Do-it-yerself clinicals

whiskeygirl, LPN · Jan 19, 2006

You weren't aware of the 60 hours required at the begining of the semester?

epg_pei · Jan 20, 2006

No, I was fully aware that 60 hours were required to complete this portion of the clinical. I just feel sucker punched because the instructor emailed everyone to tell us we may fail if we don't get our hours in. We all thought it was the instructors responsibility to arrange and schedule the hours for the students. So we're halfway through and scrambling to get it done.

WSU_Ally_RN, BSN, RN · Jan 20, 2006

Some ideas from my community clinical.... we did a day with a school nurse, a day at the local GM plant in the clinic, a day at a local prison with the nurses, a day doing bp's at the senior center, a day doing home care with the children's hospital, a day at employee health at the children's hospital, and a day with a health inspector.... Good luck getting your hours in... Hope this helps you think of some ideas of places to call and schedule your hours for.

NaomieRN · Jan 20, 2006

Good Luck to you. I hope you get the required hours.

whiskeygirl, LPN · Jan 20, 2006

Yeah, sorry, I should have asked my question better.

What I should have said was, Your instructor didn't explicitly explain to your class that scheduling clinicals beyond her 14 hours was up to you??

It sounds shady. I went to a distance education school where a majority of my clinicals were "completly up to me to arrange" but I was informed about this before I even applied to the school. It's not fair that you have been put into this situation.

Do as WSU suggested, get creative with your clinicals. I worked in a hospital (NICU and Nursery) so when it came time for me to do critical care clinicals- I did them in the NICU, when I needed peds hours, I did them in the Nursery, and when I needed general med-surg hours I did them on post-partum, working with the Gyn patients mainly.

Good Luck.

WG

epg_pei · Jan 22, 2006

We've had a meeting and we've come up with a few ideas to complete our clinical. It won't be as focused as it should be, but at least we'll have direct experience with clients

JenNJFLCA · Jan 23, 2006

Our community clinicals are all confusing to us now, but things will fall into place. 8 hr/wk for that plus 220 hours for our preceptorship this semester. I also have community health lecture and senior seminar (we take practice NCLEX exams, etc). I'm going to get so many preceptor hours in the next month so I can relax a little the rest of the semester. It's crazy! :uhoh3:

epg_pei · Jan 24, 2006

I'm going to chronicle my experience in this thread. Maybe it can be renamed "Dumbest community experiences" Don't read anymore unless you want to hear a whine. I have to whine somewhere to get this out, so it's going to be here.

My focus is women at risk for cardiovascular illness. Yesterday I walked around our small city trying to give away hot chocolate, snacks, condoms, and advertise a small clinic to homeless and disadvantaged. I had one guy ask for money. When I turned him down and offered him some hot chocolate he just walked away. That was my total contact with any potential clients.

This morning I spent 3 hours at a men's shelter, ostensibly doing blood pressure and whatnot. Except I didn't do any assessments. I talked to a guy about his sore shoulder, and his Medicare coverage, and his driver's license. This afternoon, I tried to update and revise a cookbook that features recipes for less. Unfortunately, the book is so well done I couldn't find anything that needed revision.

This clinical continues to be a waste of good time. :angryfire