School Pretty Much Canceled Clinical

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I am really sorry. I just need a space to be upset.

My BSN program’s university just permanently shut down for the rest of the semester due to COVID-9. All instruction and testing will be done online, including clinical. We were given a number of ATI assignments and case study quizzes, and were told this will be our clinical for the rest of the semester.

I feel completely cut-out from the bread-and-butter of nursing school, which is hands-on, clinical experience. I feel like this is not prepping me to be the most competent nurse I can be. I hope I never want to be an OB or Peds nurse, as I will basically have no clinical experience in these areas before entering the work force. Even more frustrating, medical students’ clinicals are not canceled. Apparently only future doctors’ hands-on learning matters. Forget that nurses and doctors are equally responsible for patient well-being once school is over and we’re on the floor.

I just don’t understand how on Earth online quizzes can possibly be considered a clinical. Reading and writing does not prepare you to be a nurse.

Rant over.

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.

Take a deep breath. One of the first things you will realize when you enter the real world of nursing is that school did not teach you how to be a nurse- that is why you have a good, thorough orientation. The online/virtual clinicals are the school's way of providing hours so that you can graduate on time. There are actually some schools where students will end up having to graduate late, either due to BON requirements or other reasons. It's good that your school is working on a solution that doesn't create that delay. Additionally, there are many facilities that are curtailing medical student rotations; however, some are using them to actually help manage the provider workload.

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Specializes in ED, psych.

Everything RoseQueen said.

I understand the disappointment... but your school figured out a way for you to graduate in time. And most of what I’ve learned (and keep learning ... and learning), I’ve learned on the job. From my coworkers, my nurse educators, from orientation and further training classes at a WORK.

I learned how to take the NCLEX in nursing school...

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Be thankful your school is accommodating you to the extent that it is, so that you can graduate on time. I attended my clinicals and found them to be close to worthless. I learned more by rarely practicing a procedure at my LTC care job as a CNA under the watchful eye of one of the nurses. When I got on the job as a licensed nurse I really found out just how worthless my clinical classes were. You will learn your hands on skills at work, just like all of us do. Again, be glad that your school is providing you the means to graduate on time. Mine certainly would not have done this.

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Specializes in NICU.
13 hours ago, Futurenurse7321 said:

I feel completely cut-out from the bread-and-butter of nursing school, which is hands-on, clinical experience. I feel like this is not prepping me to be the most competent nurse I can be. I hope I never want to be an OB or Peds nurse, as I will basically have no clinical experience in these areas before entering the work force.

ME ME ME. It is all about me.

1) You are going to graduate and start working as a nurse. There is a local CC that is considering making the students repeat their classes next semester. All of their work this semester is going to be wasted. Would you rather spend an extra 6 months in school in order to get your clinical hours in?

2) You would rather potentially expose vulnerable patients (newborns and sick kids that may already have respiratory issues) for the sake of your clinical experience. Are you going to say to a parent "I'm sorry that your child died because a bunch of nursing students needed to get their clinical experience, but me getting my clinicals in is more important than your child's life."

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On 3/17/2020 at 4:50 PM, Rose_Queen said:

Take a deep breath. One of the first things you will realize when you enter the real world of nursing is that school did not teach you how to be a nurse- that is why you have a good, thorough orientation. The online/virtual clinicals are the school's way of providing hours so that you can graduate on time. There are actually some schools where students will end up having to graduate late, either due to BON requirements or other reasons. It's good that your school is working on a solution that doesn't create that delay. Additionally, there are many facilities that are curtailing medical student rotations; however, some are using them to actually help manage the provider workload.

WOW! looks like you are also a hypocrite. “Help manage the provider workload”. So it’s okay for medical student rotations to continue, but not for nursing students

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1 hour ago, Cactuslover said:

WOW!! looks like you are also a hypocrite. “Help manage the provider workload”. So it’s okay for medical student rotations to continue, but not for nursing students

You are making a disparaging remark where all the poster did was to state a fact. Nowhere did I see in that post that she favored utilizing med student labor over nursing student labor.

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OP, when you actually start working as a nurse you will understand. We have no students at our hospital right now. We have no visitors.

Feel sorry for the families that can’t come up and say good-bye to their dying loved ones.

Understand that every extra person that is not essential to the running of the hospital puts our patients at risk of dying. This is a life or death situation right now.

To top it off, we as nurses are being stretched extremely thin and are under an extreme amount of pressure. I would not be effective with students right now. I’m too busy trying to save the lives of the dying while worrying about when the next time I will see my family.

This is a horrific situation in many places. See this for what it is and focus on graduating. You don’t learn crap in clinical anyway.

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While what everyone posted is true, that doesn't make these nursing students' situation suck any less. It's completely normal to feel the way OP is feeling. As long as she is not trying to suggest that they still should be having clinical, that is. That's a different story.

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Be glad that your school has a plan!! We are still waiting for answers from ours. They’ve switched to on Lin classes, but still have to get the secure testing for us to do tests from home. They said they are working on a replacement for clinicals to be approved. And theses other responders are right- clinicals are a joke!! Maybe some schools are good, but I feel like mine can’t teach us much because we have 1 instructor and 8 students! I just pray that we are able to finish in May so I can get a job and really learn to be a nurse!

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Specializes in Field Nurse.

I agree with the others, most of what you will learn will be at your first job, and as you go through life you will pick up more and more knowledge. I noticed in school I was just so nervous I would fail I didn't fully soak in the information and only after I started my first job did everything I learned click.

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I am with you for needing to vent and rant OP, it is a trying time to start school (ADJUST) and for us EVERY other day there was a new plan and each plan knocked us down a peg.

One email (annoyingly but rightfully so) started with "Nursing is all about changes and now we are expected to change AGAIN and you can either embrace it for it what it is or make it more complicated than it needs to be and try to go against it..." or something of that nature and for as HARD as I rolled my eyes at that statement, it IS true. Our life as we knew it changed completely when we started and will continue to do so as we adjust to our new and ever changing roles trying to get from point A to point B. As hard and painful as it is that our entire experience has done a 360, we are fortunate that our schools care enough to HELP us get through it.

Definitely blow off steam OP, I know I still have my moments as I was truly beginning to find myself and now have to go back to attempting to mom and wife and school all in the SAME place, but we MUST adapt and do our best to get through this.

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