After 10 weeks, my biggest fear has come true...

[katie92]

I had a patient that went completely bonkers on me.

Now don't get me wrong - I expected this at one point, I understand that this job isn't pretty all the time, but the way I'm feeling after today's clinical is almost hard to put into words.

So obviously, I'm a first semester student and as a lot of first semester students are, my confidence levels while in the clinical setting are pretty "derp", for lack of a better word. I don't show this to the patient or my instructor, but the things going on inside my brain...

Anyways, I knew this time would come. I'd mess up and get yelled at, or I'd just do something totally wrong.. but, that's not what happened actually... I'd almost rather that had happened. I had a patient go nuts at the fact that I was a student, and nothing more. All I was going to do was maybe give him a bath, take vitals and give him his meds (Which I told him). And he completely flipped on me. And this is something I've honest to god feared the entire time, someone telling me to **** because I'm a student, and you know I'm sure it happens, but I feel so discouraged right now. I don't ever want to go to clinical again.

My confidence was already low, but now every time I walk in a patient's room I'm going to be thinking "Do they not want a student? Is this person going to yell at me because I'm a student?" This guy was so mean to me throughout the day, both my instructor and the RN apologized to me like five times each. My instructor said if I would have mentioned how bad it was earlier she would've had my patient changed, but I didn't want to seem like a cry baby or something so I didn't really go into detail on how things were. She ended up telling me to just do "the bare minimum" and "get in and out as fast as you can" and I did.

I don't know even know what I'm looking for while posting this. I just wanted to rant I suppose and see if anyone has any advice or had a similar situation.

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

OP....I agree with the confidence thing.....patients can smell fear a mile away!

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

One thing that an instructor said to me has always stayed with me. Anger comes from fear, she said. Angry people are afraid of something. It could be their diagnoses, their pain, their mortality, the moths on the window glass, anticipated treatments, loss of their jobs or spouses, who the hell knows? So unless you think you, yourself, were so scary that he was afraid of li'l ol' you, which is extremely unlikely, feel pity for him, and move on.

[rubato, ASN, RN]

One thing that an instructor said to me has always stayed with me. Anger comes from fear, she said. Angry people are afraid of something. It could be their diagnoses, their pain, their mortality, the moths on the window glass, anticipated treatments, loss of their jobs or spouses, who the hell knows? So unless you think you, yourself, were so scary that he was afraid of li'l ol' you, which is extremely unlikely, feel pity for him, and move on.

Absolutely! I've seen it in patients and I've seen it in my own father. He is an ANGRY man in the hospital (and he spends a lot of time there). He would tell a student to take a hike. He also tells PT, OT, and all his nurses to take a hike. He doesn't want to be there, has fear of dying, and is just generally miserable.

People express their fear and their pain in different ways. And, we have to learn that it isn't personal. We aren't here for us, we're here for them. So, don't make it about you.

Of course, don't take abuse either. Just go tell your instructor, and he or she can place you with a different patient.