This semester is my first clinical so I am a bit anxious. School begins on August 27th for us and most people are not aware of their clinical location at this point. Since I was on campus today I decided to ask the Clinical Coordinator about it. Her first response was "what difference does it make?"
I know I will be carpooling with people so there's that. Also one clinical location is Spanish speaking and I am not proficient in Spanish at all; I'd need to brush up if that was the case.... Also, just general curiosity.
She eventually said they were still trying to figure things out and she had two places narrowed down.
Maybe I was a bit naive to go in and ask, I didn't realize it was so complicated on their end.
It is more difficult that you imagine to work out clinical rotations. I am a hospital educator and in charge of nursing student schedules. There are five nursing schools with various levels of students. Some need preceptors, some don't. They all want weekdays with day shift. The BON requires no more than 10 students per instructor, or a few more with a second instructor. They all want pre/post conference space. They all want time in the Cath lab, special procedures, ER and other places where I can only place a few at a time. Cannot have two schools in same department at the same time. It is a real pain to work this out. And I have not yet gotten to required documentation for each student---some cannot come to our facility because they refuse to get the immunizations and titers we require, or their CPR card is not valid. So there are substitutions. A real challenge.
I start the 25th. I still don't know who my professors will be or where clinicals will be. Also, no one mentioned to is when/how to get out nursing student ID's.
I'll show up the first day prepared with everything that they told us to be prepared with, and I've been checking my email regularly in between.
I won't know my clinical placement until several weeks into classes already starting. We spend the first 2 or 3 weeks in "Clinical Labs" before they toss us into an actual clinical placement.
It is more difficult that you imagine to work out clinical rotations. I am a hospital educator and in charge of nursing student schedules. There are five nursing schools with various levels of students. Some need preceptors, some don't. They all want weekdays with day shift. The BON requires no more than 10 students per instructor, or a few more with a second instructor. They all want pre/post conference space. They all want time in the Cath lab, special procedures, ER and other places where I can only place a few at a time. Cannot have two schools in same department at the same time. It is a real pain to work this out. And I have not yet gotten to required documentation for each student---some cannot come to our facility because they refuse to get the immunizations and titers we require, or their CPR card is not valid. So there are substitutions. A real challenge.
Take all the above and wash, rinse, repeat at the other hospitals that choose to host Nursing Students... and you might get an inkling of just how difficult it can be to set up clinical placements because the schools have to communicate with their partner hospitals about this stuff and have to work out schedules that accommodate all their students among all the partners with all of their specific requirements.
I'm not in any educator position but I'm not exactly uneducated in the ways of how such processes work generally. In short, I know it's a huge pain that is repeated at least twice each year, and sometimes 3 or 4 times per year, depending upon how the local programs run (semester, quarter, standard academic year or full calendar...).
We never knew until the first day. Sometimes they'd change us to evenings from days that first week, which was a huge challenge.
But then I heard from one of the critical/trauma care instructors at my hospital that when she went to school, she lived in a rural area nearly two hours from her clinical site where she had to be 12 hour clinical days a few days a week and 8 hour classroom days a couple days a week and if you couldn't swing that, you got the boot. Made me thankful for the small amount of inconvenience I dealt with and the flexibility to make changes when I needed to.
Specializes in Tele, Interventional Pain Management, OR.
In my program, we will not know clinical placements until the first day of class. We have already completed criminal background checks, drug tests, immunizations, facility-mandated education modules and etc. so all compliance bases are covered for each potential facility. We know the names/locations of potential clinical sites, but we won't know our individual assignments for another couple of weeks.
I would imagine that arranging clinical sites presents extreme challenges for the several nursing programs in/around our sorta big and ever-growing city. I would love to know where I'll be this Fall for planning purposes, but our student handbook makes it pretty clear that we need to be prepared to attend clinical sites within a particular radius surrounding the city. There's not a lot to do at this point but wait!
To answer the OP's question: I would bet it's pretty normal not to know your clinical location until the first class day.
Specializes in public health, women's health, reproductive health.
It's perfectly normal where I go to nursing school. It used to worry and upset me. But now, going into my last semester, I'm completely relaxed about it. They'll work it out. They always do.
We didn't know until after the first day of school. I think we knew in the first week or two, and then we had to do all of the competency stuff the hospital requires and get badges and logins and such. Meh. Part of nursing school is being flexible and going with the flow. If this is enough to stress you out, you're in for a long ride. Brush up on the Spanish, regardless, because chances are, you'll need it anywhere.
Same thing will happen waiting for preceptorship placements. Then there are all of the last minute changes.
When I was in school clinical placement was very difficult, too many students not enough quality locations. One of my sites turned us away when we showed up, state was there for an unscheduled inspection and they didn't want to deal with students too. Another site I was at over scheduled and there were two different schools there. Fortunatly my group got to stay the other group had to reschedule. Clinicals are exciting but finding out your placement is like waiting for Christmas, time moves slower and your excitement and nerves built. Good luck.
it was the same at my school last semester. one of the sites that another 2 groups were assigned to literally turned us down a week prior to clinicals beginning (usually our clinicals start 1-week after the beginning of semester). The school was left scrambling. So even if you "know" where you're going, it can still change.
Here the hospitals have so many nursing schools to deal with, we usually do not know until a week before or so what our schedules will be like. Not only that, but they have to work around our other classes and their clinicals also. I commute and have kids in day care (single mom) and I still make it work. It will be ok, just breathe and you will be fine. Don't stress and you will be fine!
classicdame, MSN, EdD
7,255 Posts
It is more difficult that you imagine to work out clinical rotations. I am a hospital educator and in charge of nursing student schedules. There are five nursing schools with various levels of students. Some need preceptors, some don't. They all want weekdays with day shift. The BON requires no more than 10 students per instructor, or a few more with a second instructor. They all want pre/post conference space. They all want time in the Cath lab, special procedures, ER and other places where I can only place a few at a time. Cannot have two schools in same department at the same time. It is a real pain to work this out. And I have not yet gotten to required documentation for each student---some cannot come to our facility because they refuse to get the immunizations and titers we require, or their CPR card is not valid. So there are substitutions. A real challenge.