So done with underwhelming clinical experiences

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Finishing semester 3 of 4. I've had med/surg two semesters (one on ortho, one in neuro (neuro was the only one where stuff actually happened)), peds, maternity and psych (which ALMOST was a great rotation, but we had basically fluke situations that prevented us from being on the unit for our acute days).

Maternity, literally had 3 total patients in 14 weeks. THREE. One of them was a labor, and she delivered 2 hours after we got there, and was taken to mother/baby by lunch. So the majority of our time was spent in a room where we were not allowed to work on stuff for other classes or bring lap tops. Volunteering to help in any way possible had no results because every day we were there, there would be 1-2 patients and the last thing those patients of nurses needed was 8 students hovering. We were still graded for these days and would lose points for stuff like lack of enthusiasm and lack of growth from previous clinical experiences. I'm sitting here waiting for grades to be posted, knowing I will probably get a B even though I tried so hard to be awesome. So frustrating. Peds was equally underwhelming but they filled our time with useful learning things. We had opportunities to EARN our grades, as opposed to losing our grades because we're not enthusiastic enough about doing nothing.

Med/surg was sloooooow in ortho, which might be okay since it was first semester, but more responsibility by the end would have been nice. Second semester, I got to help with a lot of ADLs and would care, which I loved. We also had out rotations and those, I loved. I met the hospice whisperer. She was so perfect in her role. I hope to be as perfect in my nurse role as she was. So gifted! So patient! So comforting!

Psych has surprised me the most. I thought I would be interested in it, but not as deeply as I have been. I'm positive I don't have the strength for psych nursing, but I've still loved the whole experience. Next semester is community, which I think I'll love as well. I also have an internship and don't know yet what my placement will be.

*sigh* Just unloading really. How have your experiences been so far?

Specializes in Med/Surg.

Just finished my 1st semester. My group did their clinicals at a teaching hospital. We were on an ortho unit. The floor was busy. So, we got plenty of practice skills wise. The great thing about the whole experience was being able to not only witness certain procedures, but witness those procedures and have them explained in detail. We were able to see a bone marrow biopsy. The doctor was training 2 residents. She not only guided them through the procedure, but she took the time to explain each step. She told us about the slides and why they had to be prepared a certain way. She explained which tests they were going to perform and what they look for in the results. We had a patient with a colostomy and the wound care nurse came in and gave us an awesome inservice on colostomy care. We often were right there with the residents while they rounded on our patient for the day. Sadly I don't get to go back next semester. I hope my experience is as good next semester. Hope you have better luck next semester. Good luck!

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Specializes in critical care.
I think that you get out of a clinical experience what you put into it. Plus how can you complain if you thought things were slow or boring? Did you expect them to create drama for you to observe.Sometimes things are just boring and there really is nothing you can do to help.Don't worry it will be over soon and you will make it. A lot of learning goes on after school. You won't see it all in clinicals.Hang in there.[/quote']

Really? What should the 8 of us do to create "drama" in order to "get out what we put in" when literally there are NO patients? 14 week semester, 3 total patients. That's the kind of luck I've been getting.

I'm pretty sure I've said it's not the facility's fault but I'll reword this so maybe it makes more sense: I want to be comfortable moving on to my first job, and with only one semester left, I do not feel like my clinical experiences have prepared me to do pretty much anything. I want to learn MORE so that I feel confident. It's no one's fault that these opportunities haven't existed. Even my one and only ER day brought not much of anything. I had three total patients, two were kids with coughs wanting school notes, one was an abscess that I got to observe draining of.

I'm going into my 4th semester without ever starting a foley, doing venipuncture, starting an IV, doing a sterile dressing change..... Most of the stuff we learned and practiced twice in the first semester, I have yet to do on a real person. I view this as a problem, and it is frustrating. I do not feel competent. Maybe I wouldn't still if I'd had great clinical experiences, but at least then I could say it's my own fault, and then I COULD say I didn't get anything out because I didn't put anything in. But that is very much not the case or problem here.

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Specializes in critical care.
Just finished my 1st semester. My group did their clinicals at a teaching hospital. We were on an ortho unit. The floor was busy. So we got plenty of practice skills wise. The great thing about the whole experience was being able to not only witness certain procedures, but witness those procedures and have them explained in detail. We were able to see a bone marrow biopsy. The doctor was training 2 residents. She not only guided them through the procedure, but she took the time to explain each step. She told us about the slides and why they had to be prepared a certain way. She explained which tests they were going to perform and what they look for in the results. We had a patient with a colostomy and the wound care nurse came in and gave us an awesome inservice on colostomy care. We often were right there with the residents while they rounded on our patient for the day. Sadly I don't get to go back next semester. I hope my experience is as good next semester. Hope you have better luck next semester. Good luck![/quote']

That is awesome! When we did get to see the docs on ortho, they were pretty helpful and engaging. The nurses weren't as eager (or nice) but you get what you get. The doctor who spent most of his time on neuro was fantastic and would talk to us about pretty much anything, and was very proactive in helping us think things through. It was very helpful in learning patho, assessment and labs.

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Specializes in Psychiatric Nursing.

My BSN was not adequate to prepare me for work and it made

My first couple of years very stressful. I used to wish I had

Waiter experience because of the speed and multitasking

Expected. My theoretical background was good and I did

catch on. Now there is YouTube to observe procedures. Maybe

Your school could do more skills labs. From what I understand

The old diploma schools were the best. By the time students

Graduated they could do charge on a busy med surg floor.

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Out of curiousity - did the nurses DO anything during your acute care rotation in psych? The ones on our unit didn't. It was very disappointing. They stayed behind the glass gossiped, and passed meds. I don't think I ever saw them leave the nurse's station. We were there 7 am - 3 pm, so you think you'd see SOMETHING, but nope. We (the students) stayed on the unit enjoying our patient interactions the entire day and we went to groups (led by someone amazing who was not a nurse, but I can't remember what her credentials were), and we went with our patients to their visits with the doctors, who were mostly cold and unfriendly. I did get to spend a day in PERT with an RN who was the psych patient whisperer. She was so well suited for what she was doing. She and the home hospice nurse I shadowed were truly inspiring women.[/quote']

Um, you nailed it! There were some good nurses who actually interacted some why the patients- but for the most part the psych nurses were just as you described. The hospital part wasn't bad because we interacted with the patients and I learned a lot. The outpatient was terrible. I wasn't really allowed in with the patients so I sat in an office all day.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, NICU.

I'm going into my 4th semester without ever starting a foley, doing venipuncture, starting an IV, doing a sterile dressing change..... Most of the stuff we learned and practiced twice in the first semester, I have yet to do on a real person. I view this as a problem, and it is frustrating. I do not feel competent. Maybe I wouldn't still if I'd had great clinical experiences, but at least then I could say it's my own fault, and then I COULD say I didn't get anything out because I didn't put anything in. But that is very much not the case or problem here.

That just seems insane to me. I've started foleys and IVs, performed numerous venipunctures and sterile technique. On top of that, everyone in my clinical group got the chance to work with a vented patient, tube feeds and give meds OG, IV, you name it! And this is just halfway through the program. We also got to witness open heart surgeries and other major operations as well as multiple trips to the cath lab and seeing patients code and intubated.

As far as peds and ob, from what I have heard, they are usually very slow going. Psych too. So your situation isn't unique, but I am surprised to hear about your med-surg experiences.

Hopefully you will get more hands on experience during your preceptorship.

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Specializes in critical care.

So I wanted to update. This semester I am on a PCU for my internship, and my instructor has stated she will give those of us without venipuncture or IV starts a day in same day surgery. The PCU has a dialysis unit and telemetry, so hopefully this will be a more intensive experience for me. The second half of my semester will be community, which will hopefully be a nice, calm way to end things. I have to say, I am already overwhelmed and it is the end of my first week. Not so much with the work, but with balancing personal life with school. This week has been a disaster pulling off our schedule, and next week will have a bad start to it as well with my littles being off on Monday. Just keep swimming..... 1 week down. 13 to go. Thank you for the well wishes and positive thoughts! With any luck, I will feel a lot more prepared at the end of this experience.

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Specializes in L&D, infusion, urology.

I hope this rotation goes better for you!

One idea, if you guys aren't doing this already, is to do things like venipuncture and IV starts on each other (Foleys might be a stretch :eek:). At least you could work on some of that stuff!

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Specializes in critical care.

So last week made up for the first three semesters completely. I still have yet to do venipuncture or start an IV, but in terms of patient care experience, wow. I went from literally shaking my first day, to feeling like I could do pretty much anything on day 4 (with training wheels, of course!).

I've had a wide range of patients (4 each day), from stroke patients, to raging skin infections, to someone who is PVS. I've had a wide range of experiences, from sitting in during procedures to holding the head of a dead women in my hands while she was made ready for her spouse to view. I got swept up in the moment of a woman coding in the hallway. I have felt my preceptors trust me. I have helped mentor second semester students. I have held a patient as they cried from loneliness. I have helped a man create a plan for getting back on his medications and felt like he actually listened (I hope I am not being naive). I've seen people on the worst day of their lives, and I've seen people be able to find strength to want better for themselves. I've seen amazing teamwork between nurses. I've seen atrocities being spewed by staff. I have worked with people whose patience I hope to have when I am licensed. I have worked with people who have no business working with people. (You'll see that anywhere, though.)

I have only done 4 days and I have seen and done so much. And I'm hooked. I never was much into med/surg or adult acute care. I've always been an OB/peds/womens health fan. But this unit has made me fall in love. Every day has challenged me and I have grown with every experience. This is the kind of clinical I was craving. I am so bummed that I am about a third of the way through this experience. After spring break we switch to the community setting. It's going to be hard going back to outpatient after having this experience. I have felt like I have had direct and immediate impact for the patients in this clinical, and I have been able to function with a bit of autonomy. It will be hard to step away from that.

Never in a million years did I ever believe I would fall in love with this type of nursing. This was very unexpected, in a beautiful way!

That's my update :)

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Specializes in CEN, CFRN, PHRN, RCIS, EMT-P.
So last week made up for the first three semesters completely. I still have yet to do venipuncture or start an IV but in terms of patient care experience, wow. I went from literally shaking my first day, to feeling like I could do pretty much anything on day 4 (with training wheels, of course!). I've had a wide range of patients (4 each day), from stroke patients, to raging skin infections, to someone who is PVS. I've had a wide range of experiences, from sitting in during procedures to holding the head of a dead women in my hands while she was made ready for her spouse to view. I got swept up in the moment of a woman coding in the hallway. I have felt my preceptors trust me. I have helped mentor second semester students. I have held a patient as they cried from loneliness. I have helped a man create a plan for getting back on his medications and felt like he actually listened (I hope I am not being naive). I've seen people on the worst day of their lives, and I've seen people be able to find strength to want better for themselves. I've seen amazing teamwork between nurses. I've seen atrocities being spewed by staff. I have worked with people whose patience I hope to have when I am licensed. I have worked with people who have no business working with people. (You'll see that anywhere, though.) I have only done 4 days and I have seen and done so much. And I'm hooked. I never was much into med/surg or adult acute care. I've always been an OB/peds/womens health fan. But this unit has made me fall in love. Every day has challenged me and I have grown with every experience. This is the kind of clinical I was craving. I am so bummed that I am about a third of the way through this experience. After spring break we switch to the community setting. It's going to be hard going back to outpatient after having this experience. I have felt like I have had direct and immediate impact for the patients in this clinical, and I have been able to function with a bit of autonomy. It will be hard to step away from that. Never in a million years did I ever believe I would fall in love with this type of nursing. This was very unexpected, in a beautiful way! That's my update :)[/quote']

Congrats, you will be a great nurse.

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Awesome! I'm on semester 4 and in community and feeling underwhelmed for sure. I feel like it's semester 1 again, following nurses around doing nothing. I get med surge 2 after spring break, can't wait!!

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