Terrified for clinicals because...

Thanks everyone for your advice and comments! It feels good to know that what I am up against is as crazy as it seems to me. Someone mentioned that my instructor may just want to see how we react under stress. I've heard that is part of the reason she reacts so harshly if a student doesn't know something. All the information I've been told is from students who have had this person as recently as last year. Supposedly, if there is an issue in the patient's room, we are supposed to keep our cool and ask to take the conversation outside of the room because it's unprofessional to carry on in front of the patient. At that point, she backs down. I know this person has a wealth of knowledge and experience, and hope to learn a lot from her, if possible. As long as my care plans are good, that's what really matters as far as grades go. We get a clinical evaluation at the end, but all our points come from the care plans.

Technically, the information doesn't need to be memorized for the entire day, however we need to know it if we are asked a question. We will be quizzed on the bulk of things before we even get on the floor, so we have to get there early anyways. We do get to take the MAR bedside (we have to, to do our 3rd check), and we are supposed to make drug cards with all the details on the drug and bring them along. We need to have copies of our care plans as well. The instructor may or may not check our cards and documents, but we need to have them. However, we can't refer to them while we are verbally quizzed. I am thinking it's going to be impossible time-wise for the instructor to quiz every person in the clinical group (there will be 8 there at a time) about every single drug our client is on (even those we will not be administering), in addition to the information about our 2 patients (medical dx, relevant history, labs), and our care plans for each of them, BEFORE we even get on the floor. So, I think I will focus much more on the drugs I will be administering, plus any other significant drugs I may see effects from during my time there, or that are important or unique to the patients' condition. The patients' other general information isn't too difficult for me to remember, thank goodness. I am really curious to see how the first clinical goes (next week). Next Monday, I am going to talk with some of my classmates that have clinicals with the same person this week and find out how things went. Hopefully I get assigned to some great, fun patients as I did last year, and will at least enjoy my time spent with them! That's the best part about nursing, for me.