What Are Clinicals in Nursing School? What To Expect

All degree programs include some classroom and at-home coursework to cover important topics. Some fields, like nursing, include on-site clinical experience in the curriculum. This hands-on experience helps prepare nursing students to join healthcare teams with more than just theoretical knowledge.

This real-world experience can be daunting to many nursing students, but clinicals are important for preparing for their future careers.

What Are Clinicals?

Clinicals, sometimes called clinical rotations, are the hands-on portion of nursing programs, especially Bachelor of Science in nursing (BSN) programs. Instead of working in a classroom or a simulation lab, clinical hours are completed in a hospital or similar healthcare setting. This is when students can apply the knowledge they learned by studying on real patients.

Practical learning opportunities are crucial for students pursuing a nursing career. Although the knowledge learned in studying is essential, not having the hands-on experience to use this knowledge can hold nurses back when they start working in their field.

Clinicals are part of the education process for nurses, and many nursing students haven't selected their specialty by the time clinicals begin. Part of the learning experience of clinical hours involves working with different nursing specialties to help

How Long Do Clinicals Typically Last?

Clinicals aren't like a scheduled course, instead, there are clinical hour requirements, which vary from state to state. Most state boards set the bar for 500 clinical hours over their final semesters. This is usually accomplished with multiple clinical shifts weekly working with registered nurses.

Students generally start honing their nursing skills after they have completed the general education portion of their nursing degree. This means that most students receive their clinical placements in the first semester of their third year.

Where Do Clinicals Take Place?

Clinical settings are generally hospitals due to the diversity of nursing skills needed for patient care in these settings. Hospitals will allow nursing education to cover pediatrics, mental health, and other specializations.

Some clinical rotations will take place in other healthcare facilities to help prepare students for all types of nursing. The important part of clinical hours is that they are earned working with an RN clinical instructor and in a hands-on setting. Some state boards have exceptions for clinical hours earned in online simulations, but this is far less common.

What To Expect From Nursing School Clinicals

Because real-world experience in a clinical site is very different from studying in a classroom, many nursing students feel unprepared for their first day of clinical practice. Even though the actual patient care will change based on where and when you do your clinical rotations, there are several common tasks that you should expect to do during your clinical hours.

Providing Patient Care

The most fundamental part of the nursing process is providing frontline patient care. During your clinical hours, you will learn skills associated with day-to-day patient care.

Some of the practice skills you will learn include:

• interpreting and tracking vital signs
• how to administer acute care
• using nursing tools, like a stethoscope
• catheter installation
• the types of interventions and how to administer a nursing care plan

Learning From Seasoned Nurses

The biggest advantage of clinical rotations is nursing practice under experienced nurses. Although the instructors of many nursing programs are former or current nurses, classroom lessons can only cover a portion of the skills required to be a nurse practitioner or registered nurse. Working with these healthcare providers in real-world settings can help you see how they use skills like critical thinking to administer care.

Performing Assessments

Part of nursing is to administer tests and assessments to be used by doctors to provide accurate care. Learning some of the most common assessments, and performing them, is a great way to practice the skills that you'll need when you are solely responsible for these tests.

Administering Medication With Supervision

Nursing jobs provide the frontline administration of medications to patients. During clinical rotations, students will learn how to get medication in proper dosages and deliver it to the patients. This medication will be delivered differently, with some medicines delivered orally, some through IVs, and other methods.

Learning the different medicine delivery methods and how to perform them will prepare you for chronic and acute care as a nurse.

Giving Bed Baths

Bed baths allow immobile patients to stay clean during their hospital stay. Nurses often perform bed baths for patients unable to get to a shower or bathtub. This skill might not seem hard to learn, but there are intricacies to this type of care that need to be learned.

Changing Bed Linens

Another component of keeping patients clean is regularly changing bed linens. Nearly everyone knows how to change a bed, but changing bed linens with a patient in the bed or around all the medical equipment common in hospital rooms is trickier.

Reviewing Medical Records

Nurses are responsible for filing and reviewing medical records. Although classwork includes sample medical records, hands-on experience with medical records can help you get more comfortable in a controlled setting where an experienced nurse can explain things.

FAQs About Nursing School Clinicals

Many nursing students have common questions about clinical rotations because they are an important part of nursing school.

How Hard Are Nursing Clinicals?

The difficulty of nursing clinicals will vary from person to person, but generally, nursing clinicals are viewed as hard. Nursing clinicals are physically and mentally challenging with long hours added to your studies. Many new skills will be learned quickly, sometimes under heavy pressure.

Are Nursing Students Paid During Clinicals?

Nursing clinicals aren't paid. Even though a student works extended hours, they won't be paid. Nursing clinicals are viewed similarly to internships in other fields, and these programs are rarely paid. These programs are considered part of the student's education program, not a job or the start of their career.

What Year of Nursing School Do You Do Clinicals?

Most nursing clinicals begin in the third year of nursing school. Nursing programs include two years of general education, with more nursing-focused courses starting in year three. This will also give students enough time to complete their required clinical hours.