Question about clinicals

Italia13 RN · Sep 17, 2007

Yes, at my school they give us a list of the hospitals available for that rotation and we put our top 3 choices and they try to accomadate us... but they set up everything!

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Sep 17, 2007

I went to a school in a rural area where there were only two hospitals. We were allowed to chose which hospital we wanted to go to. On our clinical days, our instructors went to the hospital earlier than us and picked out patients for each of her students. We students met in the lobby of the hospital for 15 minutes with our instructor where we were given our patient assignments and a general little "talking to" before being sent off to get report on our patients and do the patient care. During our 4 hours we were expected to give our patients their medications and treatments as well as make sure they received their basic nursing care. We had to page our instructor to check all medications and treatments that we gave (she had to be at our side when we did these things). If we had any free time we looked for procedures or other experiences we could watch being done on the nursing unit we were on. At the end of our 4 hours all of us students met with our clinical instructor in a conference room for about an hour where we had a post conference and discussed our experiences that day.

Tami707 · Sep 17, 2007

My school is a little different. We are scheduled two days/week for 8 hours/day. The school assigns us to our location, either a hopsital or SNF (Skilled Nursing Facility, first semester only). For the first few weeks our instructor assigned us to a patient, then we were able to pick our own patients. Now, in my third semester, I am assigned a nurse, and they tell me which of their patients I will be caring for. We are responsible for total patient care, as well as documentation. Our instructor is present for new procedures, the resources nurse for med passes, and will go over and discuss our charting with us, before they sign off on it. At the end of the day, we have post-conference for about an hour.

MB37 · Sep 17, 2007

My school works with at least 8 hospitals, and depending on which program you're in, you get a choice of two or three. They try to spread them out across town so everyone should have an option somewhat near home. You rank your choices though, so no guarantee of first choice. We stay in the same hospital for the entire program, unless yours doesn't offer, say, Peds - then they'll have you paired with another hospital in that area if possible for that rotation. Unlike many other schools, my school splits us up so it's just two students to a floor. We stay on that floor for the whole rotation (with the option to switch at halfway). Each day of clinical, we are assigned to a preceptor, and later we'll be assigned our own patient (s) from her assignment. Every school/hospital seems to do this differently!

CT Pixie, BSN, RN · Sep 17, 2007

We are not allowed to pick our clinical sites nor can we change with another student who may be at a place we want to be.

Every mod (like a semester) we are told about a week before clinical starts again, where we will be going for clinical, who our instructor will be and a list of the other students who will be at the same site.

We are at that site 3 days a week from 6:45a-2:20pm. We are not allowed to pick our patients or floor. Our instructor gives us our patient, all the pertinent info we need and we go do our assessments, treatments, allowed meds etc. We have that patient for the 3 days. The following week, we get a new patient.

I'm lucky in the fact that I don't live very far from any of the sites we go to for clinicals, so in all honesty, it doesn't matter to me where I go for clinicals. And all my clinical instructors have been great.

Best of luck when you enter nursing school.

Toey · Sep 17, 2007

We ave a list of participating hospitals and Nursing homes and they separate us out by section. Some people do clinicals on Monday and Tuesday, while the others go to clinicals on Wednesday and Thursday.

After we were broken into sections we then were assigned hospitals based on our location. People were allowed to switch as some had to accommodate daycare or work schedules. So basically they organized 50+ students down to manageable groups of 8 or 9.

This is my first semester so we are doing a buddy system. Another student is designated as our "buddy" and if patient care arises where we need assistance ie. lifting, making a bed, bathing, etc. We grab our buddy and work as a team. We are assigned 2 residents and we are responsible for all aspects of those residents care. ( minus medication passing which won't won't do until the the end of this month)

Right now im a a SNF so we all rotate through different aspects of the facility so we get experience in all areas. For instance, I start off in the ambulatory wing, then Ill rotate to the chronic wing, then the rehab/ phisical therapy wing then finish up with the dementia unit.

allthingsbright · Sep 18, 2007

We are assigned to a hospital for each area of study. Peds only had one hospital we would go to, but in all other areas students were spread across three facilities. I guess every school does things differently!

danh3190 · Sep 19, 2007

Our school is associated with hospitals all over the county. The students are no longer allowed to request a particular hospital. Nor are we allowed to switch. We often find out what hospital we'll be in and who the instructor will be the day before clinical. How we're assigned seems to depend on the particular rotation we're in. Twice we were assigned by Zip Code, which was fantastic.

There's a great amount of variety of styles among the clinical instructors. Some assign you multiple patients. Some will only give you one patient. Most actually assign you the patients. One just put up a list with the patients' complaints and we signed up for the patient we wanted.

Soup Turtle · Sep 19, 2007

Our clinical groups spread out all over the city and even out of the city! We sign up for a time and instructor, but we usually don't know where we're going until a few days before classes start. Certain instructors are more likely to be associated with certain hospitals, but even the instructors for our classes can change up to a few days before class.

The nursing program told us they actually put names up as "place holders" until they figure out who will be instructing. They also change the times as late as the first day of clinical.