flex clinicals?

[cnelle101]

Hey new Grads. I usually stay in the pre-nursing student neck of the woods, but this question would be something a grad would know(by experience of course). Well anyway I was just wondering are nursing clincials or classes kind of flexiable(sp?) or would you say that you have to be flexiable(sp?) to do your clinicals. Also what do u do in and what is rotation? :)

[Altra, BSN, RN]

Hi Cnelle, I'm not a grad yet, still a student, but I think I can answer your question.

All schools handle scheduling slightly differently, but I think most people would agree that, as a general statement, YOU have to be flexible. For example, you may possibly have some choice of clinical sites, but not days/times.

"Rotations" refers to rotating experiences at different sites and/or different specialties. Example -- in the med-surg class I just finished, throughout the 15 weeks each of us moved through different clinical areas, sort of on our own schedule. By the end, everyone had spent some time in 4 different med-surg units at 2 different hospitals, and at least one week in telemetry, outpt. surgery, ortho rehab, the O.R., and at a home health agency. You weren't with the same people all the time. For my final year starting later this month, I'll be "rotating" through 8 weeks of each of 4 specialty areas - maternity, pediatrics, psych/mental health, and critical care. We're divided into 4 groups and we rotate through each of these areas. By the end, everyone has had the same experiences, just scheduled differently.

Hope this helps! :)

[Nurse Ratched, RN]

Exactly as MLOS said. Nursing school is different from most college majors in that we have far fewer scheduling options, particularly later in the program.

[jeepgirl, LPN, NP]

you have to be flexible...

our program, we had people driving 60-90 miles to get to the clinical sites by 0630

[happystudent, RN]

you have to be flexible...

our program, we had people driving 60-90 miles to get to the clinical sites by 0630

[happystudent, RN]

My program consisted of night courses, except for specialty day clinical rotations.. I think my school was pretty flexible.

[EvelynRN-BSN]

With the program I attended we had to be flexible. But we could choose if we wanted night clinicals or day clinicals. We did not have weekend clinicals.

Good Luck!

Evelyn