like, how many miles and how long it takes you to get there/traffic/tolls etc;.
Mine last semester was pretty far, about 85 miles there and back, a good 45-50 minute ride each way. This had me setting my alarm for 4am, leave the house by 5:30 to get there by 6:30. No traffic as it was pretty early, and no traffic going home either. No tolls.
The good thing was it was at a really nice hospital and with an excellent instructor-Id choose this clinical again if we had a choice, but we dont. One choice is literally 10 minutes from my house.
It would really suck if the commute was far, and the hospital sucked.
Luckily my car is good on gas but even with I was still paying like $40 a week.
Yikes! A lot of you have really had some commutes!
I'm SO thankful my campus is less than a mile from my apartment, and the hospital where my program does ALL of its clinicals is only 2 miles from campus.
Which is perfect, since I take the bus or walk everywhere I go. I have limited access to a vehicle, but can't rely on it, so if I had clinicals as far as some of you so it would have been extremely hard for me to complete my clinicals!
I'm in the same situation. I finally got a car that my dad paid $1500 for, but I don't have a license and right when I'm ready to get one, it's back in the shop...like usual. So, I always have to catch the bus (like I've been doing for the past 3.5 years) to get where I need to go. Just the commute to school is 1.5 hrs. I have to get up at 4:30a for an 8a class! Same thing with the hospital next to the school. When they switch clinical sites to the Medical Center, the commute time is a lot more bearable since its only about 30 minutes-1 hour. However, by car, none of these places are more than a 30 min drive, excluding highways. It's just that public transit sucks in Houston.
My clinical site this last semester was 70 miles from my home. About an hour and a half one way. Clinicals three days a week. Nine hours a week spent just driving. Ugh. Glad that's over.
My clinical site this last semester was 70 miles from my home. About an hour and a half one way. Clinicals three days a week. Nine hours a week spent just driving. Ugh. Glad that's over.
First semester of my LPN year, I only had to drive 15 miles one way to clinicals. 2nd semester and summer semester, I had to go 45 miles one way. Then RN year, we went to bigger hospitals in bigger cities, so first semester, I was driving 65 miles one way and second semester about 50 miles one way. Thank goodness it's over, but more than likely I'll be driving to one of those places to work when I get my license, so I guess it was just practice! lol
My clinicals should be no more than about 30 min away... but supposedly we have a choice of 3 hospitals, but regardless, we'd end up being assigned to one of the three. Murphy's Law says I'll probably get the furthest one out...
citylights89, BSN, RN
316 Posts
I'm in the same situation. I finally got a car that my dad paid $1500 for, but I don't have a license and right when I'm ready to get one, it's back in the shop...like usual. So, I always have to catch the bus (like I've been doing for the past 3.5 years) to get where I need to go. Just the commute to school is 1.5 hrs. I have to get up at 4:30a for an 8a class! Same thing with the hospital next to the school. When they switch clinical sites to the Medical Center, the commute time is a lot more bearable since its only about 30 minutes-1 hour. However, by car, none of these places are more than a 30 min drive, excluding highways. It's just that public transit sucks in Houston.