If you earn an associates degree in nursing, how does the clinical rotation work?

Question

Is it true you have to do a year of clinical rotation and its unpaid? So then it really takes 3 years to become an RN if you include the year of clinical rotation? The community college that I'm planning to attend does not mention anything about a clinical rotation on their website, so I'm a bit confused.

Answer 1

As I understand Associate's programs, you complete all of your prerequisites first in order to gain acceptance into the nursing program.  That means that most of your coursework is completed before you enter the nursing program.  This is good for the most part as when you are studying nursing, God knows that you have time for little else.

The remainder of your classes will be Medical/Surgical Nursing 1 & 2, Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Psychiatric Nursing.  Each of these has a clinical component of 90 hours (give or take depending on your state).  Yes, these experiences are unpaid as you dont know $hit from Shinola at that point.  I wouldnt expect your school, or any other for that matter, to post clinical info anywhere.  Just wait until you find out that you have to go to the hospital the night before to gather all of your patient information and then go home and spend all night writing up your meds and the patient's medical history.....

Answer 2

Usually you will (in a given week) have class at your college 3 days, and clinical rotation 2 days.  This will change as you get farther in the program.  If you school goes through summer, clinical rotation may be necessary during summer. Colleges may place you at different sites to gain more experience.

Clinical rotations are UNPAID!  Unfair, but great experience.    Some may offer you student positions to earn some money through your schooling.

It may or may not take 3 years to complete, depends on the school.  

Good luck!

I suggest contacting your college to know specifics for you.

Answer 3

For most programs, you will have a clinical course each  of the 4 semesters of the program, which is usually only one day per week, eight hours. And of course it is not paid, you are there to learn, you are not an employee of the hospital.

It doesn't take you three years because of clinicals. But if you have pre-requisites to take in the sciences, those need to be completed before you can even apply to a nursing program, and also many people choose to complete as many of the general ed courses required for the degree prior to starting the nursing program, so in that case it could take 3 years.

Answer 4

you will need to check with your college counselor to be sure, but yes it can take 3yrs to complete your ADN program.  Most colleges in the country have a waiting list and require all nursing students to complete all prerequisites befor they begin taking any nursing clinicals at all.  So it depends on how long you will take to complete all your prereqs.  These programs usually have a waiting list for the programs also.  In the 4yr or Bachelors programs you are either admitted or not admitted, so there is no waiting list.  The best move I ever made was not to wait on the ADN course to open up and move over to The BSN course of study.

No One will pay you to learn.  Thats how any education works.Just gotta pay your dues on that one.  But you are also not commited like a 9-5 job either so it's not like you will be working 40hrs a week for the entire year.  

Also the clinical rotations are entertwined with your nursing classes not separate, so thats why you dont see them mentioned.  Take a look at the hours associated with that class. Thats where your actual clinical rotations are built into.