best day at clinicals... worst day at clinicals

Idaho Murse · Apr 7, 2011

My best day was in my second semester of med/surg. My nurse would ask me a question and I had the correct answer for each one. I was a rockstar taking care of 4-5 pts. I succeeded at everything I did.

My worst day is when my clinical instructor informed me that I on track to fail that same semester. She was basing this off 5min each day she spent with us. She would walk into our rooms with a clip board and tell us to pretend she wasnt there as she made notes and check marks. She required that I do several care plans each week when everyone else had to do 6 the entire sem. After that I had to meet with one of our professors so we could discuss my plan of action to succeed, once he looked at my paper work and talked with my nurses and actually followed me for 4 hours.... yes 4 hours. He told me I absolutely do not have to worry about failing that semester. He would prevent it, if it came down to that.

My worst I suppose was really like my worst week.

Codjonaub · Apr 7, 2011

ABOVE^ person. Ummm, you have a huge law suit if your instructor made you complete more care plans then all the rest of the students. That is insane and illegal as all heck. The next thing is some instructor impeeded upon the clinical instructor's position and followed you for 4 hours, wow. I never heard of such things other than in fairytales.

elljayo · Apr 7, 2011

hip hip hooray for your professor :)

afox · Apr 7, 2011

Worst- First clinical that we were passing meds during first semester.

* I get there, and during shift report, think that I missed my patient b/c they were going in numerical order by room#, but for some reason they stuck room 208's report AFTER 222.

* My patient was NPO, but all meds were ordered PO. Had to get my nurse, and contact Dr.

* while taking vitals, the cuff would not fit around her arm, so i had to de-gown(she was in isolation), etc, to get a new cuff (those gowns are SUPER HOT btw)

*She would not keep her mouth closed for oral temp, and kept moving her hand so I could not get axillary (after 15 mins I was able to get axillary thankfully)

*Doc came in, and said she needed a foley and took her off NPO

*Got attempt my first foley, except that the urethra was no where to be found. Patient voided all over my hand while I was inserting the catheter (thank god for gloves) I tried 3 times, and could not get the urethra even though I was going in the hole that urine was continually coming out of. My instructor even tried twice and couldn't get it. We ended up having a nurse get it for us

*I forgot to mention that this pt was disoriented and over 300lbs. It took 3 other students, and my instructor to hold her down so she would stop kicking and biting while I was inserting the catheters

* we get the catheter in and she voids 1950ml of urine in 5 mins, and while emptying it, it spilled on the floor

*Then I had to hurry up and look up her 15 medications so I could give them to her with applesauce. She spit the applesauce all over me and my face

*During the bath, I could not get her legs apart to wash her lady parts because she was not cooperating. It was the most strong, stale urine smell I've ever smelled (I almost puked when I was trying to input the catheter b/c the smell was so strong)She must have been incontinent at the LTC, and had not been washed good since arriving @ the hospital. Plus she was so large I had a hard time rolling her to get the dirty pads out from under her

(thats all I can think of that went wrong that day, but I know there was more b/c I never cry, but I left clinical so frazzled I cried all the way home, wondering if I should just drop out)

Best

*Clinical- Either going to watch surgery or just having a really nice patient

*Experience- Since I don't have any kids, and haven't had OB yet, just being in the delivery room when my Niece was born, and seeing how everything happens. Its amazing to see the look on the mothers face when she realizes that the pushing is over and now she is a "mom".

tokidokifantasy · Apr 7, 2011

Worst experience: the RN won't let you do anything because she didn't trust you. The only thing she let me to was vital signs all day and when I offered to do accu check, she said ok, then she went off to do it herself.

When your patient is not cooperative and you wish you could speak their language to ease the stress the disease have put on them. And you waited the whole day and still couldn't get a focused assessment.

Best experience: ORIF surgery was the best experience so far. I cannot wait to be in the OR and see more actions.

If the patient is cooperative, you can learn so much about their illness by talking to them about their life. Having an awesome instructor who will advocate for us and who will let us have as many hands on experience as possible!! yeah!!

Actually, I feel defeated this week because the nurse there won't let me do anything, then second day a different nurse let me do everything. I guess it really depends on who the nurse is. I just don't understand why they treat students to bad, they were in the same position as us too. SAD!

ImThatGuy, BSN, RN · Apr 7, 2011

The best days are in the ER or in other intellectually stimulating environments. I particularly like an area in which you don't have the same patient and/or case for long. The worst days are on the medical-surgical units. That's all about nursing the chart. Before you ever see the patient you know what's wrong with them, and it's already laid out what you're going to do and just about when you're going to do it. There's just nothing about med-surg that has any appeal to me.