How much do they let you customize your program/select your clinicals at your school?

Nursing Students General Students

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I just had orientation and learned that we'll have 180 hrs of clinicals first semester that are randomly chosen for us. Second semester, we get a choice between various types of surgery and general medicine at a couple different hospitals. Third and fourth semester we have a wide range of options (I'll be able to choose inpatient psychiatry first semester and outpatient psych/substance abuse the next, since my interest is mental health). We rank our choices for clinicals and hopefully get our top choice (though, if your top choice is peds it's less likely you'll get it, since so many people want peds).

How does this work at your schools??

Just curious what your schools NCLEX completion ratings are. If you google it, each area posts when the students graduated, and what percentage passed. This is a way to tell from the starting number how many make it to graduation including retakes, and how well the school does in preparing it's students for the nclex. If you check the date graduated and the date the exam was taken you will also see how prepared the students were for the exam. In the end, it's only passing the nclex that matters, and numbers will speak volumes in how well the school is preparing it's students.

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Specializes in Trauma.

Along with the NCLEX pass rate knowing what the attrition rate is would also be very helpful. A school with a 98% pass rate sounds like a great school until you learn that 80% of the students that started failed before graduation.

Just curious what your schools NCLEX completion ratings are. If you google it, each area posts when the students graduated, and what percentage passed. This is a way to tell from the starting number how many make it to graduation including retakes, and how well the school does in preparing it's students for the nclex. If you check the date graduated and the date the exam was taken you will also see how prepared the students were for the exam. In the end, it's only passing the nclex that matters, and numbers will speak volumes in how well the school is preparing it's students.
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We do not get to choose which area we have clinical in, but since the school serves a wide rural area, there are a variety of hospitals in a pretty large area that do clinicals. We are allowed to request which hospital and time we would like our clinicals to be in. We aren't guaranteed to get what we request, but they do work hard to accommodate everyone.

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Specializes in surgical, geriatrics.

We have a small amount of choice only because we are allowed to swap with others if we don't get the facility we'd like.

I'm trying to do mine so that I can end up in better facilities for the topics I'm more interested in (eg; med surg) but each preceptor has ten of us, which kind of stinks. That means having to jockey a lot to get any sort of time or attention without being a pest - I'm usually one of those "good, hard work speaks for itself" types and not super aggressive so I'm a little worried what could turn into a "me first" sort of environment.

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You are right. With ten students the professors will have to spend time with each student. So practice your assessments before you get to clinicals, and just have your clinical professor check you out on it to make sure you are doing it correctly.

I used a Samsung and had a couple of drug guides, and a school procedure pdf for skills on mine so I had a quick place to look up info that did not take that much space. This way I was not asking questions I could just look up.

We also had free tutors on campus who were great for answering questions and a nursing skills lab where we could practice our skills.

I mostly used youtube to see whatever assessment I was working on performed by an instructor, so when I went to clinicals I could do my assessments.

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We have no options in my school. We don't even get to pick which classes we get they put you in one. They will let us switch if we can find a student willing to switch classes or clinical with us. That is the only way we get any kind of choice. There was a girl once who told our nursing program director she need a certain clinical group and that she really didn't want certain clinical instructor and she was put with the clinical instructor she said she didn't want. So now we all know to just let them put us where ever and cross our fingers its the one we wanted.

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That is really frustrating. I really don't like it when the schools start to take away the rights of students, as when they get to working the school system has taught the students to put up with the system. When this is done on a mass scale, it ends up educating students on a mass scale that they have limited choices and that they are secondary to the system. Not too long ago, students had choices as to their teachers, classes and schedules. Scary what we are educating our future professionals to be.

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Specializes in Med/ Surg/ Telemetry, Public Health.

I so envy you, we don't get to choose anything. We just show up the first day of class and are given the hospital, days and times for clinical. I heard the last semester we turn in two areas/specialties that we would like to do clinical, even then you are not guaranteed that area. Depending on your clinical section is to what hospital you will be at, but like I said you won't know until the first day of class.

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Specializes in Hospitalist Medicine.

We don't get to choose anything. We are placed and go where they tell us. There are clinical sites close by and there are some that are over an hour's drive away. Hoping mightily for a site close to home! :D

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No choice at all. But then again the first year and a half the only site we had was a nursing home. I'll be starting my preceptorship soon, and it will be either at the same nursing home or a small hospital. I told the instructor I desparately want NOT to go the most awful facility I've seen in my life (the nursing home) but spots are given at random so I dont know where I'm going yet.

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In my town of 100,000 people we only have one hospital so we only get one choice... last semester our preceptorship, we get to pick shift and which floor (CV, ICU, Acute Care etc)

I am glad I didn't get choices, because some of the choices that were made for me, I may not have picked for myself!

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We submit a wish list, and you can rank what is most important to you such as, specific hospital, location or type of hospital. I have gotten my first choice for every rotation but one so far. For senior practicum we can make a pretty extensive list including unit and hospital, I hear they are pretty good about getting you into either your first choice unit or hospital as long as you are not to picky (for example asking for any ICU vs Burn ICU).

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