Clinical Sites in Tampa

LuvaBSNRN, BSN, RN · May 2, 2007

Hi MMW37,

My clinical assignment for my program is at Bayfront/All Children's Hospitals. We also stay at one site for the entire program which is 4 semesters. I started at Bayfront this past semester for clinicals and it was great. It is a trauma center and there is lots to learn!!! The staff was great and the patients that I encountered were very open in helping with answering questions so that I could get my assignments done! I thoroughly enjoyed my time there :)

I won't be at All Children's until the fall semester, so I won't be able to speak on that until then. Take care and good luck!!!

MB37 · May 3, 2007

Thanks! I live in very South Tampa, so getting to Bayfront wouldn't be awful either. I was thinking of putting them on my list, since I think most students live in Tampa. Plus my DH wants to move across the bay, and if we do, I really don't want to be stuck way up by USF...

land64shark · May 4, 2007

I had clinicals at Bayfront and All Children's this semester. I LOVED All Children's! Bayfront was generally a good experience. I've also had clinicals at Mease Countryside and very much enjoyed it there also. I also had clinicals at Northside and don't have many good things to say about that place, but I guess it doesn't matter because it's not on your list anyway.

chickapin · May 6, 2007

Hi there! Oh yeah, Match Day is just a day full of propaganda! Unless they've changed it, you'll get to sit through about 3 hours of presentations by the participating hospitals telling you how awesome they are and all the awesome things they do and the awesome benefits and the awesome doctors and nurses and the awesome awesomeness that is each hospital. After the first 2 they all sound the same and it pretty much comes down to location, location, location! They should have booths set up, giving away hospital-branded swag - go for the pens!! LOL, I think Moffitt even gives away lavender-scented linen spray. So after the recruitment attempts, you'll pick your matches. However, if you're accelerated, unless they've changed things, they don't have an accelerated team at each of the hospitals. When I started in the fall, our choices were Bayfront & St. Joe's. If you can get Bayfront, I'd go for it because we have the BEST clinical instructor in the world. But whatever team you end up on, you more than likely will end up very happy with it because you won't know anything else! All the hospitals in the area have their ups and downs but they all are able to give you good clinical experiences that will help you become a good nurse. It's pretty hard to go wrong, we're very lucky to get such good options!

MB37 · May 6, 2007

Yeah, I'm not sure about that - our orientation wasn't divided into regular and accelerated programs, and it seemed like most presentations were just about upper division and couldn't even answer questions about accelerated. I'm sure they won't mention that to us until day of, of course. Thanks for the input, I was mostly hoping that there weren't any horror stories about our options. With a 0630 start, location is DEFINITELY important.

chickapin · May 6, 2007

Yeah that's how it went for us too. We were all together and any mention of the accelerated students was an afterthought, or else we had to try and get the info out of them. We did our orientation and matching on the same day, but you had orientation already but didn't match yet? Weird.

MB37 · May 7, 2007

We had orientation April 10, classes start May 14, and Match Day is May 15. I'm starting to get the idea that the accelerated program is a bit of a "work in progress," no? Mabye in 10 years everyone will know how these programs are supposed to work, once they've been around a little longer.

EmilyUSFRN, RN · May 14, 2007

I did my clinicals at TGH and I loved it. Sure it was tough, but the way I thought about it-- it's a teaching hospital. It's pretty much what they do, and it is expected that staff and pts understand that. I never had any real issues with people being rude, etc. although I am pretty good at reading situations and knowing when it's time for me as a student to butt out and ask questions later. Everything was done at TGH so as time goes on, you get much more comfortable with situations-- from paperwork to parking.

I had many friends on other teams so naturally the stories are shared. The VMS.... just understand that you'll probably be shuffled all over the county at some point-- even to St. Joe's and sometimes the instructors will decide to have post-conference in an area in which you have to leave early and go to a completely different hospital.

Travelling-- USF does their clinicals like normal nursing hours, you do 8 hr and 12 hr shifts.... and the commutes can generally take about the same amount of time, as the traffic patterns at 6 am are different.

Good luck and whatever you happen to get-- it's just for nursing school, not necessarily a contract for after graduation.

MB37 · May 16, 2007

Thanks all! I wound up at TGH. Our choices for accelerated were only there and VMS, of course no one told us that until we walked in the door. I guess that's how nursing school is supposed to go - no one seems able to ever give us a straight answer about anything, and when they do, you ask two people and receive two different responses. It's the closest to my house though, the TC seems nice, and you probably can't go wrong with a Level 1 Trauma center.

moonischasingme1 · May 17, 2007

I ranked my top 4 in this order:

TGH

UCH

VMS

MPM

I got my 4th choice, which totally sucked at the time because MPM is 45 minutes!! However, I have really enjoyed my clinical time there and I would recommend it to anyone. But definitely try for something close to you because clinicals start at 6:30 and I wake up around 4 to leave at 5:15--not fun!

MB37 · May 17, 2007

Yeah, we only had 2 choices, and I got my first. There are only 11 people, so I guess our program has already lost at least 1 student - or at least they skipped match day.