Depressed nursing student

[Mariposa2009, BSN, RN]

Hello everyone, this is my first post on here. Well anyway, I am feeling a little sad today. I am a nursing student in my last semester before graduation and I still feel very awkward in my clinical rotations. I feel like I'm not where I should be, especially with this being my last semester. I still get very nervous, scared, and timid in clinical. I know the textbooks in and out and thrive in the scholastic portion of the program, (exams, papers, etc.) but when it comes to clinical (where it really counts) I feel incompetent . I mean, I know what has to be done, but then my brain freezes and I end up getting clumsy, unorganized, and forget very important info. I am at the point where I feel like I could never be a "good" nurse or a nurse at all. Are there any other students who feel this way or any nurses who felt this way in nursing school?

[VenaKavaRN]

It takes a lot of practice to feel confident in a clinical setting. I had a problem with being extremely shy around my patients and was really bad at just chatting with them, much less getting their health information. But, I watched what other students did who had the "gift of gab" with the patients and learned from them. If I went in with a whole orificenal of questions and topics to talk about, it got to be where I wasn't nearly as worried about what I would be saying.

Something like this may be what you could do. If it's skills you're not confident in, make sure to get a lot of supervised practice so you know you're doing a good job. To help the anxiety, just pause and take a couple of deep breaths, tell yourself you can do this, and the information you need will usually come back to you. You've worked hard and learned a lot in the last few semesters. You're more than capable of being a good nurse :)

[jackson145]

Mariposa,

You sound just like me. I do wonderful on paperwork & tests. However, we just never get any good clinical experiences. I asked my instructor about how many procedures I've never got a chance to do and was told that I'd just have to pick that stuff up on the job after school is over. We haven't even passed meds yet this semester (it's my last semester, by the way) & I only passed two pills last semester. I've done nothing with IV's, never put in or d/c'd a foley, and only done one dressing change. I feel so unprepared for being on my final semester!

[LaurenKET]

this will sound stupid ...but it comes from one of my nursing instructors

and i dont mean to make it sound easier than it is or downplay your issue

but.... you have to imagine yourself succeeding, seize every clinical opportunity, as long as your instructor is guiding you and you are not reckless: you can only learn! I wear this dumb supergirl watch to clinicals....it is like a standing joke with my whole class. I dont count on the watch but I do put a lot of confidence in myself before doing a procedure for the first time or something : like, fake it til you make it kind of thing! :)