What counts as clinical experience?

[Sparklette]

It depends on the program. In Washington state, the public college RN programs require volunteer hours in either a hospital or skilled nursing facility. These specifically state that any paid hours do not count towards the requirement. There are actually organizations that people (mostly parents) are paying to coordinate better volunteer assignments for hopeful students.

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For the programs that accept paid experience, scribe seems to be the popular choice here. Scribes in the ER are definitely seen as clinical experience. They receive the same clinical documentation training for the EHR system as other clinical staff and are physically in patient rooms. Some of what they do is similar to the unit coordinators, but that role doesn’t count as clinical because unit coordinators don’t enter patient care areas.