What exactly is EXPECTED?

I'm confused, and I'm far from the only one in my class that is in the same situation!
I am a first semester nursing student, and we just had our first clinical experience on Friday. We were literally told "Your patient is in room... Go meet them." And that was it! While other students got patients that had a lot that needed to be done, and ran around like mad men and women the whole day, a few of us had patients with little or no actual needs. I am NOT complaining. The problem is, I KNOW there is something I'm supposed to do. But What is it? Our instructor asked near the end of the day "Have you assessed each of her pulse sites? If not, you're going to get failed." WHAT? Why didn't you tell me this? YOu've been helping all the students that were overwhelmed and didn't really give us instructions to begin with, so how was I supposed to know that my assessments needed to be that detailed? On top of that, I did try and complete an assessment, but we were told in class that if the patient is tired, come back later. my patient had not slept the night before, so she was falling asleep. She even fell asleep as I was inflating the BP cuff. My instructors assumption was that she was trying to manipulate me, and to get back in there and finish the assessment.

SO, I'm confused. Of course, I know the basics of how to assess and etcetera, but we didn't go into the day knowing what was expected.


So, let me know, what all is/was expected of you during a first semester clinical?