Clinical placement is a major requirement for a nursing degree. It opens your mind to real-life experiences. After your classroom teaching, you are expected to enter the field, which could be a hospital, community health center, mental health facility, or any organization that deals with the sick. This allows you to see how other experienced nurses interact and care for patients. As you watch them, you learn diverse ideas.

An online accelerated nursing program is one certain route to quality clinical placements. It offers a diverse program with 100% online coursework and clinical placement in accordance with the university and national guidelines. It allows you to connect with other students within the nursing community.

If you’re still wondering why clinical placement is essential to your career, then this article is for you. This piece prepares you for the task ahead and makes you feel at ease. Here are five reasons why clinical placement is important in nursing.

Hone your nursing skills

Clinical placements enable you to gain hands-on experience in the health sector with real patients. Nurses are deployed to the field to administer medication, care for patients, take their vital signs, and perform other daily tasks regarding patients. Aside from this hands-on experience, you also interact and form bonds with patients. Communicating with them is another aspect of learning, as they can teach you something not captured in the curriculum.

It helps you tackle challenging situations

Clinical placements expose you to physically and mentally challenging situations. As sicknesses are different, so are patients. While some patients are calm and allow you to treat them, others are aggressive and much more inquisitive. Attending an inquisitive patient means that you must be calm and answer numerous questions. As for aggressive ones, you’ll see how older nurses handle them and learn the tricks. With this exposure, you’ll find it easier to maneuver such situations. However, these placements allow you to ask questions about unique situations and how best to manage them. During this period, you’ll also learn all that it takes to be a better nurse.

Networking

It can be frustrating to begin your career alone. As you climb the ladder of success, you need to be connected to people who will instruct, correct and collaborate with you in future endeavors. Clinical placements are one of the best ways to meet experts in various specializations as you’ll be posted to different departments. Although an excellent performance during your clinical placement is not a guarantee for immediate employment, treating it like a full-time job would do you good. It is easier for the facility to retain you if you have excellent collaborative skills.

Feedback

It is not enough to give the job your all. Asking for feedback from your superiors will ensure that you’re on the right track. Positive feedback shows that you have a perfect understanding of where you should be, while negative feedback may suggest improvements in some areas. Many student nurses are annoyed when their superiors leave negative feedback. Rather than address the areas of inadequacies, they feel discouraged. Learners are open to criticism because it helps them increase their clinical skills and knowledge base. Classroom and laboratory work only exposes you to an aspect of the job and subjects you to a written and oral exam. It doesn’t test your hands-on skills and shouldn’t be relied upon completely.

Supporting other members of the team

Your job becomes more exciting when you can offer help to your colleagues. As you care for patients, you are also open to attending to the needs of others. It is also an obligation to offer moral support to any student losing faith in their career. Remind them why they started and encourage them to move on. Should you need counseling, talk to your colleagues or mentors in the facility as they will be able to help. The aim of every nurse or health practitioner is to help the vulnerable. Don’t be scared to open up about your vulnerabilities because someone is always there to help.

Conclusion

While you concentrate on the nursing coursework, open your mind to clinical placements – you will become a better nurse if you take the training period seriously.