Missed clinical! :(

suzw · Feb 10, 2015

yeah, plus if she does have to make it up, it's only a half day or a even just a couple hours for the instructor to plan and show up for (if the instructor has to be on site). IF she has to make it up. We've also had someone go home a little early due to illness, and not have to make it up.

Not helpful at this point I realize, since clinical has already been missed, but if this happens to anyone else...well anyway, I would show up unless I contacted an instructor who told me not to.

Glycerine82, LPN · Feb 10, 2015

This morning I was suppose to be in clinical. I woke up about 25 mins after I was suppose to be at the site. Apparently my phone messed up, because when I woke up my alarms (I have several just in case) were "ringing" but no sound was coming out of my phone. Anyways..My instructors say "If you're more than 10 minutes late, don't even bother showing up" because they will send you home.. I still called to make them aware of the situation. I am in my last semester of nursing school and have never missed a clinical before this and I am so distraught that this happened to me!!! Especially because I absolutely love the unit that I was scheduled to be at!!
I feel like I just made myself look really bad at my prospective job-site!! What do you guys think?? Has this ever happened to you??

Happens to me more often than i'd care to admit. Get more than one actual alarm clock, not just several on your phone.

Don't dwell on it, just apologize and move on. You're a student, and you have a lot more on your plate than just a job, so it's slightly more acceptable now than when you're working.

mrsboots87 · Feb 10, 2015

Just want to mention that auto fail got the best of me. I was trying to say that most schools DONT have make up clinical. You miss it and that's just too bad.

allnurses Guide · Feb 10, 2015

Embarrassing, yes. Fatal, not usually (depends on your program). By your senior semester, you should have established a track record with the faculty, which sounds like you have a good one.

I had a clinical group a few years ago, and I was the one that was late. My scooter died halfway there, in front of a high school. Didn't have a cell phone. No way was I leaving the bike in front of the school. Pushed it about a mile toward home, parked it, hoofed it home, booked it to the hospital. Twenty minutes late, out of breath, very little time to confirm assignments (as we all know patients get moved and around and discharged, even in the middle of the night). Good thing I had left quite early. It happens. But my students were freaking out!

It happened to me in my senior clinical as well, missed the alarm. I was in a special placement, no instructor on site, my precepting nurse called me. Thirty miles away! I went in, stayed late, no bad consequences. Take a deep breath, show your instructor your receipt for the two alarm clocks (yes, plural), ask what you need to do to make it up and go on with your life.

mrsboots87 · Feb 10, 2015

We don't get dismissed for missed clinical unless it is repetitive because our school is able to obtain more then the BON required minimum hours. But it will get a clinical write up the first time. Also, if we are going to be late and miss report, then we can't be on the floor that day and get sent home. So if my instructor said don't show up at all if 10 mins late, i, like OP, would text the instructor to apologize, but also not show up because of school policy. Unless the instructor invited me to come anyway. Thankfully I haven't missed or been late, but seeing that some schools will dismiss for one miss, I'm thankful for more lenient program.

JustBeachyNurse, LPN · Feb 10, 2015

My car engine seized on the way to clinical. I left early though. Contacted my instructor. Called roadside assistance. Called my only local relative that drives (while I was early it wasnt enough time for my instructor to send a classmate to rescue me ) my mom came from the other end of the county picked me up, dropped me off at the hospital and went to meet roadside assistance to sign for the tow. A classmate drove me home.

Because of attendance issues with classmates, I had to bring in proof of tow and a note from the dealer that my engine seized and car was not able to be driven..though I'd never had an issue.

I thought I was going to have a full on panic attack. Since I was never absent I was ahead in clinical hours being 15-20 minutes late. (program front loaded in case clinical was cancelled due to weather we still could meet the BoN minimum)

The key is timely communication with your school/instructor. Don't try & pretend no one noticed.

windsurfer8, BSN, RN · Feb 10, 2015

You should not be thankful for a "lenient" program. You should want them to expect you to attend all clinicals. In the real world your boss won't be "lenient". And if you don't show or are late depending on the situation the nurse cannot leave. I have worked 16 hour days because of people "oversleeping" or "the alarm didn't go off". Funny those people are not around long. They will fire you on the spot and I have seen it happen. The ONE thing you need to learn in school is this job is not like working at Hardees and "oversleeping" is not acceptable.

2015 · Feb 10, 2015

Thanks, I'm just very embarrassed. Do you all feel this will give me a negative reputation as a future-nurse? Because I was really very interested in working on that unit.

I would write a follow up email to the instructor to express how bad I feel about what happened. It works like a charm every time. Always use very polite language in such emails. I am in graduate school and I ran into a personal problem that started as soon as I started school. I have coped with the situation for 4 semesters now, and I have one more left. I have made it a point to explain my situation to my instructors whenever necessary so that they don't think am a slacker. This might not apply to you, but it's good advice to anyone who might find him/herself in my shoes. Those people are human beings just like us.

Whispera, MSN, RN · Feb 10, 2015

In the clinical I teach, if you come more than five minutes late, up to an hour late, you get a terribly boring busywork assignment to complete before the next clinical. I figure you wasted my time and also the time of the other students who might be waiting for you, and the staff, because you'd need catch-up information to get into your activities, so I'll waste your time. If you're more than an hour late, up to 3 hours, you get a paper to write, that includes APA format and references. If you come from 3 hours to more than that late, you get two papers to write. This is for the first clinical you are late for, or miss.

I'm not a monster about it. I understand if your child is sick, or you're sick, or your car breaks down on the way. The make-up assignments might be less gruesome in those situations (and there would still be an assignment), at my discretion, but proof would be required that the disaster that happened really happened. Grandma can only die once, after all! I hate to say it, but sometimes students do stretch the truth about their tardiness and absences. The state still requires hours, even with disaster.

If you are late a second day, you're done and have failed the clinical. That means you also fail the related theory class. This is all in writing, in the syllabus.

My school has no provision for making up missed time at the clinical site, other than the kindness of the instructor. Sometimes the time can be made up with another clinical group. Sometimes the instructor would be glad to be kind, but there's no time left, either in the instructor's or the student's schedule, at the end of the semester. Also, if the clinicals require the instructor to be there just for you, that means he or she has to give a day of time for you to complete your required hours. Sometimes there just aren't those hours available.

Another school where I was clinical instructor required the student to pay $80 per hour for the instructor to be present on make-up clinical days, if make-up time was possible.

This is rigid, yes. However, work is rigid too. Everywhere I've worked, if you were more than 5 minutes tardy, three times, you were fired...

dirtyhippiegirl, BSN, RN · Feb 10, 2015

You should not be thankful for a "lenient" program. You should want them to expect you to attend all clinicals. In the real world your boss won't be "lenient". And if you don't show or are late depending on the situation the nurse cannot leave. I have worked 16 hour days because of people "oversleeping" or "the alarm didn't go off". Funny those people are not around long. They will fire you on the spot and I have seen it happen. The ONE thing you need to learn in school is this job is not like working at Hardees and "oversleeping" is not acceptable.

What boss do you work for? Yikes!

Shouldn't your scenario go the other way? A Hardees employee can easily be replaced. I am a trained professional that the hospital (or whatever company) has put thousands of dollars into training. I would HOPE that they would not fire me on the spot for being late.

strawberryluv, BSN, RN · Feb 10, 2015

Been there, done that. Just make it up. If your school is anything like most nursing schools, you just pay for the "instructor appearance fee" for the missed day which is usually somewhere like $200-400.

Red Kryptonite · Feb 10, 2015

What boss do you work for? Yikes!
Shouldn't your scenario go the other way? A Hardees employee can easily be replaced. I am a trained professional that the hospital (or whatever company) has put thousands of dollars into training. I would HOPE that they would not fire me on the spot for being late.

If it were a repeated problem, as your coworker, I would hope they fired you and got someone reliable. I'm sure it doesn't happen on a first offense, but for someone who keeps doing it....butt, meet curb!