Clinical Participation

Nursing Clinical Participation Header

A clinical experience provides students the ability to navigate within a direct patient care environment with the guidance of an instructor or preceptor. The environment may be a Long-term Care Facility, Hospital, or Ambulatory setting. Nurses who are employed and have adequate experience in practice offer their knowledge to guide students in direct patient care experiences. Students can practice professionalism and gain confidence in themselves in these environments. Additionally, students are able to work in teams and build upon refining their teamwork and collaboration skills that are heavily relied upon when providing nursing care.

Next Steps

Clinical Participation Requirements

How to read this table:

Clinical placements are negotiated and secured by the clinical coordinator up to a year before students are assigned to a clinical site. We begin preparing for clinical months in advance to the first day of clinical each quarter.

Early preparation is required to ensure that students have a status of “Compliant” BEFORE we send lists of students to our clinical partners. Compliant means that a student is qualified the day the healthcare partner receives BC paperwork from the ADN clinical coordinator to participate in clinical instruction. Compliant means that all vaccinations, certifications, e-learning and background checks are up to date, completed and verified by the clinical coordinator. Most importantly, compliant means none of the previous requirements will lapse or expire during clinical.

While each healthcare partner varies in their time to prepare to receive BC students (entering students into healthcare network systems, assigning students to healthcare partner LMS for site-specific training, background checks, fingerprinting, etc), the ADN clinical coordinating team keeps consistent deadlines for onboarding tasks to efficiently manage and support students in the clinical onboarding process. Your ADN clinical coordinating team manages up to 160 student clinical placements each quarter.

Quarter

CastleBranch Expiration Date – All items in your summary report must not expire before this date:

Canvas Clinical Onboarding Course Opens to Students

Universal Onboarding Module Due (Clinical Passport, CB Summary Report, etc)

Healthcare Partner Modules Due

Fall 2023

12/7/2023

5/22/2023

6/5/2023

6/12/2023

Winter 2024

3/22/2024

10/6/2023

10/24/2023

11/7/2023

Spring 2024

6/20/2024

1/2/2024

1/23/2024

2/6/2024

Summer 2024

8/15/2024

4/1/2024

4/10/2024

4/17/2024

Fall 2024

12/12/2024

6/1/2024

8/31/2024

8/31/2024

Winter 2025

3/27/2025

10/9/2024

10/23/2024

11/8/2024

Spring 2025

6/26/2025

1/1/2025

1/10/2025

1/17/2025

Summer 2025

8/20/2025

4/1/2025

4/10/2025

4/17/2025

Many of our clinical partner are requiring that clinical students be fully vaccinated, or even have a booster, against COVID-19 regardless of whether the student qualifies for a religious or medical exemption as an accommodation from the College. Therefore, if you are not vaccinated against COVID-19 (regardless of whether you qualify for a religious or medical exemption), Bellevue College likely will not be able to place you in a clinical site, which means you will not be able to complete the program you have started.

There are no current plans to change any Covid policy or procedures as of July 31, 2023.

"The experience these nurses have is invaluable to our learning. I was able to pick up a lot of tips for my clinical reasoning which helped expand my acute care skills quickly. You definitely get back what you put into clinical so insert yourself into situations where there’s an opportunity to learn... Initiative will get you far in the clinical setting... Have the courage to make mistakes."
- Bellevue College ADN Student

Clinical Placements Northwest

Clinical Placements Northwest

Clinical Placements Northwest (CPNW) is a not-for-profit corporation working to facilitate clinical placement for the Health Professions student, to increase availability of student placement opportunities, and to improve communication among healthcare organizations and nursing education programs in Washington State and Northern Idaho.

Clinical Placements Northwest. (2021). About Us

Return to Nursing Programs

Last Updated October 8, 2024