Clinical Placements | School of Nursing & Human Sciences

Clinical Placements Information

Welcome to the Clinical Placement Information page for nursing students. Outlined below is information for your consideration.

DCU partner hospitals/services

Beaumont Hospital (General)
Connolly Hospital, Blanchardstown (General)
St Vincent's Hospital, Fairview (Mental Health)
Northern Area Mental Health Services (Mental Health)
St Joseph's Intellectual Disability Services, Portane
Daughters of Charity Services for people with Intellectual Disability
Children's University Hospital, Temple Street (Children's & General)
Mater Misericordiae University Hospital (Children's & General)

Clinical Placements
An Bord Altranais Requirements and Standards (2005) determine which placements a student goes on for each of the four nursing branches, general, children, psychiatry and intellectual disability. The timing of each placement is arranged in consultation with the partner services and allocation department in DCU. A template plan for each student is drawn up showing each placement that the students have to attend. A student nurse can be placed in a number of different settings, which include,

Internal placements in the 8 partner services
External placement external to the partner services
Specialist placement both external and internal to the partner services

Many different factors are taken into account when a clinical placement is drawn up, working with the demands of both, the partner services, the allocations staff and the programme requirements of the student. This signifies the complexity of the allocation function and that a placement will not be changed unless extenuating circumstances prevail and only with agreement of both the partner services and the allocations staff.

Students' responsibilities while on clinical placements
Students are responsible for managing their practice placement, knowing where they are going, how to get there, who to contact. Students need to check the details of their practice placement well in advance of its start date – on the portal pages and not leave it until the last minute. Student should attend the placement workshop for each placement module and pay attention to the module leader directions. Students should complete their attendance sheets with the preceptor and if the preceptor is not on duty with the person in charge of the clinical placement area. The signed sheets must then be returned to the hospital/service student allocations liaison officer at the end of each placement. In the event of absences, the student must notify the person in charge of the ward/unit/clinical placement area, CPC and the local allocation officer. Absence should be recorded on attendance sheet. For details, please refer to the BSc student handbook. Student should keep the module leader informed of any difficulty or extenuating circumstances that they may have with the placement in order for a fair course of action at programme board examination review committee. For details, please refer to the BSc student handbook. Student should notify the allocation department of any change of name, address, and/or telephone number by accessing the student portal page and updating biographical details.

Attendance Sheet (PDF, 62K)

Placement related documents

Requires a DCU staff or student login to access. You should go to dcu.ie/user/login to login with your DCU username and password before accessing these links. The files will download directly to your computer/device rather than open in your browser. If you may see an "Access Denied" page upon clicking on a link, ensure that the address above starts with https://www.dcu.ie, rather that just www.dcu.ie.