Clinicals?

CrunchyMama, ASN, RN · Jul 15, 2010

Our orientation is always a few days before school starts too....kind of annoying 1st semester when you want to know everything like 6 months in advance, lol. Anyway....in my program we were in the lab at school for the 1st 6 weeks, then went to the hospital. 1st semester was 6hrs/week....so we were in lab during that whole time learning basic patient care, then applied it when we went to clinicals. Good luck!

C-lion · Jul 15, 2010

I started a program at a 2 year school last year, and we had skills days up until around October, then started going to hospitals for clinicals. Some schools do things differently...a girl I know who was working on her BSN said they alternated every week between having a skills day and going to the hospital.

NikiRN2012 · Jul 15, 2010

Hi there! I will be a first semester student next month and my school informed us that we would be in lab for the first 6 weeks to get the basics down before we go out to the patients in the hospitals.

That Guy, BSN, RN, EMT-B · Jul 15, 2010

We had skills and clinicals every week. Clinicals started the 2nd week of the first semester.

2bnurseofchrist · Jul 15, 2010

I start next month and had the orientation in June. The 1st 8 weeks is skills lab, then after that we go to hospitals inplace of skills lab. If you know of any current students in the program or are taking classes in the same building, maybe you can ask them how the program works and get other tidbits of advice.

Bobbkat · Jul 16, 2010

We had skills and clinicals every week. Clinicals started the 2nd week of the first semester.

Same here.

bowlofsurreal · Jul 16, 2010

I start at the end of August. We have a skills lab once a week the entire semester. The first four weeks we are there for 3 hours a week, after that we go to 2 hours a week and start clinicals.

guiltysins · Jul 17, 2010

It varies by program. Like others said in the first semester we have skills lab for the first 7 weeks and clinical in place for the last 7 but that is only for the first semester. For the 2nd, 3rd and 4th semesters we have clinicals starting the second week of the semester.

Lajimolala, BSN, RN, NP · Jul 17, 2010

Oh gosh. I remember that night before we went to hospital for the first time! We just finished our six weeks of campus lab the week before. And I was soooo jittery. I couldn't believe that in less than 24 hours, I'd be talking with live patients. I was so nervous. So long ago... Lol. Good luck to everyone starting nursing school this Fall! I'm a year into nursing school myself, and I love it! Can't wait to be an official RN. :yeah:

CrazierThanYou · Jul 17, 2010

Our clinicals do NOT replace skills labs. We have class on Monday, skills on Tuesday, and clinicals on Wednesday.

healthstar, BSN, RN · Jul 17, 2010

I know every program is different - but I'm a little confused about clinicals. Our orientation isn't until 4 days before our classes start, so I have all these unanswered questions . Do clinicals typically replace skills lab days at some point or are clinicals in addition to those days or on weekends? Also, how far into the program do you typically start working "in the field"?

You are going to have enough time to ask all those questions during clinicals....in my clinical days that's all we do take care of patients and ask lots of questions....

Labs are always open to students to get more practice and go over things that you might have forgotten. You might also use labs in addition to clinicals but I do not know how often.

My advice to you is, just ask questions when you don't understand something that way you can prevent future errors and also ask questions if you don' want to learn. Who cares if your classmates think those are stupid questions, they probably don't even know the right answer either and other hesitate to ask. Some will thank you for asking those questions. Hey, you are paying lots of money to go to school and you are there to learn.