Hospital Clinicals

[doxielover304]

In my Nursing program, apparently hospital clinical's start in November (just 3 months after the program starts!!!!) I feel like that's very, very soon to be starting clinical's.. In November I'll still be doing Fundamentals! (Nursing 1101).

When does everyone else's program start doing clinical's??

Just curious to see how it varies among different programs. Thanks for all responses! :)

[Jenngirl34RN]

My program starts clinicals the 6th week of class. Most of us are at the VA hospital in the spinal injury unit, with a few people at an alternate hospital in a similar unit.

[CalRNtoBe2013]

We started the first week of our program! We didn't do LTC; we went straight to med-surg. Now that we are in our last semester, we have two 8 hr clinical days each week for 10 weeks. Then, we do a preceptorship for the last 5 weeks at a MINIMUM of 24 hours/week. I have grown to love clinical, but the preceptorship has me terrified!

[Hellen84]

Nursing school starts August 22nd and we will have clinical at a nursing home the first week in October.

[barcode120x, RN, NP]

2nd semester here. We start lecture August 26th. First day of our med-surge clinical orientation is August 27th. The actual first day of clinical is the following week.

[Kskar91]

We start school the 19th and our clinicals start the 23rd of September. So 5 weeks in. Nursing foundational concepts (nursing 1201) for us starts off like a CNA class learning the basics so don't worry you'll only do in clinicals what you have been checked off on in lab.

[nurse2be13]

We started clinicals the second week of school.

[science in flowers]

Uhh, we started Clin on week 2!

[twss2323]

I'm not sure exactly what week we start clinical... I think maybe after the midterm. I do know we are in a hospice once a week for 8 hours once we do.

[RLtinker, LPN]

I think when I first started, it was around week 5.

[christina731]

I had clinicals beginning on week 4 of fundamentals. It was at a long term care facility. We did pretty simple stuff like vitals, bed baths, transfers and such. I was there for 4 weeks and then I moved to a sub acute/rehab facility for the remaining 6 weeks where I did all that plus PO/IM/SC med administration, assessments and blood glucose assessment. The patients that I had in sub acute were high acuity and were on vents. Prior to clinical I had what was called "alternative clinical experience" where we learned about safe transfers, vitals, med administration and injections. That was the first 3 weeks of class and was like a more intense lab. Typical labs were 3 hours and this was 6 hours.

[akulahawkRN, ADN, RN, EMT-P]

In my program, we start around the end of August and we do approximately 5 – 6 weeks of classroom time before we get into the hospital. All told, we do approximately 10 weeks of clinicals that first semester, typically two days a week, 6 hours a day. Yes, it is a little bit fast, but in that first few weeks we learn basic assessment, vitals, and we start with the medication rights. We only take care of one patient at a time that first semester so we start off slowly and we build from there. If memory serves, we also do a couple of med passes that first semester as well, but we do have to work up all the patient's medications in our care plans.

Every semester after that, we typically spend about a week or so in the classroom for the full week and then after that we are on to clinicals. So what they do is they cram as much information as they can to get us started for that semester and then from there they provide us with information in a more modular format. Typically that first week or so is full of the information that we would need for the first clinical rotation if it is not Med/Surg. In my upcoming semester, that would be the psych stuff because we do psych this semester, and some of us will have psych right away. Last semester they concentrated primarily on obstetrics and pediatrics because some of us had rotations in obstetrics and pediatrics right away.

As far as first semester is concerned, what they really want to do is just get enough information so that you would be safe, even if you are slow, when you get to clinicals. Make sure you pay attention to the stuff that you are presented in these first few weeks because that stuff will use pretty much from now on. You don't do this stuff well, the rest won't be very easy either. There is a reason why this stuff is called Nursing Fundamentals. It is the very foundation of everything you do from here on out as a nurse. Yes, it is boring. Yes, it is menial. And yes, when you look back at it, it will be extremely basic. Yet without this foundation, you will have a tough time being a good, effective nurse.

Good luck and have fun!

[STLmomma27]

My program starts Aug 19th and we start clinicals Sept 10th. The week before we are doing computer training.