Does anyone else feel exhausted after clinicals?

allnurses Guide · Sep 22, 2016

Clinicals or clinic?

If you are a student (you should change your username to comply with TOS) and doing 12 hour days then you should at least feel mentally exhausted, it's 1-2 days/wk and you have a lot of info to pack in. That's a good thing.

If if you are a NP and exhausted after clinic, the that's expected too especially with that commute. It's even harder than being a student in your mental exhaustion level.

FinallyRNStatus, BSN · Sep 23, 2016

Hi I just thought I would reply with my experience as a student and RN. Although I think people vary on what will mentally or physically exhaust them. The level of exhaustion I felt as a nursing student commuting 1.5hr+ far exceeded the level of stress I felt as a practicing RN commuting 1.5hr. I think in your case you are a FNP student.

As a nursing student I traveled 1.5-2hr each way commuting to school and clinicals. My nursing program was 3 days class/lab 8am-4:30pm and 2 days of clinicals 7am-3:30.

Additionally, after getting out of class at 4:30pm I would have to go to the hospital to do a patient lookup, with traffic meant it took 1hr commute, then 6-8pm I would do my patient look up. I was lucky to get home by 9-10pm. At this point I was mentally and physically drained, yet I still had to start my (exceedingly "more important" than sleep) care plan and usually not be done until 2am or later. Then have to get up at 5am for clinicals. The lack of sleep may have made clincals that much more tiring, but even on weeks were I didn't have patient look up. I was so tired after clinicals I could easily go to bed by 7 or 8pm. Something about clinicals is very draining, all my classmates agreed on this!!!

Basically as a student I was putting in 40-42 hours of classroom/clinical time, plus 15-18 hours of commuting, and 30 hours+ of studying each week which mostly took up 24 hours of my weekend. Myself and a few friends that had a commute similar to mine, hit a level of exhaustion that most students didn't seem to get to. Local students still were able to have a social life and work part-time and most didn't seem to stuggle with exaustion as much as the commuters. Maybe because their life was more balanced since they took breaks from school! The ones I saw just as fatiqued as me were people working PT that had kids, people that worked overnights PT mid-week during school, and people who were insane and worked FT in nursing school.

As a nurse I commuted 1.5 hours to my first job. My orientation was 5 days a week 7am-3:30pm. Even though I was still putting in 40 hours a week with a 15-18 hours of commuting, my level of exuastion was never as severe as when I was a nursing student. Later I switched to 3 12's with a 3 hour commute and I felt more refreshed overall during the week, but would have to pull over for coffee and naps on my way home. As long as I got 6 hours of sleep I work up refreshed the next day. I think my stress levels were much higher as a student with the amount of studying and constant tests.

Today my job is 20-30 minutes from where I live and I have never felt so fantastic. I even feel like I could pick up another per diem job with all this energy! :) For me commuting and school, were by far the largest reason I struggled with constant fatique for 6 years! Once you are out of that hostile cycle your level of fatique with improve significantly I believe.

RameyGurl · Sep 23, 2016

My clinical is about 10 minutes away from my house, which is amazing but at the end of the day, I feel exhausted as well. I think it's because we are thinking and learning so much that our brains just want to shut down. As of right now, I am physically and mentally done!!! Good luck, you are not alone!

Mission2BNP · Sep 25, 2016

Thank you for your words of encouragement I do believe once this cycle is over I will feel better.