Meeting patient the day before clinical

[augurey]

It was suggested that we introduce ourselves to the patient the day before clinical, especially so we can find out if they are going to be discharged so that we can be re-assigned before doing all of the work on the care plan.

This is the first week we'll be doing this.

Other than saying "hi my name is _____. I'm a student nurse and will be assisting in your care tomorrow", I have no idea what would be the right things to say. I'm trying to have a general idea of what I want/should say so that I can feel a little more confident about going in without having to worry about the right things to say on the spot. I know it may change based on the interaction with the patient.

I know I'll want to find out discharge status/plans, if the patient asks for anything to inform the patient's nurse, and not to touch the patient without the clinical instructor on the floor / outside clinical time.

Would this be a good time to ask about routines or when they prefer a bed bath / to shower? The first set of vitals are to be done at 7. Should I let them know I'll be around at 7 the following morning for vitals? Am I over thinking this?

[applesxoranges, BSN, RN]

Um, in my school it was not allowed to be in a patient's room unless you had a clinical instructor on the floor. It was a safety/liability. Your first line is fine to be honest.

[augurey]

Thank you!

[turnforthenurse, MSN, NP]

I remember doing this in school. All I really did was go in and introduce myself: "Hi, my name is turnforthenurseRN and I'm a nursing student from X. I'll be assisting ____ with your care tomorrow." And that was pretty much it. You could ask about routines if you want. We weren't allowed to really do anything with the patient aside from that. Most of the time spent on site the night before consisted of going through the patient's chart and reading through it. I would read through the H&P and learn about why the patient was admitted to the hospital. I had to get a list of their medications, look them up in a drug book (MOA, classification, ADRs, etc), know the patient's allergies, labs from that day (and explain why they may be abnormal), patient's diagnosis and comorbidities. I would also look to see if they were on any sort of therapy (PT, OT, wound care, speech, etc). We then had to formulate a care plan and nursing diagnosis.

[cracklingkraken, ASN, RN]

We definitely didn't do this for any of our clinicals.

A lot of our patients were discharged pretty quickly, so I'd imagine that it'd be difficult to coordinate a day-before intro. Especially if your patient is likely to be gone the next day for clinical.

[JustBeachyNurse, LPN]

We received assignments morning of, facilities did not permit students on the floor without the clinical instructor during scheduled clinical hours. There are so many things that can go wrong, I'm surprised with HIPAA and facility security (an ALF had a murder suicide last night patient/visitor) that any facility would permit such a thing.

[203bravo, MSN, APRN]

I remember doing this in school. All I really did was go in and introduce myself: "Hi, my name is turnforthenurseRN and I'm a nursing student from X. I'll be assisting ____ with your care tomorrow." And that was pretty much it. You could ask about routines if you want. We weren't allowed to really do anything with the patient aside from that. Most of the time spent on site the night before consisted of going through the patient's chart and reading through it. I would read through the H&P and learn about why the patient was admitted to the hospital. I had to get a list of their medications, look them up in a drug book (MOA, classification, ADRs, etc), know the patient's allergies, labs from that day (and explain why they may be abnormal), patient's diagnosis and comorbidities. I would also look to see if they were on any sort of therapy (PT, OT, wound care, speech, etc). We then had to formulate a care plan and nursing diagnosis.

same for me.

[anewsns]

Just stay warm and smile - "hi! I'm ___ - nice to meet you. (Shake their hand if they seem open ). I'm a student nurse from __ college - I'm going to be helping with your care tomorrow and I just wanted to introduce myself. " I'm not sure why you would need to find out discharge date from the patient as opposed to the nurse ? If you're able to chat longer , if I want to chat with them as a nurse anyway I just say "I was reviewing your chart and saw that you're here for pneumonia? How did this come about ?" And they're usually like really happy to tell their story. Or if you want to be more practical can say like - "So, I'm coming in at 7 and you'll be getting breakfast and I'll do your meds around then - then how about a shower after that ?" I usually like to build a bit of rapport before hopping into anything personal but you have to work with your time frame.

edit: true on the above posters, If you're doing this on your own time as opposed to clinical time it would be best to only introduce yourself- and save the other stuff for tomorrow. You can say "we can chat more tomorrow, nice to meet you!"

[nlitened]

I have never heard of schools allowing students to do this. We get out patient the morning of, and get report along side our nurses. Our clinical instructor is always good with assigning us a care plan patient that she knows will not be discharged that day.

[righteousjenn]

Wei do this... As a first semester. We are lucky that our school is "apart" of the hospital we do clinicals at and we are allowed to go to the floor and introduce ourselves without our instructor present.. But no patient care is allowed at all. Not even pass some water to the patient

[kalycat, BSN, RN]

I know of several schools in this area that do this....and the students then stay up all night the eve before clinical trying to bust out a care plan for the next day. I was grateful that we got report with the rest of the unit. We occasionally had time to meet our *preceptors* 1:1 when they came to campus for a meet/greet social hour or at the hospital at a time that worked well for their schedule.

We got to pick our patients based on the assignments, but we had a list of common dx we were supposed to care for during that rotation. I felt like it worked well. To try to answer your Q....I would just go with a brief intro, ask if they have questions you can answer, and tell them when you will be arriving. Our charge nurses, faculty leader, and report sheets were much better for assessing discharge plans. I would avoid that question....my patient population is often both confused and eager to go home. A misunderstanding regarding dates or where "home" might be (rehab facility or other) could open a can of worms.

Enjoy your clinicals!

[turnforthenurse, MSN, NP]

We definitely didn't do this for any of our clinicals.

A lot of our patients were discharged pretty quickly, so I'd imagine that it'd be difficult to coordinate a day-before intro. Especially if your patient is likely to be gone the next day for clinical.

I didn't do this for every single clinical - definitely not for L&D (for obvious reasons), peds (because it wasn't a requirement lol) or higher acuity/high patient turnover areas like stepdown, ICU and ER. I really only did this in my adult/gero med-surg clinicals.