Clinical Preps Rant

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RN58186

143 Posts

Specializes in Nephrology.

I remember thinking that my first clinical instructor hated me. I thought she as a really unpleasant well, witch, to deal with. She made may of the same demands on her students and yes, if we had a question we were told to look it up (but she would help us research to make sure we understood what we learned. I would spend hours on care plans, only to have them returned with a comment that I did not cover enough material, that I had missed too much and could I please re-do this and re-submit it. I spent so many evenings in tears, and thinking that next time I will get it right. I had never done that kind of work before and we were not really given any instruction on how to prepare care plans. And yes, we were expected to know why a particular test was ordered, and what the results were indicative of the treatment for them. We were expected to know our meds inside out, and be able to describe the action of that med down to the cellular level. And to top it all off we (the instructor and I) had very different religious beliefs (she had commented in her introduction to our group that she found religious people as generally a group of people she really disliked and tried to avoid; I had earned a theology degree before I became a nurse) so it seemed that instructor student relationship was doomed. I thought my nursing career was over before it started. But, by the time I got to my next med/surg rotation I sure knew my stuff and the nurses were frequently impressed at what I had already learned. Now, grant it I have been blessed with a pretty incredible memory for pathophysiology, drugs, lab values among other things so I do know that part was probably not as difficult for me as for others. Her line that always drove me nuts was that someday I would thank her. Took me a long time to realize she was right. She expected a lot out of me, and because I wanted too do well I tried hard to meet those expectations. I chuckle now 25+ years later when I remember her telling me that when being asked about side effects of a new med that answering with nausea, vomiting and diarrhea was a good cover if you could not remember what they were. (That saved my bacon a few times). And now when I tell a student to look it up because the student will remember better, I know that is true, even thought I hated being told that as a student. But, when I got to my first job, my first head nurse (before they were called managers, and yes, I am that old...) told all the nurses that they could all learn something from me about writing a care plan because I wrote really good, well thought out care plans. And because as my first instructor she made darn sure I knew my stuff, the rest of Nursing School went much more smoothly. And as a new nurse I was not quite as frazzled as those who started with me. And, the religion thing became something that we agreed to disagree on and we are still good friends. I would not be the nurse I am without her teaching.

The moral of my story is that one day we all come to recognize the value to doing all that work. Hope yours comes soon....

Pranqster

50 Posts

Heres the deal, the prep sucks and we all had to do it. Its part of your education and you are getting more out of it than you think you are. you are inexperienced at this point and if you showed up at clinicals with no prep or understanding of you patient's disease processes, treatments, meds etc you'd be lost and wouldn't have time to do the research before getting to work- that, more than lack of sleep, would be unsafe. Understandably, at this point in your career you don't know how much you don't know. I'm not trying to be mean, but all the work that you feel is meaningless will pay off when you're on your own.

mindlor

1,341 Posts

Parts of nursing school are just plain SILLY. Fictional/Creative writing should be a prereq. All of my IPAs were fictional conversations that never occured. Teacher loved them because I knew what she wanted. Clinical preps had a framework of reality which was then fictionalized to make them interesting. It is a game, nothing more, that must be played.

Perhaps if nursing schools got their heads out of their tushies and focused more on skills, hospitals would be more amenable to hiring new grads......

Luckily I am a skilled writer of creative fiction :)

La Cubanita RN

325 Posts

Well your obviously frustrated and a lot of my fellow cohorts probably feel the same way actually I'm sure they do. It's true prep and care plans take so much time and dedication but I have learned so much by doing them. Not for my exams but to improve my patient care. What I always hear from practicing nurses is that nursing school is boot camp you just have to get through it and there is a rhyme and reason for it all but once you graduate you never have to prep or write a care plan again because you have learned and absorbed proper patient care with all those long and insane hours you have already put in. Good luck in your program and just remember to take a deep breath and watch out with stepping on your instructors toes they play a large part of your nursing school experience. They really are just trying to help you be a better nurse at least at my school they are.

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