How scary was your fist clinical experience?

Nursing Students General Students

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Just curious what it was like for some of you. Was it like being thrown to the wolves? How did you maintain your cool? How many times did you meet in class, or in other words, how much preparation did you have before you experienced your first clinical?

Throw in anything else you'd like to add.

edit: fist=first

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I realized that everyone in my group was as lost as I was. 1st clinicals was at LTC. Thankfully the aides were around, and I was able to ask mine a million questions. She must've thought I was a complete dimwit. I was asking her questions about adult briefs, as in where are they, how do I put one on, which way is forwards? How was I to know -- I've never changed a diaper in my life. :lol2:

Things didn't get scary until we started doing meds. That's when instructors started handing out deficiency points (-1 pt from final grade) for any little slip-up. I've been taught to cringe in fear when it's meds time. LOL

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I realized that everyone in my group was as lost as I was. 1st clinicals was at LTC. Thankfully the aides were around, and I was able to ask mine a million questions. She must've thought I was a complete dimwit. I was asking her questions about adult briefs, as in where are they, how do I put one on, which way is forwards? How was I to know -- I've never changed a diaper in my life. :lol2:

Things didn't get scary until we started doing meds. That's when instructors started handing out deficiency points (-1 pt from final grade) for any little slip-up. I've been taught to cringe in fear when it's meds time. LOL

Man. I'm so scared! My SIL is a nurse and she was talking to me this weekend about nursing school. She told me not to feel badly when nurses don't want to fool with me during clinicals because they are just so busy as is.

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Specializes in Neonatal Intensive Care.

It wasn't too bad. I thought it would be much worse. Our first day on the floor all we had to do was get a.m. vitals and do a bed bath. If you get a good clinical instructor and have a supportive clinical group you will be just fine!

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Specializes in Emergency/Cath Lab.

Lets see time between first day of lecture and first clinical was about 2 weeks. They threw us into the mix right out of the gate which I thought was great. How i got mentally prepared was well, we had a short drive to the LTC facility we were at and I blasted some pretty loud metal the entire way there. My partner and I were just rocking out having an awesome time, just to get in that mindset that we could do it. Once we were all there, it just felt natural to be working with the residents.

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Specializes in Pediatric Pulmonology and Allergy.

Mine wasn't scary... just disappointing. OB was our first clinical rotation and we started on the PP floor. All I did was palpate a few uteri... Maybe I d/c'd one IV also.

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Specializes in ED.

I wasn't nervous really but I was anxious. We were pretty prepared for the clinical because we had 3 days in the skills lab to specifically prepare us for our first visit in the nursing home. In addition to our clinical time each week, we had a full day in the skills lab to prepare us fro the next week's visit.

I also had a great clinical teacher that was very well prepared for class and clinicals which I think really helped us.

Don't be afraid to ask for help either. Yes, there will be an aide, a nurse, and maybe even another student that thinks he/she is better than you but work your own plan and don't worry about anyone else and you will be fine!

meredith

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Oh gosh, you don't even want to know.

On the first day of my clinical experience, I went to a dirty, uncared for, understaffed nursing home. It smelled bad, the people were neglected. The first thing they had me do was feed an elderly woman. They didn't give me her background or anything and honestly, I didn't even know what to do.

She was sitting in a wheelchair, almost straight up, and I started to feed her. Simple right? All of a sudden, she stopped eating. Her whole body leaned forward, and I kept thinking, did this woman just DIE!!

My face was white. All I could think to do was to straighten her up and try to wake her, but she wouldn't! It was a crazy feeling. She wasn't dead. She was just very elderly, hard of hearing and would frequently fall asleep. But it freaked me out that she just went forward like that, one minute alert enough to eat, the next falling asleep (with food in her mouth).

Anyway, lots of stories where they would send us in to care for patients without telling us about the pts condition or their limits. We had to guess and they wouldn't let us look at the charts.

Plus our instructors were so cruel to us. They put us to the test to our breaking point. We had a pregnant student, eight months doing the same physical labor that the rest of us were doing. Our teacher didn't believe in doing any favors for any students. She was insane.

Our other instructor was mean, but at least I can excuse her. She had past traumatic events that I understand.

All in all, it was a terrible experience and they belittled us to the point where we thought all we were gonna do in our whole nursing career as nurses was wipe ass and take V/S. It wasn't until after we finished that first rotation that I finally started to enjoy nursing. That instructor almost made me regret my decision to become a nurse. But I'm glad I powered through.

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Specializes in ED/ICU/TELEMETRY/LTC.

LOL. I was the oldest student in my group. The nursing instructor that we had loved to pick on me. (Not to worry, I have always been a tough cookie).

So, anyway, we are at LTC and this lady needed her prosthetic eye put in. Good grief I was scared to death.

But, as always, I tried to think quickly.

Ok, Tell the patient what you are going to do. No wait, ask them if you can do it.

Wash your hands. (Always the right thing to do and gives you more thinking time.)

Gloves. Sterile?? No, the eye prosthesis isn't sterile to start with. OK.

It's stored in something. Do I rinse it off? Can't be wrong, because I don't know what it's in.

Do I dry it? No, that doesn't seem right.

Spread the lids open, put the top in and the darn thing just sucked the bottom part in. Scared me to death.

OK, Tissue under the eye to dry the face.

Say Thank You.

Wash your hands. (of course)

Now, promptly FORGET to document on TAR.

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My first clinical, they had us work in pairs the first week. We had 3 weeks of class prior, basic care vital signs and head to toe assessment. Pretty much gave baths, changed beds, and did assessment...during our team assessment, I took blood pressure....and didn't hear anything and my classmate redid it. realised much later when a PA told me to listen to a murmur, that the head of my stethoscope was flipped backwards so diaphragm was turned off. And only half day. Next week, same thing, but alone. Did that once a week for 5 weeks that term, next term, full day care 2 days a week, care planning, assessments...then started meds.

Also co assigned nurses vary.....some are not helpful at all. Others are VERY helpful and will teach you all they can. By the end of second term we do ALL care for a pt, so we are really helping our co-assign and most like having us there at our hospital. (Have actually had when 3 of us walked on the elevator with an elevator with a couple nurses from the floor one of the older nurses went "the students are here today, yay" and did a little happy dance in the elevator.....and genuinely, not sarcasticly) But I have had a co-assign with 5 pts, 3 of which us students had, so she really had 2 pts to worry about, and I asked her to help me boost my pt up in bed real quick, and got an eye roll and attitude about....and that was the only time she even had to come in my pts room that day. I've had another that was BUSY, and I asked a question, and he told me he was busy, but 10 minutes later he caught up with me and answered my question, and talked to me for a good 15 minutes about things i hadn't even asked about but stemmed from my question and was helpful. One thing with co-assigned nurses, when you are on top of your work with your pts, ask them if they need help with anything, and be available if they have anything interesting with another pt for you to see. Often times they wont have anything you can help them with, but offer, let them know you are available if they need help or have anything interesting to see, and many will show you things, or even just grab you to help with a transfer.

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We had 2 "lab-based clinicals" prior to our first on-site clinical. We went over basic skills like making beds, feeding, types of diets, bed pans, helping with ADLs, lifts and other assistive devices. Then our first clinical was in a geriatric nursing home. My instructor was awesome - she totally understood that most of us were scared and nervous. But she also made it clear that she would not be holding our hands the entire time. The first couple of nights on the floor, we fed the residents on the dementia unit, had a conversation with a resident for a process recording, then assisted with PM care on the general nursing unit. We worked with a partner, which also helped to ease anxiety. They made sure to assign us patients who were happy to have students, and could also tell us about their routine. It was very easy, but of course the nerves were still there. My first patient was so sweet and knew exactly what she wanted.

It's totally normal to be nervous about it. The only people who weren't had prior CNA experience. You just gotta get in there and do it and you will quickly gain confidence and feel good about it :)

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