Clinicals????

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Please someone tell me what clinicals are like. What do you do and how long do they last and are they done at night??

Thanks:)

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
Please someone tell me what clinicals are like. What do you do and how long do they last and are they done at night??

Thanks:)

I can tell you what MY clinicals are like. I go to the hospital the night before. I look on the bulletin board to see what patient I'm assigned to. I then go to the kardex and the computer chart and read everything I need to know about the patient beforehand, and print out a list of his meds he's taking.

I then go home and look up everything about the meds so that I'm knowledgeable about them. We then go to the hospital at 7:00 AM the next morning. We listen to report (which is a tape recording of the previous shift's RNs telling about the status of all the patients). Afterwards, we go to our patient's room, help them with breakfast, do a head-to-toe physical assessment. Give them their morning meds, help them with their ADLs, do any treatments they might have, sit and talk with them, etc. Shortly before I leave, I write down my assessment notes and give them to the RN. At 12:00, all the students leave the floor and we go to a conference room where we eat lunch and talk about our day.

Then the real work takes place - the pages and pages of report that you have to write. :)

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Specializes in Transplant.

Please someone tell me what clinicals are like. What do you do and how long do they last and are they done at night??

For our clinicals I go to the hospital the day before and choose a patient. I get their medical diagnosis, meds, orders, lab results, history, prognosis, etc. and also check the Kardex for any additional info. Then, I head home and do my preconference guide for about 7 hours...looking up all the info and the nursing implications. Then, we meet at the hospital at 6:20 am to check on any changes that have occured overnight. We meet with our clinical group (10 people) and we go over each patient, their chief complaint, their lab results, our nursing diagnosis, and discuss anything else the rest of the group might benefit from. After that, we all head to our floors and get to work. We do baths, linen changes, assistance with breakfast, vital signs, dressing changes, meds, head to toe physical assessment, accuchecks, and probably some other stuff that I am forgetting. Then about 1130am we go to postconference and talk about the day. Clincals last from 645am-1pm. Our school has 1 afternoon clinical from 3-9 or so. I would check with your school as to whether or not there is an evening clinical available. I know our hours change each semester as well. Hope this helps!

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Specializes in L&D.

The first time I had clinicals, I was at the hospital the day before pickinng my patient, and it took me a couple of hours to wade through all the info and fill out my client prep sheet. That night I was up until 1:00am filling out drug cards and doing a concept map with two nsg dx. Now--several weeks later, I can get all my info at the hospital in about 30 minutes, and only have to spend about two hours at home finishing the rest of my stuff.

As far as the actual clinical day, we get there at 6:30am to meet with our teacher. We then go to our assigned floor to listen to report. From there, it's taking vitals, giving breakfast, then doing a.m. care. If they have any treatments that we can do (wound care, etc) we do them around 9:00 or 10:00am. We go to lunch at 11:00am (after doing the 2nd set of vitals) and then it's back on the floor at noon to help with lunch. We go to post conference at 1:30pm, but only after doing I's & O's and reporting off to our nurse. Whew--what a day!!

Our third semester clinicals are all 3-11 shifts. Fourth semester we are preceptered (spelling??) by one nurse, so we work her/his shift (no matter what day or time) two days a week.

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How often are your clinicals? Once or twice a week?

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
How often are your clinicals? Once or twice a week?

For us it's once a week in semester one and two. In semester three and four it's twice a week (taking the place of skills lab day, which we don't do the last year).

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
How often are your clinicals? Once or twice a week?

For us it's once a week in semester one and two. In semester three and four it's twice a week (taking the place of skills lab day, which we don't do the last year).

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Specializes in NICU.

It's been different each semester. No semester has been the exact same, some semesters you'll have more clinicals/week, some semesters you'll have less. We do both hospital and community clinicals, sometimes more hospital clinicals, sometimes more community, depending on the semester. So have I confused you enough?! lol

1st semester (med/surg)

*Only 1 day per week

*Day before clinical - We basically did what has already been mentioned in the previous posts, looked at the charts, wrote down the vital information, etc. I usually went and introduced myself to the patient and their family to let them know I would be with them the next day. Go home and spend 3-5 hours doing the initial part of the careplan (first semester it takes this long because it's new).

*6:30 met at the hospital with our clinical instructor and the rest of the students (maybe 10-12 of us total). Briefly each of us would go over our patient's diagnosis, etc. We'd be on the unit by 7 to find the nurse that had your patient and go from there. We'd do the same as what others have mentioned .... breakfast, AM care, vitals, ADLs, etc.

*Meet for post conference about 1:30 and be done by 2!

2nd semester (med/surg) 1st 8 weeks

*2 days per week

*Same as above - go night before to get patient's information, go home and do initial careplan; we had the same patient for BOTH days.

*I think the times were about the same 6:30 a.m. - 2

2nd semseter (psych/community) 2nd 8 weeks

*2 days per week

*We didn't have to go the day before to get patient's information (yay!)

*These were at different sites each time, so the times varied. Usually they were from about 8 a.m. to noon or 1.

3rd semester (maternal/peds)

*First 6 weeks I did my community clinicals (school nursing, daycare, public health department, child rehab center, prenatal clinic, and a few others I can't think of right now!). We had these 2 days/week, from about 8-4, then post conference being done at 4:30.

*Second 6 weeks (which is what I'm doing now), we have our hospital clinicals. 1 day per week, 12 hour shifts. From 6:30-6:30. We have 1 rotation each in nursery, peds, L&D, and PP. Then our last 2 weeks we can chose which unit we want to be on. These are long days, but I'm loving it, I am really enjoying these rotations!

4th semester is our preceptorship!

For me personally, the first semester of clinicals was the hardest. Just because it was brand new, something I'd never done.... it was just overwhelming for me. I didn't particularly like med/surg, so those clinicals were the hardest for me.

Sorry this is so long, just wanted to explain my experiences with it all. I think it's great yall are reading up on this site, I wish I had found this site BEFORE I had started nursing school so I might have been more prepared in what to expect! Good luck to you all! :)

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Specializes in NICU.

It's been different each semester. No semester has been the exact same, some semesters you'll have more clinicals/week, some semesters you'll have less. We do both hospital and community clinicals, sometimes more hospital clinicals, sometimes more community, depending on the semester. So have I confused you enough?! lol

1st semester (med/surg)

*Only 1 day per week

*Day before clinical - We basically did what has already been mentioned in the previous posts, looked at the charts, wrote down the vital information, etc. I usually went and introduced myself to the patient and their family to let them know I would be with them the next day. Go home and spend 3-5 hours doing the initial part of the careplan (first semester it takes this long because it's new).

*6:30 met at the hospital with our clinical instructor and the rest of the students (maybe 10-12 of us total). Briefly each of us would go over our patient's diagnosis, etc. We'd be on the unit by 7 to find the nurse that had your patient and go from there. We'd do the same as what others have mentioned .... breakfast, AM care, vitals, ADLs, etc.

*Meet for post conference about 1:30 and be done by 2!

2nd semester (med/surg) 1st 8 weeks

*2 days per week

*Same as above - go night before to get patient's information, go home and do initial careplan; we had the same patient for BOTH days.

*I think the times were about the same 6:30 a.m. - 2

2nd semseter (psych/community) 2nd 8 weeks

*2 days per week

*We didn't have to go the day before to get patient's information (yay!)

*These were at different sites each time, so the times varied. Usually they were from about 8 a.m. to noon or 1.

3rd semester (maternal/peds)

*First 6 weeks I did my community clinicals (school nursing, daycare, public health department, child rehab center, prenatal clinic, and a few others I can't think of right now!). We had these 2 days/week, from about 8-4, then post conference being done at 4:30.

*Second 6 weeks (which is what I'm doing now), we have our hospital clinicals. 1 day per week, 12 hour shifts. From 6:30-6:30. We have 1 rotation each in nursery, peds, L&D, and PP. Then our last 2 weeks we can chose which unit we want to be on. These are long days, but I'm loving it, I am really enjoying these rotations!

4th semester is our preceptorship!

For me personally, the first semester of clinicals was the hardest. Just because it was brand new, something I'd never done.... it was just overwhelming for me. I didn't particularly like med/surg, so those clinicals were the hardest for me.

Sorry this is so long, just wanted to explain my experiences with it all. I think it's great yall are reading up on this site, I wish I had found this site BEFORE I had started nursing school so I might have been more prepared in what to expect! Good luck to you all! :)

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Specializes in L&D.

God! I WISH my clinicals were like the other two. We are there from 7:00am until 3:00 pm twice a week. Actually, the second day we are done with the floor at 2:00pm - post conferance until 3:00pm. Let's see...I'm doing chronic care right now so vitals are not done every day. I'm told it's on average once a month, but I do have a patient who's bp needs to be done weekly. I'm on my second week of chronic care, just finished with my drug cards, should be headed off to bed. I started with them@ 8:30 and I just finished at 11:00. But that's two patients. I'm feeling down because I know that this is not what I'll be doing when I graduate. I will be doing L & D so this rotation is discouraging. I like the theory classes and seminar, but not the clinical portion. Sorry if it sounds immature - but it's icky. I don't like to work with the elderly, I've said it before, please don't flame me...I'm just not enjoying this semester of clinicals at all! First 6 weeks was in a psych community from He!!, now I'm basically in a very large nursing home - actually a VA hospital (which makes it difficult for me because my husband is in the National Guard - but that's neither here nor there). Again, please don't tell me I sound immature or that I better get used to it. If it was on a child I'd feel better about it. I just don't like changing adult diapers, giving enemas, inserting suppositories, etc. in 80-year-old men. I'm trying to save myself here, but I'm being perfectly honest. I am DREADING this week.

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Specializes in L&D.

God! I WISH my clinicals were like the other two. We are there from 7:00am until 3:00 pm twice a week. Actually, the second day we are done with the floor at 2:00pm - post conferance until 3:00pm. Let's see...I'm doing chronic care right now so vitals are not done every day. I'm told it's on average once a month, but I do have a patient who's bp needs to be done weekly. I'm on my second week of chronic care, just finished with my drug cards, should be headed off to bed. I started with them@ 8:30 and I just finished at 11:00. But that's two patients. I'm feeling down because I know that this is not what I'll be doing when I graduate. I will be doing L & D so this rotation is discouraging. I like the theory classes and seminar, but not the clinical portion. Sorry if it sounds immature - but it's icky. I don't like to work with the elderly, I've said it before, please don't flame me...I'm just not enjoying this semester of clinicals at all! First 6 weeks was in a psych community from He!!, now I'm basically in a very large nursing home - actually a VA hospital (which makes it difficult for me because my husband is in the National Guard - but that's neither here nor there). Again, please don't tell me I sound immature or that I better get used to it. If it was on a child I'd feel better about it. I just don't like changing adult diapers, giving enemas, inserting suppositories, etc. in 80-year-old men. I'm trying to save myself here, but I'm being perfectly honest. I am DREADING this week.

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Specializes in LDRP.

wow! some of these clinicals seem easier than mine, some harder. i love clinicals-most of the time. its where you really learn to be a nurse.

Semester 1-one day clinical a week, 645-1245.location varied. some in ortho, some in rehab, some in med/surg.i was in ortho go day before to get history, current complaint, meds, labs, etc.interview patient to get a detailed patient database. go home. write long long long careplan. pick one nursing diagnosis to focus on. pick one short term and one long term goal for it. write out interventions to accomplish each goal.research all meds. go to clinicals. this semester you can't do much.before clinical meet w/ instructor to go over plan for day. vitals, am care, bits of head to toe assessment as learned. we didn't do our own charting yet, here, until the end of the semester and we started writing nursing notes at the end of hte semester. no meds. dressing changes, occasionally, near end of semester. meet at end of clinicals to discuss

Semester 2-two days a week, 6 hours a day. some in ortho, some in rehab, some in med/surg-again. i was in ortho again, at different hospital. same thing before clinicals w/ all the looking up and stuff, still the care plan, but this time we had to research even more info about the meds. so all the same paperwork.

what was different about this semester from first-we got report from our primary nurse on our patient, though not in their report-we went to them on our own. we did head to toe assessments now. we did our own documenting on the chart. we did procedures as they came up-caths, bladder scans, remove staples/sutures, etc. did meds, too, but not every day.

First year additions-mixed in there, we had a 3 week OB rotation that was 2 days a week, 6 hours each day. 1 week in labor/delivery-observe only and write up. 1 week in newborn nursery-lots of baby assessments and documenting. 1 week in postpartum-again, lots of assessments.

plus in first year we had many observational days. had to go to 9 hours of diabetes education classes iwth actual diabetics. we observed in a wound clinic for a day, in the OR for 3 days, in a peds clinic for 1 day, etc. the OB and these observations you were just pulled from your normal clincal to go to the other place.

Third Semester (where I am now!)-split in two halvess, so you go to two differnt sites, for 7 or 8 weeks each. sites vary-some in oncology, PCD, med/surg, vascular PCU. paperwork is the same-still lots of it. but now, we do so much more. we get report with the nurse, we do the am care, the breakfast, the meds, the head to toe assessments, the documenting, the IV's, Foley's, dressings, etc. We write nurses notes, and just do what needs to be done. Did post mortem care 2 weeks ago. start out with 2 patients at beginning of semester, move on to three, depending on your location. same procedure for each half of the semester, just in a different place. im in the vascular PCU now.

third semester observations include the emergency department, resource nurse, dialysis, interventional radiology, etc.

also will have a 3 week rotation in peds or psych. whichever one you do third semester, you do the other one 4th semester.

4th semester-im not completely sure yet. i know the locations are the same as third, but we obviously wont be in the same ones. we'll just go to whichever of those we haven't been to yet.

anyhoo, its great fun. and nerve wracking to begin with, but it gets better :)

love, rose

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