Difficulty finding clinical sites for online students?

Trauma Columnist · May 29, 2006

I just finished a CNS program and had a similar problem and mine was a brick and mortar school! What I did was to go back to the school for advice. I work in a large hospital so I emailed all the APNs and begged for some clinical time. It worked and I was able to get all of it done. I did 576 hours. Another avenue which I thought of later was to look at the indigent clinics and I did end up doing some time with their APNs and MDs too. Hope this helps. I know this is so frustrating.

llg, PhD, RN · May 29, 2006

Great topic for a thread. I think this is one of the biggest "un-discussed" issues related to online education. Students considering online programs need to be educated about the difficulties in finding clinical experiences for themselves BEFORE they enter the program. Too many schools take the students' money for classes, then abandon them when they need help arranging clinicals. I think that is shameful.

As someone who handles student clinical placements for my hospital ... I strongly recommend that anyone considering an online program, look into the clinical placement issue BEFORE you spend a lot of money and time. In fact, if it were me, I would get a clinical placement confirmed in writing before committing myself to a program.

llg

SharonH, RN · May 29, 2006

I just went through the nightmare. llg is right in that this should probably be a topic for discussion for any grad student, online and traditional. In fact, I would like to suggest this be a sticky.

I attended a brick and mortar school like trauma and I had no problem finding preceptors. The difficulties I had were finding clinical sites. I went through this drama each and every semester of clinicals. My advisor told me up front that I would be responsible for finding a preceptor and a clinical site but I was led to believe that it should not be a problem. I was also given no guidance as to how to achieve this. In fairness to her, I live in a large city with ~ 20 hospitals so I am sure she did not feel it would be a problem. But I ran into brick wall after brick wall. It was extraordinarily difficult.

In a previous discussion of this issue in this forum, llg outlined what it is like to be on the receiving end of students trying to get into clinical. It was an eye opener for me as I had no idea what it was like and in a way, it eased my frustration because I was starting to take it personally. And as it turned out, my last preceptor was in charge of clinical placements for her facility, in addition to her regular duties as a CNS. I could not believe the number of emails and phone calls she received on a daily basis about clinicals.

I just had to keep making phone call after phone call and start early (like 6 months prior to clinicals). Seriously.

moonshadeau, ADN, BSN, MSN, RN, APN, NP, CNS · May 30, 2006

Thanks for the encouragement everyone. It has been a really depressing week in relation. Actually I started this process about nine months ago. It took a long time to get a contract in place. Since I have to do clinicals with an NP, and my hospital doesn't employ NP's it has made everything so much more complicated. I never figured that this would cause so much chaos when picking the traditional route versus the online route.

spaniel · May 30, 2006

Yes- Superb topic! I've replied in the past to this issue, but I'm not sure where the thread is. Indeed, I had been accepted into a fairly well known NP program and the minute I tried to discuss the issue of preceptors/clinicals the director of the program actually indicated that there was a big"waiting list" for people to get in the program. I tried to indicate that I would have had to take a plane to get to talk with her in person, and to attend the orientation, which I was willing to do. Nontheless, this director still refused to talk about the issue of obtaining clinicals. I turned down the program. I do wish there were more NP students making complaints to CCNE or NLNAC regarding this very issue.

One idea though- try a place that is less bureaucratic. They may be less prone to worry about the details of the contract from a legal point of view. This seems to be part of the hold up for some places.

spaniel · May 30, 2006

I should have added that this occurred at a prominent brick and mortar that had an online component as well. Again the response was from an RN,Ph.D. not a sleasy recruiter. I actually asked to speak to the person who did placements or to email her and I was aghast when the director said this would have been "inappropriate".

tmarie75 · Jul 24, 2006

i'm glad you all have brought up this important issue regarding msn programs. i'm currently in one too, but am very worried about spending lots of time and money into a program only to get to the very end and be stuck and unable to graduate due to lack of preceptors/clinical sites. my school is also brick and mortar with online programs in nursing. i'm actually starting to think about switching to a non-nursing master's program anyway. i don't want to be an np and i don't want to teach nursing, so i'm not convinced anymore that i really need an msn for my future career goals anyway.

gauge14iv, MSN, APRN, NP · Jul 31, 2006

We thought we had it tough in our program! Sounds like you guys have had more trouble than we did. We had to line up our own preceptors, but we also had sites available through hospitals that were contracted with the school. Thank goodness!

The best way I know to find preceptors is to network - go to the meetings of local groups that NP's in your area are involved in. Call one NP and if they say no, ask them for 2 names you might call. Ask everyone you talk to for 2 names in fact!

As for contracts with facilities, that gets a bit stickier.

yellow finch, BSN, RN · Feb 12, 2007

This is certainly a good topic to discuss! I nearly dropped out of my online program in order to attend a B&M school simply out of frustration in finding a clinical site/preceptor. At the very last minute I found a very good preceptor, but have to drive over an hour to get there. The commute is awful yet I'm bound to complete my hours and find a preceptor closer to home for summer.

One suggestion I can make is keep track of who you call, their number, whom you spoke with... I didn't do this and despite promises of callbacks with an answer not one returned my call... even after a few returned my original voicemail to them! It would have been simpler had I kept track of all this to simplify the second set of calls.

Lastly, thanks for the reminder that I need to start hunting down a summer preceptor this week...

caliotter3 · Feb 12, 2007

This comment is not directly r/t to the thread's topic but I have been finding lately that when looking for specific courses for meaningful continuing education, the staff dev/education depts of local institutions are becoming very non-accommodating. They are quick to say that they only allow orgn employees, no outsiders, to attend their courses. One person I asked about this said she didn't understand why this is becoming a trend but she agreed with me that this policy puts out a poor impression to potential employees.

I have been looking into online programs and am very discouraged about the experiences of all the above posters. I also took a class once and needed to find a clinical site with preceptor and was unsuccessful. I certainly wish I would have known this before enrolling in that class. Next time anything like this comes up (highly unlikely for me) I will follow the lead of the poster who said that she had her clinical placement arranged before she started. Very smart thing to do!

It would also be a good idea to make this thread into a sticky and use it as a clearinghouse where people could network for these positions in their respective areas. If I found a willing orgn/preceptor would be glad to pass on the info. In order not to violate any TOS, this info could be posted leaving out specifics. "XYZ Clinic in Kansas City provides clin exp for ABC prog with DEF school. They can place up to 3 students per term." would be sufficient info to help. Just an idea. Good luck everyone.

ICRN2008, BSN, RN · May 18, 2007

I appreciate the information shared in this thread, because it helped me make my decision to attend a brick-and-mortar school. I completed my first graduate-level course this spring and start an FNP program in earnest this fall. I was all set to choose an online program due to the minimum 45-minute commute to attend any respectable MSN program in my area. However, I am now guaranteed a clinical spot two years from now, and I look forward to not having to worry about that component of my education.

Thanks again to everyone :)