Day Clinical vs. Night Clinical

[dream8]

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????

[TifRN2B]

well... this will be my 4th semester of clinicals, and I've always done day, but this time I"m doing evening. One reason is that beds and baths will have already been done...and there will be more time to spend doing long assessments and working with the patient on teaching. Also... you don't see many discharges in the am...or post op patients. So... my suggestion would be to do some day clinicals and then some evening clinicals just to get the full experience.

[kahumai, RN]

I agree. My night clinicals were somewhat boring because everyone's care is already done and many want to be left alone with visitors. My night clinical in Peds was better than the adults, though, but I would say that amount of work done in both settings is the same. If you have the choice, do day clinicals to get more exposure to patients.

[CarVsTree]

I attend the evening/weekend program at my school. We have clinical during the day on the weekends and some evenings thrown in there.

The evening clinicals were quiet in terms of care, but you do get to do some discharges/admissions. If I had a choice, I would do days or a mix of both.

[shape0fmyheart]

I have done night clinicals for the past 2 semesters, and talking to my fellow classmates who have been in day clinicals, it seems I have had a much better experience. They complained non-stop that all they did was AM care. Everyone thinks that evening clinicals will see less and do less, but it's been opposite for those of us in my program.

[zambezi, BSN, RN]

I think that you will learn valuable skills on either shift...in fact both shifts have advantages and disadvantages...I do think that you may get to assist the dr. with some skills more on the day shift (most of our chest tube pulls, pericardiocentsis, cardioversions, etc are scheduled during the day...)

The basic stuff (IVs/NGTs/Foleys/Meds, etc) you will get anytime you are there. The day shift does allow you to work more with the ancillary personnel (PT/OT/Dietary). Nights allows you to learn how to be independent, gives you a bit more time to organize yourself without having to worry about transferring in/out and discharging, etc....I personally liked orienting from 3-23...that way I got a bit of both shifts and didn't have to wake up early or go to bed to late!

[jschut, BSN, RN]

With both shifts you will learn alot, but I don't think one is really any "better" than the other....just different. Good Luck to you! :)