Using your employer as your clinical site for nursing school. Anybody???

[tazcop1]

He there!

I am currently a F/T MA for a family practitioner here in AZ and I only have two more classes of pre-req's before I can apply for the nursing program and then start the wait game. I plan on taking a CNA course to hopefully transfer to a hospital that my clinic is associated with while I am waiting for my placement. My question is, has anyone ever already been employed by a hospital that also was a site for clinicals in their nursing program? If so, were you able to use your time on the unit as credit for your clinical rounds or did you have to have a separate clinical round outside of your duties for work? I'm nervous about finally getting to the end and actually starting the Nursing program and working full time (I'm a single momma) and I have to pay the bills too!!!!! Any help with be much appreciated!!!

[BusyBee91]

So, I would imagine that you need to ask a potential employer how they feel about you 'learning' your clinicals while you are supposed to be 'working' the floor, but.... My guess would be that even if your school would allow it, your employer will want you to be focused on working, not learning, while you are getting paid to be there. I'm pretty certain that they would be open to having you come 'extra' hours for your clinincals, if your school utilizes that particular hospital as an approved clinical site. But I highly doubt that they will allow you to earn paid hours as a CNA while you are in clinicals to become an RN.

[meeep, BSN, RN]

Considering there are things you can do as a student that you cannot do as a CNA, you are going to have to do separate clinicals with the rest of your class.

[Graduation2016]

Supposedly you are not allowed to do clinicals at your place of employment because of various reasons but that doesn't always work like that. While on the Surgical Technology program I did clinicals at the hospital I work at back when I was a CNA on Mother/Baby. Some schools will do everything to schedule your clinicals somewhere else if they can.

[aTOMicTom]

My school prohibits clinicals where students work/have worked.

[ellaballet]

I have coworkers that have also done their clinicals at the hospital we work at but they would never be able to combine the two. Usually they have to do their clinicals on a different unit than the one they are employed on. If you look at it from the hospitals standpoint alone they aren't going to want to pay you, the work that you do as a student is totally different. Theres no way you'd be able to sneak off and do all the work an aide needs to do when you should be focusing on learning nursing skills.

[Stephalump]

I'm going to have to get on board with everyone else...you cannot work as a CNA and count it as clinical hours. My school has no rule against clinicals at your work place, but during your work hours, you're a CNA. During clinical hours, you're supervised by an instructor and working as an RN. Two completely different things.

[llg, PhD, RN]

It's common for students to have clinical rotations in facilities where they also work. But it is EXTREMELY rare for work hour to count as school clinical hours.

1. You are not working in the same role that your school is preparing you for. So it is very unlikely you would be fulfilling the school's learning objectives while you were doing your job.

2. There are legal regarding supervision, legal liability, etc. It is better for everyone if everthing is kept separate.

Of course, as with almost everything in life, there are a few exceptions. Sometimes, students can work on a specific project for their employer and submit that work to their school for credit. Also, some schools have special arrangments with certain hospitals that allow students to do school preceptorships with being paid.

You would need to talk with your school to see if there are any ways or special programs that would allow you to combine some of your work time with school clinical time. But don't count on being able to work that out -- particularly at the undergraduate level.