Clinical Sites in California

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Specializes in ICU.

Does anyone know of any of the other clinical sites for WGU in Southern California, other than Cedars Senai and Huntington Memorial? I know these are the big two, but when I've inquired about clinical sites from WGU, they just tell me there are several between Pasadena and Mission Viejo. I'm going to assume Pasadena is Huntington Memorial and Mission Viejo is possibly Mission Hospital? Anyone know of any others?

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Current prelicensure student- below you will find the clinical locations that I am aware of, there may be more so for accurate information I recommend contacting the admission counselor.

Cedar Sinai

Huntington Memorial

Fountain Valley Regional Medical Center

Mission Hospital

Placentia

There may be a new clinical location in Covina- if you search the board, you will find that newly accepted students mentioned this new cohort. I assume that the hospital is Citrus Valley- but I don't have any additional information. Sorry :/

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Specializes in ICU.

Thank you so much! So from what I've gathered here, your cohort is assigned one of those locations and that's where you will complete your clinicals for the duration of your program?

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You're welcome.

Yes, that is correct. You are assigned to a cohort. Unless something has changed, the admission counselor should give you an idea when you apply as to what location your potential cohort will be assigned too. There are exceptions, for example- you may be reassigned to another location for psych if your hospital doesn't have a psych dept. I believe community health is another rotation in which we are assigned to another facility.

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Thank you so much! So from what I've gathered here, your cohort is assigned one of those locations and that's where you will complete your clinicals for the duration of your program?

The cohort you're assigned to is where you complete majority of your clinicals (for sure the big ones fundamentlas, med surg (CASAL I), med surg 2 (CACI)). Basically, your first 3 clinical nursing classes will for sure be at your cohort assigned hospital.

Once you get to the specialized classes it may vary. For example, my hospital did not have a OB or Peds unit, so we went to a different hospital.

Psych is a combination of outpatient and inpatient, so for sure you will be going to some local outpatient clinics. My cohort for psych went to our cohort hospital and a state ran psych facility.

For community health, it will not be at your hospital because that is all outpatient so you'll be assigned outpatient locations for example my cohort did things for local clinics, salvation army clinic, and other free clinics (for those who did not have health insurance). I guess if your hospital has outpatient clinicas you might be assigned there.

Critical Care will likely be at your assigned cohort hospital.

For the practicum, I think you can actually try and see if you can do your 5 weeks (working full-time hours) at a hospital you might want to work at. Someone in my cohort requested to do his at a particular hospital because he wanted to see to get a job there. I remember doing my psych rotation and the nurses told me a WGU student did their practicum at their unit and they really wanted to hire him after he passed his NCLEX (they told me the student decided to go work a different hospital). Not sure how they do this part, but my state director emailed my cohort wanting to know our top 3 hospitals and type of unit/specialty we wanted to do our practicum in.

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Thanks for the detailed post! I was not aware that you could request a site for the practicum-it is still a ways off for me but I will definitely follow up with my mentor regarding this early on!

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Thanks for the detailed post! I was not aware that you could request a site for the practicum-it is still a ways off for me but I will definitely follow up with my mentor regarding this early on!

Yea, I decided to stick with my cohort hospital (love it there) for my practicum. It was more about which specialty I wanted to do (Med-surg or ICU). However, I know others in my cohort requested hospitals that WGU has no cohorts in and specialties (like Emergency Department) to do their practicum. They did tell us it's not guaranteed, but they'll look into our request.

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Specializes in ICU.
The cohort you're assigned to is where you complete majority of your clinicals (for sure the big ones fundamentlas, med surg (CASAL I), med surg 2 (CACI)). Basically, your first 3 clinical nursing classes will for sure be at your cohort assigned hospital.

Once you get to the specialized classes it may vary. For example, my hospital did not have a OB or Peds unit, so we went to a different hospital.

Psych is a combination of outpatient and inpatient, so for sure you will be going to some local outpatient clinics. My cohort for psych went to our cohort hospital and a state ran psych facility.

For community health, it will not be at your hospital because that is all outpatient so you'll be assigned outpatient locations for example my cohort did things for local clinics, salvation army clinic, and other free clinics (for those who did not have health insurance). I guess if your hospital has outpatient clinicas you might be assigned there.

Critical Care will likely be at your assigned cohort hospital.

For the practicum, I think you can actually try and see if you can do your 5 weeks (working full-time hours) at a hospital you might want to work at. Someone in my cohort requested to do his at a particular hospital because he wanted to see to get a job there. I remember doing my psych rotation and the nurses told me a WGU student did their practicum at their unit and they really wanted to hire him after he passed his NCLEX (they told me the student decided to go work a different hospital). Not sure how they do this part, but my state director emailed my cohort wanting to know our top 3 hospitals and type of unit/specialty we wanted to do our practicum in.

Wow thanks so much! That helps a ton!

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@centercourt2015 Good to know- just curious do you know which hospitals/ departments your cohort may have requested? If you are not comfortable posting that information, I understand. I haven't made 15 post yet- so I am unable to PM, but when I do- I would love to chat with you to ask you a few questions. If that's ok with you...

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@centercourt2015 Good to know- just curious do you know which hospitals/ departments your cohort may have requested? If you are not comfortable posting that information, I understand. I haven't made 15 post yet- so I am unable to PM, but when I do- I would love to chat with you to ask you a few questions. If that's ok with you...

I'm actually in a different state. However, from what I gather from my student mentor all the states work similarly (she's a student mentor for multiple states). I just wanted to give some information on my experience since I know there are not a lot of pre-licensure students posting about their experience. I would still talk to your mentor about it. The only thing so far that i've seen that is a bit different in the course work is in CA you all have to do an extra assignment for community health that other states do not. I think it is a CA Board requirement which allows you to attain your PHN (public health nurse) certificate.

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I'm actually in a different state. However, from what I gather from my student mentor all the states work similarly (she's a student mentor for multiple states). I just wanted to give some information on my experience since I know there are not a lot of pre-licensure students posting about their experience. I would still talk to your mentor about it. The only thing so far that i've seen that is a bit different in the course work is in CA you all have to do an extra assignment for community health that other states do not. I think it is a CA Board requirement which allows you to attain your PHN (public health nurse) certificate.

Thank you! I also noticed that there are not a lot of posts from the pre-licensure students, so I am trying to help address questions for potential students as much as I can too.

Yes, that is correct- California students also complete a community health rotation- to be eligible for the PHN certificate. Unfortunately, that is a ways off for me so I don't know much more at this time.

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Hi there! I take it that you're a current student at WGU? This particular program is news to me as I'm trying to apply to an ABSN program in SoCal. Could I ask what you think about the program so far? How long is the program and is it strictly online? Does it prep you well for...lets say clinicals and even exams. Any info would be appreciated. Thank you so much!

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