Nursing school clinicals are supervised periods where nursing students practice skills through simulated and direct-care client interaction under the direction of a registered nurse, clinical instructor, or nursing educator. Students are introduced to general bedside and specialized care skills and interact with clients to gain first-hand experience in the field. As a nursing student, you'll engage with several learning modalities to give you a well-rounded education in nursing fundamentals, including didactic coursework, clinical simulations, and direct-care clinicals.
What is Didactic Learning?
Didactic learning includes classroom lectures and learning material which provide a fundamental layer of knowledge for students to apply in the actual clinic setting.
What is Simulation Clinical?
Simulation clinical allows future nurses to put into practice their knowledge and bedside skills in a safe and highly immersive environment. Students will be given the opportunity to be in the role of a nurse, using clinical judgment to care for a simulated patient either in the Joyce Johnson Center of Simulation or in a virtual simulated environment.
What is Direct-Care Clinical?
During direct-care clinicals, students gain hands-on, real-world experience and learn how to apply their classroom knowledge in a real clinical environment providing supervised care to real clients.
Why is clinical experience important in nursing?
Clinicals are where the rubber meets the road in your nursing school journey. Clinical experiences present situations within various settings that give nursing students a more well-rounded education than just learning from case studies in the classroom. From simulation-based experiences and clinics to community health centers and hospitals, students see the same environments they will likely be working in after graduation. During this time, you not only get to see how nurses interact with and care for clients, but you also use the clinical learning environment to gain valuable experience to better prepare you for work as a nurse.
Simulation-based experiences provide an opportunity for nursing students to get exposure to different client scenarios in a safe and realistic environment. Simulated clinicals are highly engaging, full-day experiences that mimic a real-world clinical day. Students will attend their clinical in our state-of-the-art Simulation Center or a virtual learning environment with their assigned Simulation Education Specialist.
Direct-care clinicals offer nursing students hands-on experience across a range of specialties in real healthcare settings. During these rotations, students provide care to clients in ambulatory, community, and inpatient environments, all under the supervision of an instructor or preceptor. Typical clinical rotations include medical-surgical, labor and delivery, pediatrics, geriatrics, perioperative, critical care, emergency, psychiatric, and community health, giving students a well-rounded exposure to various areas of nursing practice.
Our international clinical program offers students a unique opportunity to earn clinical hours while contributing to humanitarian efforts. These experiences range from providing intensive care in urban hospitals to offering basic education in rural clinics. As a nursing volunteer, your tasks will vary based on your skillset and the specific needs of the host community.
Through partnerships with non-profit organizations such as I Am Hope Guatemala and Clinica Esperanza in Roatan, Honduras, Joyce University provides students the chance to complete their clinical education while delivering vital medical support to resource-limited communities. Students assist by offering education, mental health services, logistical support, and quality healthcare, all while fostering learning opportunities for both the local community and healthcare providers.
I have learned more skills and expanded my knowledge base by practicing with limited resources at my disposal. Being here has given me a new set of skills that will ultimately help my patients. I have been humbled by the community of Guatemala and how much they endure without complaint. I believe this will help to practice in a way that exhibits compassion, empathy, and service.
At Joyce University, our students are guided through real-world scenarios before they begin their direct-care clinical rotations with real clients. The Joyce Johnson Center of Simulation will enhance your learning experience and help you develop the confidence of a well-prepared nursing professional.
Joyce students will apply their classroom knowledge and skills development in a supervised, real-world clinical environment, ensuring that our nursing graduates are field-tested and ready to work before they start their first job.
As a Joyce University graduate, Utah’s healthcare employers can expect a highly trained, skilled employee who is well-versed in the latest medical technology and ready to perform the required duties on their very first day on the job.
Joyce University seeks out diverse clinical opportunities for its students to participate in, providing hands-on training opportunities to prepare them for real-world nursing experiences. The length of your nursing clinicals depends on a variety of factors, including:
– The schedule of the healthcare facility
– University and degree requirements
– State licensing requirements
The number of nursing clinical hours you take depends on state requirements, the type of degree, and the school’s curriculum. More advanced degrees, for example, might require more clinical training. As a leader of nursing education in Utah, Joyce University offers accelerated, accredited programs that can help students reach their career goals in as little as 20 months.
No, students do not get paid for clinicals in nursing school; they are an extension of your comprehensive nursing education. While clinicals require students to work in real clinical settings, clinicals are an experiential learning opportunity that provides students with hands-on skill development.
The schedule for your clinicals depends on your degree program and location. Clinical sessions are completed at various healthcare facilities across the state.
Clinical nursing student shifts usually last from eight to 12 hours, much like what a nurse working full-time in a medical facility would experience.
During your clinical rotation, you’ll take the information you learned in the classroom and apply it in a real-world setting. Clinical rotations present situations and experiences that give students a more well-rounded education than just learning from case studies in the classroom. Typical nursing clinical rotations include:
Nursing is a career where a lot of your first experiences will come from the clinical portion of the curriculum. Clinical is the time to ask questions, learn, practice skills as much as possible, gain confidence in your abilities, and believe that you can face and overcome the challenges of being a nurse. Ask questions and be an active learner.
Almost all clinical hours are completed within your community as hands-on direct patient care experiences. Some courses use a combination of direct-care and simulation-based clinical experiences. A very limited number of courses use virtual simulation to complete clinical hours.
Volunteering abroad in an international clinical setting can vary from intensive work in an urban hospital to basic education in a rural clinic. These environments offer nursing students diverse tasks to take on, depending on their skill sets and the needs of the host community. Students work alongside clinic staff where they gain hands-on experience aiding clients with a variety of health needs. Learn more about our international and service clinical experiences.
Our humanitarian clinical program gives students the unique opportunity to dedicate their clinical hours to aiding in humanitarian efforts. In addition to traditional clinical environments, Joyce is expanding clinical experiences globally to not only help students apply their learnings in diverse settings, but also help communities in need. Our enhanced clinical approach to nursing education gives students valuable experience to serve alongside local community organizations supporting under-resourced populations.
For nursing students wanting to take their clinicals abroad, they must be in good standing with the university, be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and participate as a 4th semester or capstone student. Students then submit a resume and cover letter within the appropriate timeline, awarding the top candidates an interview.
Students give aid to local community organizations by providing education, mental health, logistical, and quality medical support to the community. These clinical opportunities focus on creating educational opportunities for both the people they serve and the healthcare providers.
International clinical programs typically last about two weeks, with shifts lasting around 12 hours. Students participate in pediatric and adult triage, laboratory and pharmacy services, and community outreach, while balancing their studies.
Joyce is currently partnered with the non-profit organizations I Am Hope Guatemala and Clinica Esperanza of Roatan, Honduras, to provide opportunities for students to complete their clinical education while offering medical support to diverse, resource-limited communities in need. By partnering with these organizations, Joyce students can get first-hand experience practicing nursing skills where it is really needed.
Traditional clinicals are an important experiential learning opportunity for nursing students to get hands-on training in real clinicals settings. Clinical rotations give students the ability to practice in an inpatient, ambulatory care or community setting, where the student provides care to clients under the guidance and direction of an instructor or preceptor.
Gaining quality clinical experience is essential to a successful future as a nurse. Good performances in clinicals don’t just lead to esteem and respect, clinical experiences can often turn into solid networking opportunities for potential careers.
The actual curriculum and schedule for your clinicals depends on your nursing school and degree. During clinicals, you will likely be assigned to nurse in a local hospital, school, or other organization with a nursing staff position. The nurse will allow you to work alongside them, practice effective communication in nursing, and help you learn various nursing skills. Oftentimes, students may be rotated or switched around to different clinical settings each semester.
From rotations in traditional hospital and healthcare facilities throughout Utah to volunteering through local service and international humanitarian organizations, Joyce is expanding clinical experiences globally to not only help students apply their learnings in diverse settings, but also help communities in need.
Nursing students at Joyce spend their first semester in the classroom, but once the second semester starts, they spend at least one day a week in an actual nursing environment. Students in their first clinical rotations are eased into the experience under the direct guidance of an instructor or registered nurse, but by the final semester, you will be completing more tasks autonomously.
This varies by the degree program. Nursing clinicals begin the second semester and end with a semester of students working mostly independently. This part of clinicals is referred to as the capstone, which is a transition to a more independent role that enables nursing students to take on more of the workload of the staff nurse.
Programs
Discover our nursing programs designed to prepare you for nursing licensure and advance your career.
Learn MoreAdmissions
Visit our admissions page for more details on general and program-specific admissions requirements.
Learn MoreRequest Info
Receive additional information about the program you’re interested in and assistance for completing and submitting an application.
Request Info
