Do your clinicals at the hosp. you want to work at?

[CNA2bRN13]

I may be getting ahead of myself, but here goes. Some schools let you choose where you want to do your clinicals. There's a hospital RIGHT across the street from my school, but I don't really want to work there one day. There's another hospital about 35 minutes from where I live that I really want to work at as a PCT part time when I get through with my first clinical set. Would you do your clinicals at the hospital across the street, or at the one you want to work, and maybe get some good references? I've heard some people say that if they make a mistake, they want it to be somewhere they don't want to work. I need to get a job as soon as I finish my first set, because I don't think I can squeeze by another year of not working...

[katkonk, BSN, RN]

There is something to be said for doing rotations at the hospital where you want to work, specifically,

that you will have experience on their charting system/software. That can be a huge plus when searching for

your first job in a tight job market. It may very well place you in front of someone else equally as talented,

but without experience.

However, that said, all the previous conversation has been revolving around where you want to do this or that, and the issue of a quality education has been completely ignored. If you have the chance to work for a center

of excellence, which often is a teaching hospital, then do yourself a favor and get trained at the center of

excellence, whether you want to work there or not. I live in an area with many 5-star hospitals, ranked in the

top numbers in different fields each year by the US News report that ranks hospitals. I was fortunate that I was able to do clinicals in many of those teaching hospitals, and learned how to do things they way they should be done. When I went to work outside of the top hospitals, I was appalled at the difference in the level of care, and how some of the most basic things were handled in the small community hospitals. Quality education will drive everything you do in the future, and you only get one chance to be a student and soak it all up. Get the best quality instruction, no matter what and it will have a long term pay-off.

[linearthinker, DNP, RN]

I think it is immaterial and wouldn't care where I did my clinical rotations.

[CNA2bRN13]

The one that is convenient is not as advanced as the one I want to work at. I have heard from employees that they do not keep people long. It is a small hospital, and my husband did his clinicals there for EMT-B, but they didn't teach him as much as they were using him to do the dirty work they didn't want to do, which ended up getting them in trouble with his EMT instructor when she found out. There are several good hospitals around where I live, one nationally ranked, and those are the ones I want to someday work at. My school has a partnership with a few of those hospitals. I plan to volunteer at one of them also, to get some experience in. Thanks for all of the suggestions!