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:

Specializes in ER, ICU, Education.

Another point to consider from an educator's perspective is this....how can I ask my students to live a balanced life if I myself do not? I balance work and home life, and I want them to do the same as much as possible. Keeping them up all night does not further the goal of being an excellent nurse with a balanced life.

When your own life is balanced, you have more of yourself to give to your patients, and you can be "fully present" when you work, not so sleep deprived that you merely punch a clock and "get by."

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My school eliminated the practice of going to the hospital the night before years ago, out of concern for patient safety with students showing up without sleeping. Other schools in my area still do this, but they aren't required to write a 30 page paper. We write our care plans after the fact based on our assessments and interventions while providing care that day - they're long and annoying, but we have more than one night to do them in.

Our school does the same thing....we have up to two weeks to do our care plan because the school wants us to know HOW they are done.

We have to look up all of the medications, what they are for, all of the lab values, why they were given. We have to source all of our work.

They give us 1/2 the clinical day just to look through the chart...b/c it's very, very confusing when you have no idea of what the paperwork is, how it's wrote, what is this, what is that.

Given that, we have to write a nursing diagnosis, goals, implementation, and we "make up" the outcome b/c we can't really do the implementation ....but they feel that once you do the research, that part should be easy....and it is.

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

30 page paper? Is it a fill-in-the-blanks?

Most resident physicians have 36-hour rotations where they get no sleep at all. When I was in school I had to work Sunday night 11pm-7am, go to clinicals Monday mornings and class in the afternoons up to 5pm. By Monday evening when I got home I had been up for close to 24 hours. I planned for that day because I wanted that RN real bad.

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Specializes in ER, ICU, Education.

I also remember long hours spent up all night, constantly battling illness due to the stress. I can't say that this particular practice benefitted me. What did benefit me was hours of study, instructors who believed in me, asking 1,001 questions, and determination.

I had really hoped the anachronistic views of "toughening up" students by keeping them awake all night would be a thing of the past. As laws passed in states limiting medical residents to 80-hour work weeks, I had held out hope that a more reasonable standard would be set for the medical residents. I am sad to report that this has not been the case in many instances. I had also hoped that nursing education would follow suit, maintaining difficult standards, but considering the rationale for why we maintain certain education practices. I see signs of progress and am optimistic, but posts like this make me sad.

My goal is to instill a life-long love of learning in my students. My wish is that they will, as practicing nurses, have found their education worthwhile and relevant to the degree that they will never want to stop learning about nursing. I see so many students on the forums that are exhausted, angry, overwhelmed, and lack support. This makes me incredibly sad. I realize I can't change the world, but I will never give up the idea that nursing education can be different, and that as an instructor I can create a climate of learning by admitting my own errors, continuing to learn myself, sharing knowledge, and recognizing the wisdom in my own students.

I would quit a job that required me to exist on no sleep, ignore my family, and live a one-dimensional life. So how can I, in good conscience, demand this of my students?

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Specializes in ER.
Our school does the same thing....we have up to two weeks to do our care plan because the school wants us to know HOW they are done.

We have to look up all of the medications, what they are for, all of the lab values, why they were given. We have to source all of our work.

They give us 1/2 the clinical day just to look through the chart...b/c it's very, very confusing when you have no idea of what the paperwork is, how it's wrote, what is this, what is that.

Given that, we have to write a nursing diagnosis, goals, implementation, and we "make up" the outcome b/c we can't really do the implementation ....but they feel that once you do the research, that part should be easy....and it is.

TWO WEEKS? We had weekly care plans, actually I recall the clinicals were on Tuesdays and Thursdays and the careplans were due on Fridays in class. Every week, careplans for the patients you took care of the previous days. So on Monday night when you went in to pore over the charts, you got as much information as you could to prepare your care plans for Friday. The rest of the preparation was the easy stuff (meds, side effects, history, treatments, etc.). Ahhhh, miss those days in nursing school. That was a fun, learning time. :yeah:

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We usually have clinicals Tues/Thurs, and the careplans are due (along with all the other paperwork) by the end of clinical on Thursday.

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:yeah:Thanks for all the info, I thought no sleep was unsafe. We do have 30 pages no it is no typo. Also we have twice a semsester a 50- 60 page critical thinking paper to do. I have left the program as the school has out priced :banghead: me and I feel that I am learning how to do 30 page papers and not care for patients. I will start a new program in the fall. I want to learn to be a nurse not a report writer! One of my class mates said when she graduates with her BSN she will go to a two year program to learn how to work on the floor!:no: We took it to the dean but we were not listened to and half of everyone who spoke up ened up on probation. I look forward to the type of paper work you speak of!

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Wow! I hope the new program works out better for you!

So far it's worked out that my clinical day has been on Thursday for the past 3 semesters. We have to pick up our assignments on Wed. and fill out a paper with labs, orders, allergies etc. plus a concept map, med sheets, and 3 nursing dx. (which is hard to do when you haven't assessed the pt!) Then during clinical, we do an assessment page and after clinical, we add to the concept map, evaluate meds given and fill in the outcome for the nursing dx. and make any necessary changes. The whole packet is due on Monday.

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Specializes in ER, ICU, Education.

BSNstudent09, good luck in your new program. It is a shame the school had this response. It sounds as if you are happy with your choice, so that is great! One thing I really recommend to my students is to seek out an internship/externship/nurse partner program (not certain what they call them in your area, but a program where you are truly mentored on the floor and can attend relevant classes to your area of interest). My students who work at local hospitals gain so much more experience than those who don't! They come back to school after the summer and are like new people- more confident and skilled. I love to see the change! Best of luck to you at the new school.

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