DUMB question!! But really...

So when do you actually learn the procedures of things? During clinicals? I guess I'm just confused because I always here people say things like "well this semester during my med/surg clinicals" or "this semester in peds I'm doing". I guess I just thought the classes would be called Pediatrics in nursing etc. Is this a dumb question. I think it is, isn't it.

As a nursing student, you will learn alot of your skills in clinicals and in skills labs. That being said, depending what your school focuses on and what sort of floors you do your clinical rotations on, you may still be doing some skills for the first time when you are a new nurse (ie trach tie change)

The only dumb questions are unasked ones. You learn procedures first during your labs in school then apply what you learn in your clinicals.

Most of the schools now-a-days have classroom classes, or "Lectures", then you are required to take a lab in the same class. Like Pediatric Nursing Lecture, then you also have Pediatric Nursing Lab, then you also have a clinical setting which for the local school is two days a week 8 hour shift. So in nursing school your taking three of the same topic classes but each teaches you something different aspect of the topic.

If your clinical shifts in school were substandard (and many students find that they are), you will be learning most of your procedural skills on your very first job.

YIKES!

Sad, but true. I learned very little in actual nursing school besides the bookwork portion.

When I did clinicals it seemed there was never many opportunities to do procedures on live patients either. So mostly you do learn on the job.

We learn our skills in Labs at school.. and then you get to utilize those skills in the clinical setting. However, since all policies are different.. and the charting is different etc, it gets extremely confusing

We had lecture class, and then we would practice in lab. We then checked off in clinical in front of our instructor, and then could do it on our own in clinical. The problem was that L&D, Peds, and psych were fast tracked and there were literally 4 clinical days. Needless to say we didn't do much there as far as skills. The first semester we basically got used to being in the hospital, taking vitals, and passing meds. The second semester was med/surg and everyone already had IV's, NG's etc so other than injections we didn't practice many new skills. The last semester I was lucky enough to get ER were I got to do IV's, NG tubes, foleys, pull out sutures etc. There were only a few spots, and I was lucky enough to get one. Most of my class graduated and had never done a real IV, or inserted a foley, NG tube etc. There is a giant difference between doing something to a dummie in the lab, and to a patient in the hospital. You also have to make sure your assertive in your clinicals. If you are shy, stand in the back, and don't take in on yourself to say "Hey I want to do this" a lot of times you will never get a chance.

I learned in skills lab and then practiced again in clinicals. We weren't allowed to hang blood ever and couldn't insert IVs until our transitions course (and then only if the facility allowed it). I went to a university and did most of my clinicals in teaching hospitals which offered wonderful clinical experiences. For the most part, everything we were allowed to do we had plenty of opportunity to try or at least see. For example, not every student was able to insert and pull an NG tube but almost everyone got to do at least one or the other and witness another student doing what they hadn't done yet.

The first day on the job!