Editing Herzing Issues: Clinical Placement (section)

=== HU-080: Mid-rotation clinical requirement changes documented across multiple semesters: mental health hours retroactively required to be with social worker or mental health nurse despite prior alternative (for example, AA meetings) being acceptable ===
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%"
! style="width:12em" | Severity
| Medium
! style="width:12em" | Status
| CONFIRMED
|-
! Issue type
| Mid-Rotation Requirement Changes
! Date added
| 2026-05-05
|-
! Owner
| colspan="3" | Clinical Coordinator / Program Chair / Mental Health Course Director
|}
'''Finding.''' Students reported that clinical requirements have been changed mid-rotation, requiring them to redo or supplement work already completed under original guidance. A documented case describes a student halfway through her mental health clinical hours being told the hours must be done with a social worker or mental health nurse, after she had already completed hours under prior guidance that AA meeting attendance also satisfied the requirement.

'''Evidence.''' Facebook comment by Student F, December 30, 2023. Student F said this was, so to say, a perfect example of a lack of communication in clinicals: while halfway done with her mental health hours, her clinical instructor said the hours had to be done with a social worker or a mental health nurse, even though sitting in an AA meeting had also met the requirement. Source Group: Herzing Direct Entry MSN Facebook Group Export (Dec 2022 to May 2026), Topical/Keyword Review (Volume 6).

'''Reported statement.''' Student F, a student pseudonym, paraphrased that a lack of communication in clinicals was exemplified by being told halfway through her mental health hours that they had to be completed with a social worker or mental health nurse, despite AA meeting attendance previously meeting the requirement.

'''Standards.''' ACEN Standard 4 requires that program requirements be clearly and consistently communicated. Promissory reliance and good-faith reliance doctrine hold that students who completed clinical hours in good-faith reliance on stated requirements cannot fairly be required to redo those hours when requirements change mid-rotation. Handbook page 26 addresses clinical requirements. The pattern is consistent with {{HU|HU-032}} (mid-semester in-person hour changes) and {{HU|HU-033}} (conflicting published clinical hour totals).

'''Impact.''' Students who completed mental health clinical hours under the original guidance lose either the time invested or face additional clinical hour requirements they did not anticipate. Mental health clinical placements are particularly difficult to secure, per Handbook page 26, which states that for mental health a student has to find their own site, so requiring last-minute additional placement adds significant burden. This pattern continues to support the broader finding that clinical requirements change without adequate advance notice.

'''Notes.''' This is a documented historical instance from the 2023 to 2024 academic year, but the underlying pattern, mid-rotation clinical requirement changes, continues into 2025 (see {{HU|HU-032}}, {{HU|HU-033}}, {{HU|HU-071}}). Recommended verification is a review of mental health clinical syllabi from multiple semesters to determine whether the requirement was formally changed or whether it represented inconsistent enforcement by individual clinical instructors.

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