done post-clinical. Hell...almost every care plan I painstakingly crafted was useless- I always ended up doing a whole different set of interventions and would have to rewrite them.