Students learn to “think like a nurse” using critical thinking and clinical judgment.

Each semester, nursing students complete 180 clinical hours in addition to class time. These clinical hours include time in the Nursing Skills Lab, Nursing Simulation Lab and at various clinical facilities.

Additionally, students complete 45 hours of population health clinical hours in non-acute clinical settings. In each of these areas, students learn to provide basic care and comfort, safely administer medications, perform health assessments, plan and evaluate nursing care, provide teaching, and perform progressively more complex nursing interventions.

Clinical Experience Sites

GGC maintains partnerships with several healthcare facilities in the area.

Acute Care Hospitals

With assistance from the nursing faculty, students provide nursing care to patients across the lifespan (newborn to older adult) as well as to vulnerable populations like pregnant women and persons with mental health disorders.

  • Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (multiple campuses)
  • Emory Decatur Hospital (formerly DeKalb Medical)
  • Emory Johns Creek Hospital
  • Northeast Georgia Medical Center (multiple campuses)
  • Northside Hospital (multiple campuses)
  • Piedmont Atlanta Hospital (multiple campuses)

Non-acute Care Facilities

At these non-acute facilities, students learn about population health and how to provide nursing care in locations outside of a hospital.

  • Gwinnett County Public Schools
  • Gwinnett, Newton and Rockdale County Health Departments
  • Outpatient clinics at Northside Gwinnett Hospital and Piedmont Eastside Hospital

Clinical Preceptorships

In the final semester of the program, students pair with a registered nurse at one of GGC’s clinical partner locations in order to complete an intensive practicum comprising 132 clinical hours of direct patient care.

The registered nurse serves as a preceptor for the senior nursing student. Faculty make frequent site visits to assess students and gather feedback from preceptors. Students are expected to be able to provide nursing care to a group of patients under supervision of the preceptor. Students are evaluated by their preceptor and faculty.