I Start Clinicals Monday

Well, I started this thread way back in January before I began clinicals. Now that I've gained some experience I will share. We started of with about 25 students and we are down to about 15 students now. We lost some good students who have become friends during the course of 14 weeks. For anybody starting clinicals soon... Read your text book and stay on top of it. Lilypad274 was correct in saying this. I don't care if they give you a study guide, powerpoints, and worksheets. Always read the textbook along WITH the handouts they give you in class. We had a student who unfortunately failed by one point. There are going to be trick questions on your tests. These will force you to think. They claim that they want nurses in the field who can critically think. But, they are more like trick questions to me honestly. You are probly aware of this already but MATH, MATH. Stay on top of it. There is a lot of stress that comes with the program so brace yourself. The stress is all in the effort to see who wants it bad enough. Clinicals is not easy. We had students who made the Dean List every semester up until this point. But now they are only getting C grades or lower on clinical tests. So don't underestimate clinicals.

If you don't have to maintain a job then don't work during the clinical portion. It will give you more time to study. If you can hold study groups with your classmates this is beneficial. I wish I was able to host a study group but, geographically this was impossible for me.