UDel requires 160 pre-nursing immersion hours

[ixchel]

University of Delaware has begun to require 160 hours of independent, inpatient time to observe nursing up close. This time is to be completed before senior year and the beginning of nursing school clinicals.

I love it! As the nurse taking the student on, it may be frustrating to have a person who literally can do nothing, but as the nurse leading a future coworker, or the student wanting to know what a nursing degree is getting me into, I think this is a great way to introduce realistic expectations. And 160 hours means enough time to get past the "omg this is so cool!" stage and begin the "wow, this really does suck sometimes" one.

Perhaps this will soften the blow of the first year after licensure a little.

[Jolie, BSN]

I may be misunderstanding your post, but it sounds like students at this program begin clinicals in their senior year? If so, yikes!

[ED Nurse, RN]

I though you started clinicals junior year? How is it possible to complete all clinicals senior year.

Also, I doubt it will lessen reality when starting after licensure- when you are observing you have no responsibility or stress bc ultimately, nothing falls on you. You also don't have to put your time management skills to the test- you can't reliably learn time management when you aren't the one responsible for pt care. Time management is one of the biggest issues new grads have.

I think 160 hrs is excessive- why pile on more to an already crazy schedule? And exactly what will this 160 hrs of shadowing accomplish, bc it's just that, shadowing- no responsibility or consequences for not practicing in a concise, consistent, safe manner.

[Penelope_Pitstop, BSN, RN]

I may be misunderstanding your post, but it sounds like students at this program begin clinicals in their senior year? If so, yikes!

Yep, all of our clinicals were senior year. That's all we had - the didactic portion was over. We just had clinical and a "senior blah blah" class once per week. So it evened out to be the same amount of clinical hours.

Ixchel - are you near me? PM me if desired...

[ixchel]

The 160 hours are during pre-nursing years. The book learning takes place prior to senior year. Senior year is clinical. I absolutely love this! While, yes, nurses have to be able to focus on many things at once, I feel I would have gained sooooooo much more getting the book learning portion all at once over the first few years, and then the hands-on learning all at once at the end. You get the same amount of time and same level of instruction. It's just organized differently. I would have preferred it that way, definitely!

[ixchel]

To answer the "what do you get out of it" question - how many times have you seen on here that people wish they'd gotten a better inside glimpse before getting into nursing school and then graduating? It's a ton of hours intentionally. No, you don't have the responsibility. It doesn't fall on you if something goes wrong. But you are should to shoulder with the people whose shoulders these problems do fall on. It's the closest you can get. There really isn't any other way of letting ore-nursing students get a glimpse from the inside. Maybe it is just "piling one more thing on", but it does take away a bit of the shock that goes into the transition from student to nurse.