Any of you make excellent grades but suck at skills?

dudette10, MSN, RN · Nov 6, 2010

I'm curious as to how many of you started off with really good grades but found yourself floundering and feeling awkward in lab and clinicals. I've made straight A's so far during this first semester but I feel so clumsy and unnatural with skills. I certainly have the knowledge but I become an idiot when I have to do stuff. Any tips?

I have felt the same way, and the only way to start feeling more confident with skills is to practice, practice, practice!

I'm finally in a rotation with a fantastic preceptor who lets me do things within her comfort level, and she has a good sense of humor about the little things that I get wrong.

It also helps to be able to laugh at yourself. Yesterday, I was taking a manual BP on her patient, and I got my badge lanyard, my steth, and the cuff pump all tied up. She looked up from her charting and said, "Gettin' a little knotted up, are ya?" with a friendly smirk in her voice. The patient and I both laughed because it was quite funny.

A couple days ago, I was doing a finger stick on a patient with a lance that I'd never used before. I poked the finger of the patient, but nothing happened. When the nurse did it, I noticed that I had turned the lance around so that if my finger had been on the opposite end, I would have gotten the stick. I could have kept quiet, but when we were leaving the room, I admitted my mistake. The nurse just laughed and told me about the first time she had given a patient a bed pan and had put the wrong end under the patient's butt. She also told me how she was screamed at by her preceptor for that mistake.

Now I know why she's such a wonderful preceptor. She's never forgotten what it's like to be learning.

BellsRNBSN · Nov 6, 2010

I'm curious as to how many of you started off with really good grades but found yourself floundering and feeling awkward in lab and clinicals. I've made straight A's so far during this first semester but I feel so clumsy and unnatural with skills. I certainly have the knowledge but I become an idiot when I have to do stuff. Any tips?

Yes, I feel the same way A LOT of the time! I have A's in all my classes right now, but performing skills can often be intimidating for me. What's funny is I feel more nervous performing the skills on mannequins in front of my instructors when I'm being tested than I do when actually performing them in the hospital with real people. Plus, performing the skills in lab is SO different than performing them in the hospital. It always seems like the supplies and procedures are different.

Like the PP said, it's all about getting a lot of practice. Jump at the opportunity to perform skills at clinical. And we all make mistakes, but we're students and that's why we peform these skills with our clinical instructor or nurse observing. When I did my first blood glucose test in the hospital, I almost forgot to clean my patient's finger with an alcohol swab - luckily my nurse was standing by and reminded me in a nice way without making me feel stupid. :)

My instructors constantly remind us that, as students, this is the only time when we're allowed to be unsure about what we're doing and encouraged to ask a lot of questions, so take advantage of that! Good luck with your skills, and don't worry, you (and the rest of us intimidated student nurses) will get better with more time and practice! :nurse:

nursingishard · Nov 6, 2010

I had bad grades (Bs & Cs) and my skills suck. But I'm improving myself on it. I'm earning better grades and bettering my skills. Practice and Practice. Prioritize what's more important to you, skills or grades. Or both?

AshleyDiane6 · Nov 6, 2010

It's just the opposite for me! I make average grades on the lecture tests and do great on the skills portion....

pitaya · Nov 7, 2010

I'm curious as to how many of you started off with really good grades but found yourself floundering and feeling awkward in lab and clinicals. I've made straight A's so far during this first semester but I feel so clumsy and unnatural with skills. I certainly have the knowledge but I become an idiot when I have to do stuff. Any tips?

I'm the same way. The teachers keep saying the skills will come with time and that the academic knowledge is more important right now, but then I get yelled at in clinicals when I get confused with skills. It takes a TON of practice for me to feel like I know all the steps to do a skill right and we just don't get that. Even simple things, like d/c-ing a Foley can be confusing when you've only practiced it once in lab and don't get the chance to try until months later.

JeanettePNP, MSN, RN, NP · Nov 7, 2010

Yes, I also had all A's but would get all awkward and clumsy when it came to skills. The important thing is not to let it kill your confidence, and to be graceful and humble about it. It's not easy going from star student in the classroom to the muddled dunce in the clinical area, but accept your imperfections and keep trying to learn. Fortunately I had good preceptors who didn't yell or make me feel foolish for messing up. If i had gone through the horrible experiences some people describe with their preceptors I doubt I'd have ever finished school.

That Guy, BSN, RN, EMT-B · Nov 7, 2010

It's just the opposite for me! I make average grades on the lecture tests and do great on the skills portion....

Same here and the only one they look at for placement for our capstone is the lecture. Doesnt matter I got an A in lab/clinical, but because I got a C in lecture I cant go anywhere. Grrrrr, I wish i did better on tests.

Penelope_Pitstop, BSN, RN · Nov 7, 2010

I was the same way - scholarly but not practical.

Guess what...I learned in due time. I've been an RN for 4 years, I'm board-certified...you see where this is going.

Trust me, after you've been working as a nurse for 9 months or so, these skills will be NOTHING.

Nepenthe Sea · Nov 7, 2010

Some people will never get the concepts taught in nursing school, but you seem to have that down. Skills are easy, because all you have to do is practice over and over again until you get it down. Just keep at it. Our first semester we were required to spend a minimum of 17 hours in the lab learning skills. By the end of the semester I had 60. And I can still do most of those skills in my sleep!

llg, PhD, RN · Nov 7, 2010

As a student, I was always near the top of the class in the classroom part ... but always felt awkward in the clinical part of my schooling. That was true for me in graduate school as well.

Here's the good news. Feeling awkward and clumsy in school clinicals does not mean that you will be clinically deficient on the job after graduation. I found that when I was in the actual RN role and working with a patient as a professional, a lot of the awkwardness disappeared. I was a competent staff nurse -- and an excellent charge nurse. (I now do education and research.) For me, it was something in role of nursing student that made the situation (and me) uncomfortable.

I still find myself clinically ucomfortable in certain situations -- usually while learning something new and being "checked off." But I do fine when I am alone with a patient and that patient is counting me.

AshleyDiane6 · Nov 7, 2010

Same here and the only one they look at for placement for our capstone is the lecture. Doesnt matter I got an A in lab/clinical, but because I got a C in lecture I cant go anywhere. Grrrrr, I wish i did better on tests.

Do you have test anxiety?