How do you pick your clinical assignment?

AmyB · Jul 17, 2004

For some clinicals, what hospitals and which instructors will be available isn't known until the last minute, literally. The reasoning is that if you want to be with a certain group of people, you should all sign up together in the same section. At least that way, if you have to drive forever, you'll know who your carpool buddies will be.

I know that for my OB/Pedi rotation this fall, the hospital selection is very limited. They need to get a number through registration, I guess, to plan for assignments.

It's a cruddy way to do things, especially when you're paying for such seemingly procrastination. This is how things were explained to us when we asked the same question.

Good luck!

PennyLane, RN · Jul 17, 2004

Wow, that would peeve me. At my school you wake up at 6 am on registration day and try and get your first choice--you know the site, the days and times, and sometimes the instructor. However, since only a few of our professors teach clinicals as well, usually you get a clinical instructor who doesn't work at the university, so it's someone you've never met before. They offer a good variety of choices, with most being here in Baltimore city, and a few in D.C. or another county for the few people who commute.

I know some people who sign up with their friends, but I prefer to choose the site that I'm interested in most for that particular clincal. I also like to try out as many area hospitals as possible to get a flavor for where I'd like to work after I graduate.

jenrninmi, MSN, RN · Jul 17, 2004

At my school, we have no idea where we are going, or who your instructor is until the end of the previous semester, and when you pick the section, you're picking a number and also have no idea who you have or where you're going.

suzy253, RN · Jul 17, 2004

depends on our rotation at the time. if you're rotating thru ob/gyn you'll already know which hospital you're assigned to.

but first don't pick our clinical instructors--we're in clnical groups of 8 people or so assigned to an instructor. the instructor goes to the hospital day before clinicals and goes thru the patient records and chooses a patient for us..we're assigned a patient (or 2) and we pick up the patient information our instructors have chosen for us the day before clinicals.

mitchsmom · Jul 17, 2004

We just have one section of each clinical course for registration, then the nursing department schedules all the groups and locations for the clinical component of the course. We usually have 3 sites in 3 counties and they do their best to accomodate and not put someone in the southernmost country in the northern one, etc. So there is no choice over what instructor you get. My clinicals for Fall will be on Monday or Tuesday and I did request the one that is better for me, since I drive really far and I have daycare constraints, and I think she's going to help me out on that.

oldiebutgoodie, RN · Jul 17, 2004

At my school, we can request a particular site, but we may or may not get it. They usually take into account your geographic location. Furthermore, we can't choose instructors at all. So, we are pretty much assigned the site and instructor, with only a little bit of input on the site.

I think they don't allow us to choose instructors, because there would be some instructors with no students at all! One would think that they would replace these instructors, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Oldiebutgoodie

luvbug9956 · Jul 17, 2004

My school was the same way. We didnt know our placement...site or instructor...until about a week before clinical. The explanation was that clinicals were assigned by ability, GPA, etc. A mix of stronger and weaker students per group. This was so that if someone weaker needed help with something (except for like meds or stuff like taht), they could ask a stronger student for help. This also saves time for teh instructor, who is usually pulled in 10 different directions...if there were 8 or 9 less-confident students per clinical, the instructor would go nuts. They need some more independent students for the mix. Plus, if we could choose, there would be huge arguments, as some of our clinical sites were up to an hour from our school.

KibbsRNstudent · Jul 17, 2004

In the past we were allowed to sign up for a certain teacher, but did not know the actual clinical site until days before our first clinical day. This semester we sign up for a section number, without knowing the instructor or clinical site. I disagree with this new type of registration. I would like at least a little bit of information, especially when it comes to my education.....the education that I am paying for. The office has been kind enough, only if you asked, to inform us that a particular section is an hour away so we know to not sign up for that one. The instructors must be sworn to secrecy, because they are not saying anything. Its seems to me the office will be left making different types of concessions for all the students who blindly sign up for clinicals that may be up to an hour or more away.
Does anyone know the reasoning behind doing it this way??

Our school does the same thing. We sign up for a DAY we want our clinicla to be on and if you are lucky you get the day you choose. But taht is all you know. In fact I am an evening student and I was informed we MAY have to do a DAY shift once in awhile if our instructor or the certain rotation deems it. But we will not be told till the day before the clinical. Plus I start cliniclas this fall. I know that I have cliniclas on Wed. nights from 3-11 but I do not know where or how far away it will be or who the instructor is. I will not know anything until Tuesday the day before the clinical starts. Humph! :uhoh3:

What is hard is that I have 2 pre-schoolers and they are not in daycare so my husband will come home just in time(usually late) for me to get to class and so I need to know when to tell my husband to be home by as some hospitals are an hour away. I like the hour away hospital though. Plus if I do a day then my husband can't go to work at all. (he runs the business) and he is already getting peeved at me for all the schedual changes.

Energizer Bunny · Jul 17, 2004

I hope I don't run into a lot of problems with my clinical rotations. In order to keep my government funding for childcare (if I get it), I have to pick the kids up from the daycare center within fifteen minutes of my class ending. This is one of my main concerns for the fall (outside of school itself, of course).

JudithL_in_NH · Jul 18, 2004

We're assigned, plain and simple. Get a letter a couple of weeks before the semester starts. Virtually no input regarding site or instructor allowed or desired by the faculty.

We can request to not be put at a particular site for extraordinary circumstances (like a ridiculously long commute time or child care issues), but there are no guarantees.

I think it's hard enough for them to find suffficient clinical slots for us, that they don't want to have to deal with who'd prefer to be where and what not except for really valid concerns, rather than preferences for one teacher over another. We have a strong faculty, and I can honestly say I'd be willing to work with any of the faculty--not a klunker in the bunch. If we had some really awful instructors, I might feel differently.

RedSox33RN · Jul 18, 2004

We're assigned, plain and simple. Get a letter a couple of weeks before the semester starts. Virtually no input regarding site or instructor allowed or desired by the faculty.
We can request to not be put at a particular site for extraordinary circumstances (like a ridiculously long commute time or child care issues), but there are no guarantees.
I think it's hard enough for them to find suffficient clinical slots for us, that they don't want to have to deal with who'd prefer to be where and what not except for really valid concerns, rather than preferences for one teacher over another. We have a strong faculty, and I can honestly say I'd be willing to work with any of the faculty--not a klunker in the bunch. If we had some really awful instructors, I might feel differently.

Are you at NHTI, Judith? I wasn't sure how they did things there. I'm attending the Riv in September. I know they have a multitude of clinical sites, including many in MA, and we can request not to have something on the other end of the Earth, but it may not happen, depending on the rotation and spots at clinical sites. My commute to the school is 1 hour - if I get placed in some site in MA, with traffic, it could be 2+.