Am I totally lame or what?

[jdeckert]

Next Tuesday is our first "official" day of clinicals, meaning we will be in the hospital rather than working on dummies in the lab. The teacher was talking about it today and everyone in the class was saying things like "I cant wait!" or "Im so excited!" Meanwhile, I am feeling so nervous and scared about the idea. I keep thinking "What if I do something to embarrass myself, or even worse, embarrass one of my patients? What is I get sick or pass out? What if I royally screw something up?" Is this normal or what? I feel like a newbie amoung a bunch of veterans, even though they are all Freshman like me. I know we are not going to be doing anything too serious, just mostly assessing vitals and bedbaths, distributing meds, etc. But I am still so anxious about the whole idea. Can anyone help me out here?

TIA

Jillian, A.K.A. The Chicken

[Whisper]

I thought I was going to pass out from nerves the first time, I went on placement, It did get easier though. I am sure you'll be fine.

Good luck for Tuesday

whisper

[studentOH]

A friend of mine was *terrified*...ended up doing better than most of his fellow students at clinicals. I suffer from being overly confident with everything, so I usually have to slow down and make sure I am in fact doing everything correctly *lol*. Good luck :).

Brian

ps let us know how it goes.

[Love-A-Nurse]

no, i don't think you are "lame" at all.

i do believe it is alright for this nature feeling and welcoming emotion to be a little anxious and i do believe you will do fine. looking forward to hearing about your clinical experiences.

[delirium]

Surely you won't really be administering medications your first day of clinical?

You'll be fine. Its natural to be nervous. I think the people who are not are trying to overcompensate with a bravado of sorts. I was petrified, and I haven't killed anyone yet.

You'll look back on this and laugh at how scared you were. Its amazing how much I know now compared to my first day of clinical... relax, you aren't expected to know or do much at first.

[Agnus]

Yep. normal maybe even healthy reaction. This will pass and so will you, by the way. Ok Just got off an extra long shift and feeling punny. Ok so that was a pun too. I'm so tired I just plain slap happy. You will get better though I promise.

[NYCRN16]

The beginning of clinicals is scary, but use the time you have there to your advantage. The instructor will not leave you alone to do procedures and this is the time to take the difficult patients. Yes you heard right, the DIFFICULT ones. Why? Because now you have help, and someone to guide you through all the assessment and procedures. When you graduate you dont have someone to hold your hand. If you take hard patients in school and know what to do in the worst case, when you get to work or internship, you will find the hard patients easy, and the easy patients a piece of cake! I mean nobody wants all hard patients all the time, but if one is offered to the group, volunteer to take it every once and a while. You will be glad you did. Dont worry too much about your clinicals you will do fine, and you are going to be a great nurse!