--I'm wondering what clinical shift students prefer more, and why??
I personally think morning shift would be better because i want to get it out of the way and have the rest of the day to myself. But I get to chose last because i'm turning in my paperwork late. I'm hoping there will still be space left for the morning shift!
I prefer evenings. I'm more of a night person and that schedule just fits me better. I can't stand getting up at 4:30 to get to clinical by 6:30. This semester I'm on days, but my clinical doesn't start until 7:45 so I can deal with that a little better, especially knowing that it's my last semester!
I have kids in school, and if they can't go to school d/t illness or snow days, it is a lot easier to find someone to take care of them in the afternoon until their dad comes home. Like today, they had a snow day and I would have had a hard time finding someone to watch them all day!
Also, I never get any studying done at night until they are in bed, and with morning clinicals, I had to go to sleep as early as they did, so I lost a lot of study time. Now I can study while they are in school until I have to go.
One good thing about morning clinicals, though, is that you keep really busy. Sometimes nights can get slow and I feel I may not be learning as much.
I prefer days and here's why. The hospitals we work at are on 7-7 shifts. Our clinicals are on 7-3 or 3-11 shifts. Last semester I was on the 3-11 shift and so halfway into my shift my nurse would leave and I got stuck with which ever nurse ended up with my patient. More than once, two or three of us students would end up getting the same evening nurse because she happend to inherit our patients. I can only remember one occasion where the transition from the day and evening nurses that was beneficial for me. Usually we students would basically be left to fend for ourselves after the nurses shift change. I am looking forward to this semester, I will be on weekend days.
I've never had a morning/day clinical, but I have to agree with you on that. It was horrible switching nurses halfway through clinical and it always happened when we were at dinner so we'd just come back to it.
I would prefer morning shift. I think morning shift is more active than night shift. The hardest thing though is waking up very early to come in at 6am. You can do a lot of things more after the shift. You can still see a movie, do an errand, meet friends, go shopping or just go home and sleep more :chuckle , enough time to have a life.
This is just an opinion with my lifestyle. it is still all up to you.:typing
I preferred the one evening clinical I had over my morning ones, mainly because there was no AM care to do. Not having to do baths, make beds, etc. allowed me to focus more on learning meds, reading chart, & getting more in depth information on the patient. And also there seemed to be more visitors during the evening, so I had the chance to learn how to interact with families as well as patients.
I chose evening clinicals, for two reasons, one I'm working PM's and wanted a schedule more synched with my work one and two a lot of students in my clinical group are parents and I figured they actually probably needed the daytime times, so I waited and put myself on the PM's (I think I was the only one who wanted PM's)
Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry, Emergency, SAFE.
EVENINGSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!
Ive done both. Being a night owl, its always hard for me to wake up to get to the hospital at 7am. 2nd semster, I did Peds evenings fropm 1500 to 2130. This semster, my 4th, I have mental health evenings that are from 1500 - 2230. Im going to LOVE it.
Ive just found the hospital, in general, to be a calmer place in the evening time. Theres less staff, and most staff that Ive encountered (including the department i work for) are not as "high strung" as some can be in the day time.
It really depends on what you want to get out of your clinical experience. As a couple of posters mentioned, the majority of action happens in the AM. You'll experience a lot more with an early clinical.
9livesRN, BSN, RN
1,570 Posts
i must work at night but if not, i would get nights!
am doing days 6.30am - 3.30pm