Clinicals for RN to BSN?

elkpark · Jun 17, 2008

Depends on the program and its specific requirements. In my program, we had one semester of one day/week of public health clinical that was real, honest-to-goodness clinical, where we showed up in uniform at the public health department with our instructor, and one semester of leadership/management clinical in which we had to arrange X number of hours with a preceptor (of our choice/arrangement, but had to be approved by the school), and the hours could be completed on whatever schedule suited you and your preceptor. Others have posted here about programs that had "teaching projects" in lieu of clinical, or had no clinical at all. Sounds like there's a lot of variation out there among schools.

girls1 · Jun 17, 2008

Thanks for the reply Elk. I guess I have to find out about each school individually. I don't want to do any clinicals ever again (unless I'm going for an advanced practice degree).

elkpark · Jun 17, 2008

I can understand your feeling that way, esp. if you're just finishing school now (I had been practicing for several years when I went back to school), but I found the clinicals in my program to be relatively painless (more fun and interesting than anything else). There was little or no paperwork (unlike pre-licensure clinicals), and the clinicals were all about concepts and how you think, not about mastering any motor/technical skills.

I encourage you to not rule out a particular BSN-completion program just because it includes clinicals.

jack4408 · Jun 19, 2008

I went to Downstate and we did have clinicals for community, but it was very flexible. We were given a list of dates to choose from for the semester and I think we only had to go 8 times. They were mostly health fairs and senior centers doing BP and glucose screening. It wasn't bad at all. For leadership, we had to arrange a preceptor in management ourselves and write journals about the experiences.

girls1 · Jun 19, 2008

I went to Downstate and we did have clinicals for community, but it was very flexible. We were given a list of dates to choose from for the semester and I think we only had to go 8 times. They were mostly health fairs and senior centers doing BP and glucose screening. It wasn't bad at all. For leadership, we had to arrange a preceptor in management ourselves and write journals about the experiences.

This sounds cool. I could totally handle something like this. I just don't want to relive the trauma I experienced in my clinicals this past couple of years.

So far, all the schools I've looked up have required clinicals. Some only require two while others require four.