Clinicals with no sleep

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I am about to start my pediatric rotation. We are to go to the floor and choose a patient the night before clinicals. We can not arrrive befor five pm. We then have a 30 page paper due on that patient and family. It is do the next morning before 630 am. Needless to say we are up all night doing the paper then pull a 12 hour rotation passing meds etc... Seems unsafe. Am I just a whinning student or does this not seem right? Is this how all schools do it?

Thanks:eek:

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That seems pretty excessive. 30 pages? Is it even possible to gather that much information on one patient just by looking at their chart?

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Specializes in Cardiac.

I'm also in a BSN program and we are expected to go to the hospital the day before and complete a lengthy clinical prep. It usually ends up taking me about 6 or 7 hrs just to complete it.

But 30 pages?! That's criminal!

How is anyone in your program able to complete a 30 page clinical prep if you have to wait until 5p to even begin collecting the info?

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:heartbeat:heartbeat:heartbeatWe stopped going to gather information on patients the night before. .. with pt being discharged or other problems..now we just show up for report the day of our clinical, get assigned a pt, and then gather info for about 45 min before we have to start passing meds, ect. . . I think a 30pg paper due the day after you gather information is obsured:eek: especially when you have to be to clinical at 630am . . after you spend an hour there getting the info that would only leave you 5 hours to write it if your gonna get a good nights sleep. I think you need to talk to the dean of your college. . .because what they are doing to you seems like overkill. We had clinal packets due which were at the most ~ the pt's current dx, hx, list of meds-with explanation, list of abnormal labs-with explanations, and a care plan . . .no where near 30 pages, and we had a week to complete it. Definitly say something. . . good luck with whatever you do, I hope it all works out :heartbeat:heartbeat:heartbeat

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Was this information on a hand out that the school gave you? Is it possible that it is a typo and they meant to say 3 pages??? I still can't wrap my mind around the whole 30 page deal.

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Specializes in ER.
I am about to start my pediatric rotation. We are to go to the floor and choose a patient the night before clinicals. We can not arrrive befor five pm. We then have a 30 page paper due on that patient and family. It is do the next morning before 630 am. Needless to say we are up all night doing the paper then pull a 12 hour rotation passing meds etc... Seems unsafe. Am I just a whinning student or does this not seem right? Is this how all schools do it?

Thanks:eek:

writing a 30 page paper that evening after you choose your patient? Then having it due the next day? Um, no. It wouldn't be anything of QUALITY, since researching a paper would require spending time with the patient and family and researching the patient's medical conditions. It's unrealistic. I would say, a day or two to churn out the paper would be realistic.

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I haven't even had any quarter long research papers that have been 30 pages long. How are you supposed to crank out a 30 page patient history and care plan in one night and then do a clinical rotation the next day? That is just ridiculously absurd.:no:

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Specializes in Med/Surg.

Wow I'm a senior BSN student and 30 pages seems totally excessive. We have to go to the hospital the day before clinicals and receive our patient assignment. We then have to do a brief history, actual side effects, potential side effects, medical management, potential nursing diagnoses, and the ever dreaeded drug cards. This usually takes 2-3 hours. Our teachers do it this way because they do not want us being extremely tired during clinicals. We have another BSN and a few ADN programs around the area and they are pretty comparable to our program.:heartbeat

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Specializes in Oncology.

That definitely doesn't sound right:no:. I've never heard of such a thing. We have to do care plans on a pt, but we are given atleast a week to do them with atleast 2 days with the pt. And it totally sounds unsafe to have you at clinical all day after a night like that. I would definitely talk to someone in your program.

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We have a similar scenario at my school and it sucks. You find out info about the patient late (6-7 pm) on Wednesday afternoon; fill out a 15 page FRONT and BACK packet of info about them; then show up at clinical @ 6:45 a.m. You are expected to know all your meds, sometimes as many as 15 front and back, have completed prior nursing assessments, etc. . . If you show up for clinical with out the completed assignment you are sent home for the day. THEN after pre conference we are expected to do FULL a.m. care of 3 patients ( bed baths, linen changes, assessments, breakfast etc.c.c.) Before med pass @ 0900. I really do hat my school- qwe have lost sooo many and I'm afraid I may be next lol!!!

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I turned in a care plan that was roughly 30 pages long every week during my med-surg rotation, but it was never due on the morning of clinical. I'd go to the hospital the afternoon before, look at my patient's chart, then spend the evening making up drug cards and considering aspects of care. I'd write the paper over the weekend. What adds up to 30 pages is pathophysiology -- for me, two primary diagnoses, usually written single-spaced over four pages -- plus assessment data and patient history.

Oh, and I forgot to mention the message our instructor would send out at 10 p.m. the night before clinical: "Now is the time for all good nursing students to go to bed." I think it's really setting a poor example for students to expect them to stay up all night, then provide good care.

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Wow. That's harsh. My school doesn't do pre-planning the night before because patients go home. Our clinicals start at 6 AM. We have to get there an hour early each morning to look up labs, diagnosis, vitals, and other important info. And then before taking care of them we make diagnosis cards (definition, s/s, med treatment and nursing interventions) and drug cards. Then we interview and do our head-to-toes on our client(s) with their normal morning assessment. We get home in the afternoon. When we go home we fill out lab sheets, and then we have to explain the tests, why they are done, results, and relate their importance to the patient. We fill out 13 page assessment profiles, write care plans, and we put sticky notes all over the drug cards noting the doses given to the patient and side effects seen during the day. All together it's probably 16-17 pages worth of paperwork. This usually takes are good 4-6 hours after clinicals. By the time I'm done it's close to bedtime. I can't even imagine doing THIRTY the night before...without even having seen the patient. Doesn't make sense to me. I've never heard of such a thing. Weird.

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