How far did everyone travel for clinical practice?

MelodyRNurse · May 14, 2007

Hi, I live on the east coast but we did have students that had (or chose) to travel 2 hours.

SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN · May 15, 2007

Yup.

The classes were 2 hours away, clinicals, 2 hrs 15 minutes.

Jules A, MSN · May 15, 2007

90 minutes each way.

student456 · May 15, 2007

mine took 2 hrs to get to. i had to take a subway for 45 minutes THEN take 2 seperate busses to get there. i hated travelling to clinical

one of my clincal peers had a 3 hr travel time EACH way so every clinical day was around 6 hrs of travelling time in total. we HATED it and complained so much to the nursing coordinator but they wouldnt or couldnt switch us. it was insane

RNrural · May 15, 2007

Hello, Of course I live in a rural area and we travel wherever we need to go. Classes are 45 miles away and I had to travel 105 miles to my clinical sites. Many nights I spent at the Super 8 because it is to hard to work 12 hours and drive 100 miles home only to do it again the next day. Very hard on my budget. I am so thankful to be able to get my degree that I am willing to do what I need to do. By the way the hospital I work at is also 45 miles away.

Sensoria17 · May 15, 2007

Yikes! That is crazy. It doesn't help that I'm in an area where new LVN programs seem to sprout every night. I know there is competition for clinical space but come on, there is a medical facility of some sort on every other block. I was also thinking about staying at a motel if the sites are that far away. Glad I'm not the only one.

kat7ap · May 15, 2007

School campus was 10 min, clinicals #1 was 10 min, clinicals #2 and #3 were 15 min. Yeah it was nice, I hate commuting!

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · May 15, 2007

I lived in a city in Central California during my time in the LVN program, and drove 95 miles one-way from my home to the main campus on a daily basis. Some of the clinical sites were located up to 106 miles away from my home, and this was one-way travel. Roundtrip travel would have been 212 miles.

If you want it badly enough, you will spend the two hours on the road, traveling to your clinical sites. I wanted to accomplish my goals badly enough, so I made the conscious decision to drive on a daily basis. My little vehicle had 46,000 miles at the start of my LVN program, and by the end it had over 98,000 miles.

Thus, my screen name is 'TheCommuter'. I have done plenty of commuting, whether it's been to school or work.

lala123 · May 15, 2007

I made sure I was at least very close to campus so moved 5 minutes away. To the FIRST clinical site was about 6 minutes, to the second was probably 8-10 minutes, and to the hospital was about 10 minutes. I feel for all the people that have to drive soo much. Good Luck!

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · May 15, 2007

I know there is competition for clinical space but come on, there is a medical facility of some sort on every other block.

A major problem is that many local medical facilities refuse to accept students for clinical rotations, because they have the right to do so. If they do accept students, the RN pupils tend to get the top priority. After the RN students are accomodated, then they'll consider adding LVN students, respitatory therapy students, medical assisting students, and so on. Often, these facilities do not want to be bothered with students.

scallywags · May 15, 2007

I'm getting ready to apply to LVN programs here in N. California. One of the schools I'm looking at (Gurnick Academy in Concord) lists some of their clinical sites as being in Sacramento. That's two hours away! Did anyone travel that far for clinicals? :uhoh21:

Hi!

I am a recent Grad of Gurnick (San Mateo). I will tell you that when I enrolled, some of the listed sites were in San Jose. I never once traveled to San Jose. I found that our clinical sites were varied and we had some choices of where we wanted to go, when available and based on availability.

I would confirm with the counselor as to where the actual clinicals will be held rather than the info on their website. Like I said, many of the places that were listed when I enrolled were never part of our clinical experience.

Good luck with the program :)