2nd semester clinical orientation....

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Jan 13, 2007

ha! ha! computer charting in the 80s? you gotta be kidding! i was there in the 80s and the only computer we had was to input information on our daily acuities and we could pull up some labwork results. we were still ordering all our tests on three part carbon paper forms and hand writing everything! ha! ha! thanks for making me feel like an old fogey!

just want you to know that there is a forum on allnurses that vickyrn has really buffed up lately on patient education. she has recently posted a lot of patient teaching resources on the stickys there that you might want to check into: https://allnurses.com/forums/f63/ discharge instructions basically include meds, treatments, diet and when to follow up with the doctor. you should pinch a copy of a discharge instruction sheet from the hospital the next time you are in clinicals. discharge planning basically involves making sure the patient is going to be able to carry out the doctor's plan of care as well as their adls. you plug them in to ancillary resources where needed to accomplish those things. the new push is to get medicare patients home health services rather than put them into nursing homes. most hospitals now have a nurse and/or a social services professional that specifically does discharge planning. maybe your instructor will let you spend a little time with one of these people. i'll have to see if i can find you some resources on it. also, marie lpn started a thread some time ago that is now a sticky called "soooo, you're observing in the operating room (o.r.)..." on this forum that you might want to explore. you can also see videos of surgeries on medline plus and or-live. the links for those sites are on this thread https://allnurses.com/forums/f50/cool-site-surgery-videos-197767.html

have fun taking blood pressures! with any luck, you might get fed by the church congregation! sounds like the perfect time for them to have a pot luck.

S.T.A.C.E.Y, LPN · Jan 13, 2007

Urgh! Isn't it frusterating when someone designs a computer program to be 'incredibly user friendly' only for its format to be SO unfamiliar that you can't figure anything out!?! The hospital we did clinicals at had a computer system that ran entirely by computer key commands, F6 does one thing, Shift F2 did another, Ctrl J did something else. God forbid there was a menu bar or button to click using the mouse. After three months using the system, most of us were STILL struggling with it.

Best of luck to you in your clinical placement!!

locolorenzo22, BSN, RN · Jan 13, 2007

Daytonite- Thanks for the tips/stickys! Are you ever at a loss when in comes to finding info for all us students? LOL....my instructor did say that we'll get fed for sure that week...doughnuts in the morning, assorted snack trays from the "church ladies" ....and McDonald's lunch from the church funds.....

STACEY.....Yep, our programs the same way...a lot of F6, F9, F12, right arrows, scrolling, enter keys....for fields that require a specific input...you have to hit F9, lookup the value, then enter it into the chart notes....I like my work charting system so much better....

Megsd, BSN, RN · Jan 13, 2007

The hospital I'm at now uses computer charting, and after a few days I'm getting used to it, but a lot of times I don't know where to chart everything and am always worried I've missed a whole section! I was trained on this charting system IN OCTOBER while I was at a different hospital that didn't use computer charting. Then I come to clinical IN JANUARY and am expected to be an expert. Luckily having been exposed to it helped (a tiny bit) but even the trainers didn't understand why we were learning the system 3 months before we were going to be exposed to it.