RN Clinical Help

[Mommy2010]

I have not applied yet to nursing school, but I have spoken to an advisor about the nursing program. I want some opinions on the actual internship. I will not be in clinicals or the internship for at least 2-3 years because there is a waiting list. My question is how do the internships work? I have a co-worker that is in clinicals/internship last quarter and she told me that here, 1st internship is 6 hours, 2nd internship is 10 hours and then 3rd-6th internships are 12 hours long. What I am wondering is how many of you were on day shift internships? Did any of you have kids and do the internship? Did any of you work a job while taking care of kids and doing the internship? I was told by my co-worker that she has class 2 days per week and one day she is in internship. Now granted I have no clue how she did it because she was only off work 1.5 days per week. So I'm guessing her internship was after class or something.

How did you nurses do it? What was your most inspiration in staying in nursing school while you didn't get to see your kids? I'm very concerned if I enroll in nursing school about being this much away from my kids. I don't mind being away while I go to class, but if I have to be away for internship 12 hours and then have class 2 days per week, I'm unsure how I'll do it, unless I quit my job. Luckily I won't need to worry about it for awhile, but now I am starting to worry. Also, how many days a week did you have your internships? So far I know for the 1st-2nd internships here it's 1 day per week. Please give me some insight!

Thank you!

[guiltysins]

Are clinicals and internships considered the same thing or are they seperate? Clinicals are attached to the class so you're doing them for a grade and some of them are 12 hours but clinicals are only one day a week. They are always during the day usually from 7am-7pm or 8am-8pm to practice the skills you have learned during your classes.

It's going to be hard but you have to look at it like this. If you want to be a nurse in a hospital, you are going to have to work 12 hour shifts at least 3 days a week so having a clinical once a week is nothing compared to doing that 3 days out of the week. Most hospitals don't have 8 hr shifts and if they do, new nurses hardly ever get it. There's also a very good chance you'll work nights as a new grad.