evening clinicals

[Mtru11]

Hello, I'm hoping to get into a evening ADN program this coming January and our clinical hours will be: first semester 5-9 then second semester 5-10:30, third semester 5-11, and fourth 3-11. A friend of mine was surprised that all our clinicals were in the evening as if I would be missing something by not doing morning/day routines with patients. Anyone out there that has had evening clinicals, can you tell me what it's like. What were you assigned to do? I've heard people talking about day clinicals where they bathe the patients and help move them from one place to another (like taking a patient to a different area for therapy or a meal, something like that). If those things are done during the day, do the evening nurse tend more to patients at their bedside? If you're someone who did both a day clinical and a night clinical, can you tell me how they compare?

[caliotter3]

I had an evening clinical placement one time in my regular nursing program. I loved it. Somewhat more relaxed on the floor with less of the hustle and bustle of the day. The only difficulty was getting to the charts because when I came in there would always be some doctors using the charts and I had to wait for them. Other than that, I found the evening clinical to be great. My clinical instructor did not come at night, I was left in the capable hands of my preceptor nurse who made sure I got plenty of chances to see how things are done. She also suggested I try to get a job there as the nurses seemed to like me on that floor. Unfortunately, when I went to HR, the opening they were talking about was no longer available, otherwise I would have jumped at getting a job on that particular floor. I think working the evening shift gave me a better chance to favorably impress the nurses. JMO

[Moogie]

I taught evening clinicals in acute care and LOVED them. There weren't as many interruptions during the shift and, while the pace was busy, the whole attitude was different. I think the students got to focus better on the patients rather than get distracted by everything going on during the day shift.

The biggest issue we dealt with in evening clinicals was that the students had to double back the next day. They'd finish around 9:30 and then have to be back by 7 the next morning. It was exhausting, especially for the night owl instructor.

Also, the nurses at the hospital worked 12 hour shifts (7 to 7) and they'd have their change of shift during the evening clinical hours. One downside, of course, was that the students never really knew who the nurse was after 7:30 PM and, while they could listen to report, they missed out on report at the beginning of their shift.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

While attending an LVN/LPN program five years ago, I occasionally completed 3-11pm clinical shifts. I attended an RN program last year and occasionally completed my clinical rotations on the 2-10pm shift. Since I am not a morning person, I actually preferred the evening clinical hours. The pace was more relaxed.

[sproeber89]

My latest clinical was an evening one and it was by far my favorite one. You aren't fighting for time with your patient between MD/therapies/appointments and you aren't thrown into the day right away. We usually got there around 2 pm and had until 3 pm to get our patient information and then start everything. It was very relaxed (although we were lucky enough to have two computers per patient so we always had the computer chart handy). I was also lucky enough to get fresh post-op patients, because most come back to their rooms around 2/3pm. Such a great learning experience. Plus, most of the students prefer the AM clinical and therefore there is usually less students. We split into groups and at one point it was two students to one teacher. AWESOME learning ratio.

[DolceVita, ADN, BSN, RN]

Loved evening clinicals. Only downside...the patients are sometimes exhausted from their day AND have had a student from another college during the day shift. That will make them awfully cranky (no wonder).

[CrunchyMama, ASN, RN]

First semester I did morning clinicals (7am, yuck). I just finished 2nd semester and did the evenings (3-11pm). Didn't want to be there that late but first half was maternity and I didn't want to be there when they did the member mutilations. Plus I'm not a morning person and it sucked waking up so early 1st semester. So having done both, I'm sticking with evenings. Good luck!!

[Pneumothorax, BSN, RN]

i loved doing night clinicals for my EMS program. i dont want to say its easier at night..but u def. have a chance to catch your breath a bit between patients and all thats going on.

remember the nurses are teh ones up all night, the pts or most of them are sleeping :)

[~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN]

I did evening clinicals for Med/Surge and my Maternity and Peds. I am SO NOT A MORNING PERSON. Day clinicals in LTC (didn't have evenings) and getting up at 4:30 AM sucked so bad for me.

Anyway I LOVED my evening clinicals. We were there from 2-11:30 didn't get on the floor until 3, we did a pre conference.

I had a make up day during the day and what I noticed was we didn't really do many bed baths on evening or bed changes. Those were usually done in the AM.

I found the environment and the whole experience great. I hope I can continue to get evening clinicals for my last year.

[Bobbkat]

I did an evening clinical for psych in a VA hospital. We usually got on the floor just as a group therapy session was going on, and then sat with patients during dinner, and helped with evening activities. For two weeks we were in charge of planning and implementing the evening activities. I will say that the pace of the floor was pretty relaxed, though I don't know if it was always that way, or just because it was later in the day when we got there.

My final semester of my nursing program I did 7am-7:30pm shifts for 15 weeks on a unit for my RN immersion clinical, and I can say from that experience that it was not necessarily any calmer in the evening. We usually had a lull around 3-4, but soon after that all the post-ops would start appearing, and things would get crazy again with admissions. We had students on the floor 3-10 for a few weeks, so they still got to see a lot because of the usual surge around this time.

[Mtru11]

Thank you for all the feedback. I'm glad to hear that evening clinicals aren't bad at all.