Do you guys have to do return demonstrations?

They walk us through some return demos, others no. Sub Q injections we were walked through. Standard precautions we were solo and almost everyone had to repeat. Vital signs, med pass, bathing, hand washing, and a few others are return demos we have already done. They increase in strictness as we go.

I had to do this as well during my first semester for two of my classes: nursing skills and health assessment. For my first practicum in skills I had to do a dressing change and for the second one I had to administer insulin. For health assessment the first one was taking vital signs and the other one doing a complete head to toe assessment. We also got only 3 attempts (pass/fail) and if we failed we were dismissed from the program.

I was lucky to pass all of them on my 1st try!

Yes we have had skills tests for all of the skills that we have learned: vitals, injections, med pass, nasotracheal suction, ng tube insertion, assessments, dressing changes, and many more. They are all pass/fail (all of our clinicals are) and if we receive 3 Fails in the semester we fail the course regardless of the grade in lectue. This is typical in most programs from my experience.

Yep - and if you want to hear what a nightmare my first one was (vitals, yesterday), see my post (How to Control Nerves, or something similar). We get 10 points if we pass on the first try, we get the minimum passing grade if we pass on the second try, and 0 points if we have to do it a third time (but you still technically pass and won't be dismissed on that alone if you pass your third attempt; I don't want to think of what a 0 would do to your grade, though.) Our next return demo is on physical assessment, and after that it's "medications" -- and all I know about that is my instructor said we are going to "reeeeeaaaly need to PRACTICE for that one -- a lot!"

Yes we do RDE for all of our skills. We also have MPL's built in(mandatory practice lab). If you fail the RDE you are given a chance(i think 1 but maybe 2) to get it right or you fail the class. As of yet, no one in our class has failed from not passing skill checkoffs.

We had time in the lab when we were taught the skill and allowed to practice it. In order to be signed off on a skill, you had to perform it in front of another student or an instructor, but if you didn't get all the steps right then you could just try again. You couldn't perform a skill in clinical until you were signed off in the lab. For tests, we picked 2-3 skills out of a hat and had to perform them in front of our instructor with no assistance.

I'm not familiar with your terminology of 'returns,' but I believe it is equivalent to what we call 'skills checkoff.'

We demonstrate that we are proficient in a skill unaided/without cue. In fundamentals we had to demonstrate three sets of accurate vitals, bed bath, lung sounds on an automated manikan with sounds, complete physical assessment: 'head to toe,' NG tube placement, feeding, proper crutch & cane walking, ambulating, ostomy care/bag change, catheter, PICC line/Central dressing changes, wound care/dressing change, and probably some others too. Of course for some things we had to verbalize what we would do.

Before each checkoff we had to complete a 'module' or online mini-course & test (through ATI), and complete that section in our workbook that accompanied the text. During each checkoff we'd be asked various questions and had to answer enough of them sufficiently.

They were not for points, pass/fail. You had to pass all to pass the course and to practice them in clinical.