Is it normal for them to just let us take care of the pt's on our own??

Nursing Students CNA/MA

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Today was my first day of clincials *doing them in a nursing home* and they pared us up with each other *2 in each group* gave each group a pt and let us take care of them, alone. Is it normal for this to happen? I heard that usually they put us with a CNA to follow around, but they bascially just said, "here's a pt... good luck!" we did full body baths, transfers, etc. I'm just wondering if this happens a lot and is normal or not.

For my clinicals the instructor paired us each up with a CNA to follow arround and assist all day...I think it was very helpful because I was able to learn what a CNA's actual daily duties are. At the nursing home where I work though (another school uses the site for clinicals) the instructors typically pair up the students and give them 1-2 patients to care for throughout the day. They are not allowed to do ANY transfers on their own, and can't even transfer their patients with one of the CNA's in the room - their instructor must be with them (but they can help me transfer my patients without the instructor present). I think both ways work, but personally I am glad I had the clinical experience I did, as it allowed me to see/do more than I would have if assigned just one patient.

Thats exactly how my clinicals went.

I don't know how it goes for you guys, but before we were even in the care homes, we spent time in the lab learning how to do vitals and AM care and transfers and what not. So when we went to the care home, we knew how to do it. We were sent to do it on our own as well. We had a CNA to go to if we needed something, but this was our patient to take care of otherwise. If it's anything like here, it will be like that for the rest of your schooling as well.

We did do our skills on the dummys in the classroom and did vitals on each other, so we did know how to do everything. That could be the reason we are just sent on our own to take care of the patients. We had skill tests too, and if we failed it we failed the class!

Hmm...In my first day of clinical we were paired up and given a CNA to shadow. We weren't allowed to do anything we hadn't been validated for yet, and if the CNA asked us to, they could be reported.

If you feel uncomfortable, don't do it. I'm a CNA and to survive in this job its best to follow your instincts. Like the others said, that doesn't sound like how I was taught. Are they giving you a report about what the patient needs beforehand?

I had been working as a CNA for over a year when I started nursing school so I would have been quite annoyed if this was my assignment for clinical. My first day of clinical was at a LTAC and we did start off with CNA type work. It was a great opportunity to learn where to find everything. Also, the CNAs (PCTs) were very grateful for our help and it started us out on the right foot on the unit. If I had done that for entire semester it would have been a waste.

I assume by taking care of a patient alone, you were mostly just taking care of ADLs? You were not doing blood sugars and giving meds, right? If so I do not even see the "liability" issue of it, unless you were operating lifts.

Just remember, if you do not feel comfortable doing something, then go get help.

I felt the same way, basically the whole time during clinicals in my CNA course. We were in a med-surg unit at a hospital. Our class took half the patients, and the hospital CNA took the other half- we did not shadow anyone. My teacher would pair us up or put us in groups of 3 and give us 2 or 3 patients (class of 10 people), tell us to go get report from the nurses, then come back and tell her what we were going to be doing for the patient. If we had to do transfers, etc, we had to go get her, but most other things we did by ourselves, and she would rotate from group to group and spend a few minutes with each of us. Before we were allowed to start clinicals we had to pass skills tests on everything (shaving a pt, transfers, baths, range of motion, peri care, etc.) so when we were on the floor we were actually technically ready... mentally though it still felt like being thrown to the sharks! I never felt confident and secure in my abilities until after I'd already gotten a CNA job and finished my orientation (shadowing with someone)- THEN I knew I could do it and I wasn't so gun-shy. Hope it goes better next time for you!

On my first day of clincals I went to the Alzheimer's ward alone, granted there was about 3 other CNA's there. The rest of the student CNA's paired off into groups of two. We could not use a lift without the supervision of another CNA or our instructor was there to see us do it. After that we could do it on our own as long as we had another CNA student there with us. After the first day of clinicals we were each assigned one patient to tend to by ourselves.

I would not say its normal because in my clinical we couldn't transfer residents or be alone with them in the showers for liability reasons. 2 students does not equal a CNA.

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