What is nursing school like??

[psustudent5]

I don't really understand how clinical rotations work. What do you get to do and how often do you spend in each unit??

[86toronado, BSN, RN]

How often you go totally depends on your program... they are required by the State board of education to provide you with X number of clinical hours, however they provide them in different ways. Examples:

-The school I went to had one 8 hour clinical day a week, with an extra 48-144 hour preceptorship our senior year

-The school my husband goes to has one 6 hour clinical day a week the first year, and adds a second 6 hour day each week for the senior year, but no preceptorship

-The nursing school associated with the hospital I work at has 2-five hour clinicals a week for the duration.

What do you get to do? Again, depends on the school and the rotation, but expect to do medications, assessments and treatments (dressings, trach care, etc.) You may have more "hands-on clinicals" such as med-surg and rehab. You may also have more "hands-off" such as psychiatric and OR. Again, a lot depends on your program. Since I went to a private school, we were always "guests" in the clinical sites we visited, therefore did less hands on work than the students who go to the school that my hospital runs. These students show up the night before clinical to get info about their patients, and therefore spend less of the day gathering history etc. and more doing hands on care...

Best advice from me would be to talk to the schools you are interested in, and discuss their program in depth. It can vary greatly between programs!