Help with clinicals

pdmt · Sep 9, 2003

I am so sorry for your situation.

What you might do while you are waiting for next summer's med/surg course to come around (no way around that) is get a job working in a hospital as a nursing assistant -- they're called nurse techs, or aides, or PCAs or whatever.

Actually working day-in and day-out in a hospital -- even though not in a nurse's role -- will give you confidence in yourself.

Good luck

student-RN-BSN · Sep 9, 2003

Thank you for your help. I think I might try that. I have a 3 day a week job already, but that leaves me 2 days to maybe work in a hospital.

Thanks again.

RNIAM, BSN, RN · Sep 9, 2003

You may be able to test for your LPN licence and if so, it might give you the experience you need to pass next time around.

TeresaRN2b · Sep 10, 2003

I was going to suggest the same thing. I think working in a hospital or clinical environment would really help you a lot. Good luck to you.

Teresa

asil · Sep 10, 2003

I think your best bet is a job in the clinical setting. A nurse aid or nurse tech will improve your skills and give you confidence. Good luck.

maeyken · Sep 10, 2003

I agree. I worked as a nurse's aide this summer (in LTC, but still a good experience) and I found that I'm a lot more comfortable working with my patients now. I think the biggest thing I learned was that if I act confident, the patients think you are confident, and that really puts them at ease! Good luck, whatever you decide to do!!

~ mae

student-RN-BSN · Sep 10, 2003

Thank you for all of your help and suggestions. The problem is exactly the point you brought up. My confidence. I am not confident that I know what I am doing. I don't want my patients to be vonfident in my abilities if I am not even comfortable treating them. Unfortunately, I had some horrible clinical experiences, where my instructor reprimanded me and ridiculed me for trying to help a patient unhook an IV med for a minute to use the restroom. He was not very coordinated and worried about tripping over the tubing. I now know how dangerous it was for me to temporarily stop the IV but I am also now petrified of touching an IV or a patient for that matter. I also worry that without an instructor presant and the fact that I do not have a license to practice nursing, will I be allowed to do anything? I would love to just shadow a nurse if they have the time and patience to guide me. All I need is a little more explanations of the procedures so that I know what I am doing and don't have to fear hurting someone. I don't want to simply do something without a full understanding of the therapeutic effects and risks, otherwise, I am afraid of causing harm to a person because I did not fully understand the reason behind my actions. Sorry, but I am fully terrified of being in a clinical setting again but don't want to give up on nursing!

Carolanne · Sep 10, 2003

I agree, working as an aide, etc. would really help you. I had a very similar experience with my med-surg clinic. I passed, but it was a rough experience. I felt my instructor was working against me and not with me and I really began to doubt my own capabilities. At my end of course evaluation, she strongly suggested I sign up for the summer course which my school offers which allows students to shadow a nurse for two weeks and get a full day's experience. This is the best advice she ever gave me. I took the course last month and learned more in those two weeks than I think I have since I started nursing school. Just being in the hospital on a steady basis and having that hands on experience helped me regain my confidence and prove to myself that I can be a good nurse. So much of the skills is practice, practice. I also found that not having an instructor breathing over my shoulder made all the difference, working with the RN and LPN and aides was a much more relaxed atmosphere and much more receptive to learning. Med-surg is a tough course, try not to beat yourself up too much about it. We all come to hurdles we have to jump over, so take this time to gain some more experience and you'll make it!

student-RN-BSN · Sep 10, 2003

Thank you so much for your reply -- you really managed to make me feel better about the whole thing. I am going to try to shadow a nurse this fall while I am out of school.

asam1 · Sep 10, 2003

working at a hospital will help a lot with your confidence. remember that none of us are confident in the beginning. Repeating the course will help you too, because you probably will not be taking any other classes at that time and you will be able to concentrate hard on med-surg and learn a lot. You could also consider volunteering at a hospital to avoid the employee/employer situation if you dont want to deal with that. A hospital is like a totally different world, isn't it? hope things work out