So you have a friend/roommate/crazy ex–lover who’s a nurse and she is ALWAYS talking about clinicals. What is a clinical? We didn’t know either, so we put on our journalist hats on and investigated.
“Clinical” actually comes from the word “clean” because nurses are all about hand–washing. Sometimes they even encourage the use of non-foaming antibacterial agents. Like Purell!
Nurses do a lot of hard work during clinicals. They spend long days doing things with/for sick people. The sick people benefit because they get quality medical care from inexperienced undergraduates, and the nurses benefit because CLINICALS, y’know?
Sometimes nurses might get to observe doctors delivering babies, or even fetch tissues for someone who has “the sniffles.” This is just a rumor, but someone told us that clinicals are really rewarding but definitely a lot of work. One nurse who wanted to remain anonymous said, “sometimes the 5 am wake up is hard, but then you see all the people you’re clinical-ing for and it all feels super clinical, so that’s what makes it worth it.”
