Indiana University Kokomo
School of Nursing
TITLE: Clinical Attendance and Participation Policy
POLICY NO: SON-CL-6
RESPONSIBLE COMMITTEE: Student Affairs/Council of Nursing Faculty
TARGET GROUP: Students
PLACEMENT: BSN Student Handbook
REVISION/REVIEWED: September 2015
CLINICAL POLICY
A. Clinical Attendance
If 20% or more of clinical hours are missed for the course, it will constitute failure in that
course.
1. Students are expected to be on time for clinical experiences as determined by a
cell phone.
2. Students must contact their clinical instructor/preceptor if they will be absent or
late to their clinical assignment.
3. When absent the student will get zero (0) points for the missed day.
4. Clinical hours cannot be made up.
5. Each incident of tardiness: even at one (1) minute late:
a. Will count as three (3) hours of missed clinical hours
b. Will lose points in professionalism
6. Attendance/tardiness and professional behaviors will be included in references
requested by graduating students and or potential employers.
Exception for Clinical Attendance Related to IUKSON Representation Activities
1. Student may travel to an approved IU Kokomo SON meeting/convention once a
semester. This absence will not be counted as “missed” clinical. The student
must have approval from either the Dean or the Assistant Dean.
2. Student must have at least a “C” grade in all of their current nursing courses at
the time of request and be of good standing within the IU Kokomo School of
Nursing.
3. Student must not have already missed clinical time in the same course as the
approved meeting/convention.
4. Student must arrange with clinical instructor completion of any assignments that
will be due.
5. It is the responsibility of the student to complete the Exception for Clinical
Attendance Related to IUKSON Representation form and submit to the faculty
advisor for the student group. This form should be submitted by the deadline set
by the faculty advisor, but not less than two weeks before travel.
Indiana University Kokomo
School of Nursing
B. Clinical Guidelines
7. Students are expected to attend all clinical activities, simulation and any
scheduled off site experiences.
8. A student should not come to clinical if he or she is ill or with fever. The
instructor reserves the right to send home any student deemed ill, physically or
emotionally. The missed time is considered an absence.
9. If the student cannot participate fully in the assigned activity the time will be
considered an absence.
10. All appointments, (doctor and dentist), should be made outside of clinical hours.
11. Students are encouraged to refrain from working the shift immediately prior to a
clinical experience. The instructor reserves the right to send home a student who
is too tired or sleepy to provide safe care. The missed time will be treated as an
absence.
12. Students who are not prepared for their clinical assignment will not be permitted
to care for patients and will be treated as missed clinical time.
13. Students will not leave the clinical setting during clinical hours without permission
of the instructor.
14. Students may not leave clinical until dismissed by instructor
15. Students are held to the high standards of a professional at all times. This means
that students are expected to:
 actively engage in their learning
 treat each other with respect
 treat faculty with respect
 demonstrate an eagerness to learn
 seek solutions to problems as they arise
 consistently maintain accountable and responsible behavior
16. The IU Kokomo School of Nursing Testing Policy applies for any quizzes or tests
taken in the clinical setting.
17. During clinical experiences, students are responsible for their assigned patients
for the entire clinical time and must give a report on the patient’s progress to an
appropriate patient care provider before leaving the clinical area to ensure
continuity in patient care.
18. IU Kokomo’s official form of communication with its students is their IU Kokomo
email. Students are responsible to check and read their IU Kokomo email on a
regular basis and respond as needed. Forwarding a students’ IU Kokomo email
to a non-IU email is strongly discouraged as important information can be easily
lost in the forwarding process. IU Kokomo is not responsible for lost messages
as a result of the IU Kokomo email being forwarded to non-IU email account.
19. IU Kokomo’s official notification policy for inclement weather, school closure or
clinical cancelation is through IU Notify. Student’s emergency contact
information, through IU Notify, should be routinely updated.
20. If IU Kokomo campus is closed due to inclement weather, clinical is cancelled
and will not be counted as an absence.
Indiana University Kokomo
School of Nursing
Each student must determine whether it is safe to travel to clinical, arrive late or miss
completely and accept the consequences per policy.