Bed Bath Failure!!!

[lukesmama]

Hello everyone. I flunked out of my 1st 4 minutes into bed bath checkoff in lab. Not because I did not study or know my stuff, but due to nerves. If I do not get it the second time around, we get kicked out of the program. ANY ADVICE???

[Bortaz, MSN, RN]

i had no idea you could fail a bedbath?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

I thought the same, but with far fewer question marks.

[twinmommaRN08]

I thought the same, but with far fewer question marks.

lol. Thank God my school didn't require us to get tested on bed baths because I would fail! I figured that the more practice I got once I started working, the better I would get.

OP:

Does your school give you a sheet with the steps on it? If so, make sure you use it when you practice and if you mess up during the exam because you are nervous, make sure you catch your mistake and tell the instructor what you would do differently.

Good luck

[kayskate]

Before I tested bed bath, I practiced a lot. We had an hour to complete bed bath and making occupied bed. I went to the lab 4x and probably invested 10-15 hrs in practice both watching others and w others watching me. I talked to my "patient" the whole time. I was nervous on test day, but the instructor was very calm, asked me Qs which I knew and I soon relaxed. Now I am not nervous on test offs, but I sure was on that first one. It will get better.

Kay

[AtomicWoman]

Have you tried talking through it? I have anxiety in front people doing skills too I just talk through them like I am talking to a patient not an instructor. Ok Mrs. so and so I am going to give you a bed bath now. Let me wash my hands first and we'll get started, I am going to raise the bed a bit so I can reach better, are you ok?, Ok mrs. so and so I going to start with your face,would you like to help?, ok I'll start with... kind of like that. You are so busy talking you forget you have someone watching. I just did that yesterday to get my CNA recert here in AZ. It helped!! Good luck!

I was going to make the same suggestion. When I took my BLS certification, I talked to the dummy and it really helped. If I started to do the steps in the wrong order, I immediately knew it and I said, "Excuse me! I mean I'm going to..."

[lainith]

You need to think about how you learn the best. For me, the best way to learn something is to teach someone else to do it. I know that I know what I'm doing if I can teach someone else to do it. Can you walk someone else through the steps while showing it?

Figure out the best way that you learn and try to go with that. If all else fails, put yourself in the pt's place or imagine you are bathing yourself. When you're in the shower, pretend you are your pt lying in bed and bathe yourself in the same manner that you would the pt.