Day clinical vs. Night clinical

SmilingBluEyes · Jan 13, 2005

oh boy....... the old "nights is slow cause the patients sleep" routine.

trust me, there are learning opportunities on ALL shifts; if nightshift is "slower", trust that you will possibly have more time to observe, ask questions and do some hands-on practice on your clinical. It is true, there are fewer doctors and managers/admin around to "get in the way" . But patients do NOT sleep all night, unlike what you have been told, especially confused "sundowner" types, or those in pain or insomniac! Call lights do ring all night long for various reasons; rarely do patients sleep all night in the hospital.

I recommend to make the most out of any clinical experience you do this: Take the initiative and look for opportunites to learn, no matter WHAT shift you work. And remember this: the safety net of your instructors is only going to last til you graduate; then you are "out there" on your own! This means you have a lot to learn in short time. Don't be afraid to go after it! Best of luck to you.

purplemania, BSN, RN · Jan 13, 2005

AMEN. You will learn only as much as you allow yourself to learn. I worked nights for years and sometimes did not get a break. Sick people are sick at night too.

Averykat · Jan 13, 2005

I'm in an evening program so our clinicals are mostly at night, but we have a few on the weekends during the day. The day clinicals may be a little busier, but I've found I get a little more time with my patient at night because they're not going out for tests or having the doctors coming in as much. This can be helpful particularly when you're a beginning nursing student and it takes you longer to do your assessments and nursing skills.

The nurses are busy regardless of what shift you have clinical on, but when you're a student and only assigned one or two patients, the night shift may feel a little less rushed.

-Kate

jeepgirl, LPN, NP · Jan 13, 2005

Just a quick question. Those that have gone through clinical, in your experience have you learned more in day clinical vs. night clinical. I was told by a couple of students that they prefer to do day clinical because at night its much slower and a lot of the patients are sleep. Is the amount of learning different, do you get better experience during the day. Any comments????

i'm a nightshift nurse now that i graduated. we work our buns off.

but whenever i was in school, i did day clinicals. it was true that our friends that came in from 1-9 did little except pass meds. by that time dressing changes, meds, and baths had been given. they had already came and went for tests and procedures for the day (most of the time).

they even told us that they just sat around and ate and did their school paperwork during their clinical,

at least, that was on the floor. in the units, OB and surgury rotations, it was a little different.

AKAKatydid · Jan 14, 2005

my school has discontinued the night clinicals. they pulled demographics, and said that students in evening sections were having "problems passing nclex". in fact, my school discontinued all night courses.

i'm not sure how much so-called trouble nurses were having. personally, i think that maybe the night students are just students (like myself) who have to work a full workweek to make ends meet. i truly believe that a hospital is a 24-hour machine! it never stops, and there is always work to be done, and stuff to be learned.

i'm not happy with their decision, but i will say - since they have removed the night courses they have had 100% pass rate for graduating students on the nclex. pretty astonishing, actually. hopefully it just means that i'll have a better chance of doing well.

~*~kendra~*~

NP2BE · Jan 14, 2005

my clincals last semester were so ridiculuous with the amt of paperwork that I didn't have time to take care of the patients, I was to busy drawing genograms and and avaeraging out what the last 4 months of labs and vital signs were so I could give a range , and copying the drug guide for the 3 pages of MAR that my patients inevetably had. Unlike my prior clinicals, I avoided any extra learning or work expereinces because my goal became to finish the mountain of paper work. I hate my nursing school, I think it is archaic, and I think it is childish, I am grateful to be almost done. I feel like a I have taken a 2 year NCLEX prep course and leraned very little about actual nursing. I have also been fed a lot of bad and incorrect/ conflicting information.

zacarias, ASN, RN · Jan 14, 2005

I only had day and evening clinicals during school. I learned from them both. Days are an absolute must as you learn to deal with the busy commotion that exists during the day.

Now that I work nights at a medium size hospital, I realize that nights is no cake walk and often a sojourn to hell. We have no charge or unit secretary at night; it's tough man.

JulesRN05 · Jan 14, 2005

It's up to you what schedule works best for you. I myself, really enjoy the afternoon clinicals, but that is just because it works best for me and because I live so far away, the afternoons are better, I don't have to get up so early in the morning.

oh boy....... the old "nights is slow cause the patients sleep" routine.
trust me, there are learning opportunities on ALL shifts; if nightshift is "slower", trust that you will possibly have more time to observe, ask questions and do some hands-on practice on your clinical. It is true, there are fewer doctors and managers/admin around to "get in the way" . But patients do NOT sleep all night, unlike what you have been told, especially confused "sundowner" types, or those in pain or insomniac! Call lights do ring all night long for various reasons; rarely do patients sleep all night in the hospital.
I recommend to make the most out of any clinical experience you do this: Take the initiative and look for opportunites to learn, no matter WHAT shift you work. And remember this: the safety net of your instructors is only going to last til you graduate; then you are "out there" on your own! This means you have a lot to learn in short time. Don't be afraid to go after it! Best of luck to you.