How do clinicals work?

Nursing Students General Students

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I just wanted an idea of how they work. Do you stay in groups and go throughout the hospital? Do you just watch the nurses? Do they throw you in there and tell you what needs to be done and you do it? With first year students going in I'm sure you don't know much so how does it work? Do you do labs first then go? I'm just full of questions.

Wow guys. My only clinical day is Thursdays 7:30am-12:30pm. And that's it. Granted, throughout the semester we have a few clinical rotations where we observe like STD clinic, radiology, dialysis, etc. but I'm only in my second semester in a two year program.

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We have clinical twice a week starting the second week of school. It was like that my first semester too. I was shocked at how fast they had us out there interacting with real patients! I love going to clinical because it lets me experience what we've been taught in labs and lecture :) In two weeks I get to start my OB rotation and I'm super excited! :)

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First semester - 1 clinical for 6 hours. Next semester, 2 8 hour clinicals. Then we have to 12s.

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Specializes in Trauma.

First semester we had 5 (I think) 10 hr clinicals at a LTC facility, plus many lab days. It was not unusual to be on campus for class and labs 4 days a week, plus our clinical assignment.

This semester, 2nd, we have class 2 days a week and labs 2 days a week for the month of January. Starting in Feb. our labs are completed except for the occasional simulation labs. Our clinicals, med/surg and OB/peds, will replace our labs. Some weeks we will have class twice and 2 clinicals in the same week.

One problem with our clinicals is the distance driven for some. I have an assignment in April that is in a clinic that is over an hour from my home. This is not unusual for our program. We had a student last semester that was required to drive almost 1 1/2 hrs to get to her clinicals.

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We are in first semester first 3 weeks skills lab once a week, then clinical once a week

8am - 2pm

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In my BSN program (back when Florence and I were classmates) we had clinical from 0700-1400 three days a week (Tues, Weds, Thurs) for sophomore, junior, and senior years. Add in the rest of all the academic stuff and we had very, very full weeks. (On Mondays I was in class from 0800 to 2200 with an hour off in the middle of the day; on Thursdays I had classes after clinical from 1600-2000). We didn't take all our science classes and distribution requirements before we started nursing, either. It was a full four year program. You wussies. :)

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I'm in a 4 year program and last semester I had OB clinicals from 0700-1530 (one day) and mental health clinicals for 8 weeks from 1300-2000 (one day) and switched to a community site from 0800-1100. Now for medsurg, I'm there one day a week from 0700-1530 again with prep work the night before.

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Specializes in L&D.
Wow guys. My only clinical day is Thursdays 7:30am-12:30pm. And that's it. Granted, throughout the semester we have a few clinical rotations where we observe like STD clinic, radiology, dialysis, etc. but I'm only in my second semester in a two year program.

My second semester of my BSN program was exactly like that. We had clinical one day per week from 7 a.m. to 12:50 p.m., but we didn't have observation days until this semester. Our clinicals now are 7 a.m. to 3:50 p.m. twice per week.

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Specializes in Neuroscience.

Honestly, I wish that everyday of nursing school was a clinical day. I learned a little more today, and everyone was so willing to teach, to pass off a little bit of wisdom, and my clinical instructor is pretty much amazing.

Today I learned that an 18-20 gauge needle should be used for an IV if the person is going to need surgery. Didn't know that before, but I'm only a first semester student.

I was also taught how to give an Intraosseous infusion! If you don't know what that is, it's where they drill into the bone to start an IV when one can't be started (or time is short) on a patient who needs medicine/fluids/etc or death is imminent. I was able to practice with the drill on the bone model. They were teaching the ER nurses and invited me in. How cool is that?!

I'd love to hear the cool things you learned on your clinical day, because every day we should learn something!

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Specializes in Med/surg, Onc.

I've never had a day where I didn't learn something new. There is always something to learn, and I think that's true no matter how long you've been a nurse too. Even if it's not a new skill, I learn something from a patient, or family, or PT/OT, etc.

I'm graduating in December and spending my last 6 week in a preceptorship in a Burn ICU. Today I learned how to remove, bath, and dress several different kinds of burns. This is by far my favorite place I've ever been.

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I know! I have learned so much in such a short time. Clinical is where all of my "aha" moments happen when I'm finally able to connect all that book learnin' to actual patient care.

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Specializes in Primary Care, OR.

I just want to say.......

I absolutely LOVE your attitude! It's so refreshing:cool:. For every few students that whine/complain etc about clinical, there's a student like you who grasps onto it and learns. This is where you learn best practices.

And I'm always saying that nursing should go back to those good ole' days that our seasoned nurses talked about where you learned to be a nurse at the hospital, not in a classroom.

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