What are clinicals in nursing school? Clinical rotations are a crucial aspect of your nursing education, allowing you to apply the knowledge you have gained through coursework and skills labs to real patient populations under the supervision of experienced nursing preceptors.
Clinicals are a critical component of any nursing program, providing students’ first experiences in the real world of nursing. Since clinical experience is such an important piece of any nursing education, it’s vital to understand what it entails and what your experience will be like before committing to a nursing education.
At Marquette University, students in our Direct Entry Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) program begin clinicals early during our 5- or 8-semester curriculum. This helps ensure that each student graduates armed with the knowledge, skills, confidence and clinical reasoning necessary to make a difference as a nurse.
What are nursing clinicals like, and what will your clinical experiences be as a nursing student trying to earn an MSN degree? In this post we will explore some of the fundamentals of nursing clinicals, including what format they take, what they add to your nursing education, and how you can make the most of your clinical experience before earning your nursing degree.
What Are Clinicals in Nursing School?
Outside of clinical rotations, your nursing education focuses largely on the technical side of nursing — the theory behind the nursing process, knowledge of conditions and treatments, and what to do in certain situations. During clinicals, however, you get to experience the human side of care while putting into practice the knowledge and skills you’ve learned along the way. While everyone has some notion of the role nurses play in care, it takes experiencing it for yourself to understand the true impact nurses have on patients.
What are clinicals in nursing school, exactly? These provide students with hands-on experience in real-world healthcare settings. Equally important to core clinical skills and techniques, you also develop communication skills and the ability to build professional relationships with patients and their families. As you progress through the program, you will take an increasingly hands-on role in the care of your patients.
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“Clinical practice is the first opportunity that Marquette DE-MSN students have to experience what it is like to be a Marquette nurse, providing care to real-world patients,” says Holly Nerone, Marquette DE-MSN Program Director. “It’s an exciting time for students, when they take their classroom knowledge and apply it to clinical training.”
How Do Nursing School Clinicals Work?
In nursing school clinicals you can observe how nurses care for patients in the real world, while also applying what you learn through coursework and simulation labs and honing your skills. One of the first things you’ll notice about your clinical experience in Marquette’s Direct Entry MSN program is that you are among only a handful of students at a time. This allows your clinical instructors to provide more personalized attention and aid your learning.
Our main campus in Milwaukee exclusively enrolls 5-semester DE-MSN students, while our satellite program site in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, offers start dates for both 5- and 8-semester program modalities.
Regardless of program format, students complete a requisite number of hours of clinical practice in top healthcare settings in Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin. The quality and quantity of their experiences prepare them for a career as a licensed registered nurse. Some of the practice areas you might encounter during clinical rotations may include:
- Acute care
- Intensive care
- Medical-surgical
- Obstetrics
- Pediatrics
- Mental health
- Community health
In addition to building experience working with a variety of people and conditions, clinicals also provide opportunities to find practice areas which you might want to pursue as a practicing RN after graduation and licensure.
How Many Clinical Hours Are Required for Nursing School?
While the general experience of clinical rotations in nursing is similar regardless of where in the country you are, exact requirements will vary. How many clinical hours for nursing school are required? These, as well as license requirements, can vary by state. Marquette University is fully accredited at the national, regional and state levels, and allows students to accumulate a required amount of clinical experience before graduation. Those who earn their MSN degree and pass the NCLEX-RN exam will be fully prepared and qualified to enter their career as a licensed registered nurse.
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How Do I Make the Most of Clinical Rotations?
As a Marquette DE-MSN student, you will complete your clinical hours with close guidance and support from staff and clinical instructors. Administering care to real patients while honing necessary nursing skills will be a challenging yet worthwhile experience. But how can you make the most of this experience? Let’s review how you can have the best clinical experience possible.
Preparing for Clinicals
Preparations for nursing school clinicals begin from the first moment you open a nursing textbook. Clinicals require accumulated nursing knowledge from coursework and labs, and they include applying those skills to the benefit of patients. Remember from the beginning of your time as a student that you are working toward caring for real people, and you should make the most of every opportunity to study.
You won’t be preparing for clinical rotations alone. Marquette helps to prepare students for the realities of a hands-on clinical environment from day one, with skills and simulation labs providing a foundation of nursing skills and techniques in a safe mock clinical environment.
When you are preparing for a day of clinical rotations, you will receive key information like what your uniform will be, any key equipment, and how to reach your unit. Be sure that you have asked any additional logistical questions in advance, such as where to park. Wear supportive and hospital-appropriate footwear, stay hydrated and don’t forget to stretch. Lastly, know who you will be reporting to and mentally rehearse for the upcoming experience as much as you can.
During Clinicals
Once you have begun in-hospital clinical rotations, hard work and the right attitude can make all the difference regarding the quality of the experience that you have. This is one of the most crucial aspects of your entire nursing education, bridging the gap between classroom learning and clinical practice. To make the most of this opportunity, you should never shy away from asking a question, embrace the spirit of each practice area you encounter, and always prioritize patients.
Ask Questions
The reason you will go through clinicals as a nursing student is to be sure you can apply your knowledge to clinical situations under guidance. To make the most of the guidance you will receive as a student, take the opportunity to ask questions as they emerge. Don’t worry that you will be judged for asking questions. You will be viewed more favorably as someone unafraid to ask questions, than as someone who will make a mistake before asking for help. What are clinicals in nursing school for, after all, if not to gain knowledge you cannot access through coursework and labs alone?
Embrace the Spirit of Every Task
You may not naturally mesh with every task or practice area that you encounter during clinicals, but it’s vital to make the most of this opportunity and throw yourself into everything you are assigned during clinicals. This is when you work across an array of practice areas, meeting the needs of patients and identifying what you are looking for out of a full-time nursing career. Do you want to be in the thick of the action, or in a more laid-back role? You will find what areas you are relatively strong and weak in, and these can inform your own career choices. Try to embrace the spirit of every task and put your all into everything you do, as you will get a better idea of your own future in addition to better meeting patient needs.
Prioritize Patients
Lastly, clinical rotations are a vital instrument for your learning, but never forget that they are first and foremost about providing care to real people in need. Nursing has long been the most trusted profession in the U.S., in large part because it is such a patient-focused discipline. Carrying the right attitude and serving as an example of nursing ethics will make all the difference to the people you encounter and will also help to further hone your nursing instincts to the benefit of countless patients in the future.
Are You a Marquette Nurse in the Making?
If you have the drive to succeed and meet our requirements, Marquette’s second-degree Direct Entry MSN program in Pleasant Prairie could be right for you. Contact us today to speak with an admissions adviser and find out more about how you can graduate as an MSN-prepared nurse in five or eight semesters.