Fending for yourself in clinical normal?

serenity1 · Mar 15, 2009

My clinical instructors are excellent--however, the more confident they are in our skills, the less we see of them. I like it this way. They don't try to "get" us in front of everyone. If we have a question, they usually make us go look it up and explain the answer to our group at the next clinical-unless it's something we need to know right away. We had to pass meds with the CI a few times and now we pass meds with the RN we are assigned to. One of the other posters was right-clinicals are what you make of them. I could sit around and tell the RN's that I'm not ready to do anything, but I like to learn and I like to practice so I volunteer to help with any patient on the floor that needs help-as long as my patient is stable. Good luck with everything. I hope you have a better experience soon.

Mandylpn · Mar 16, 2009

i feel like i have no clinical instructor. i'm on the floor by myself and the ci comes around once a week to have me show her my skills and when i don't know what i'm doing she degrades me in front of everyone. she expects the nurses on the floor to be our teacher but they are really busy and don't have a lot of time for us.
we don't have time for questions in post group, that's for talking about papers due and how to be a nures manager. she doesn't give feed back on any paper work except for mid-term when she says everything you turn in is crap. i feel like i'm in a self-taught course. is that how clinical is suppose to be?

yow do we go to the same school?

Mandylpn · Mar 16, 2009

this too will pass. hopefully your next rotation will be better :icon_hug: and no, you should be getting feedback on your paperwork weekly, how else can you improve?
from the ci end of it: i had 6-8 students to keep up with. 6 hours on the floor (not counting report and post-clinical time). half hour out for lunch. leaves each student almost an hour right? only with med passes for two (takes at least 40 minutes with newer students each), and observing two doing a complete physical assessment; trying to get to everyone throughout the day was tough. not to mention trying to keep up with all 8's charting through the day. "oh, would your student like to do this?", stops me and i try to get in something good for at least one. if your dressing change was done while i was with someone else, i'm sorry, but did you offer to help or least ask the nurse if you could watch? i never felt like i was able to give enough time to each student during the day. i tried to keep track of who got the least time on any given day, so i could concentrate on them the next week.

:nurse: i wish you were my instructor!!!!!!!!

NurseStudentHusband · Mar 16, 2009

Here's a quick question, is it normal for the student to be completely alone? When my wife, who is in her first semester, does clinical she is almost always by herself bc the nurses that are supposed to supervise usually go do something else and dodn't come back until the end. It wouldn't be a big deal but the floor she is on is some sort of acute condition or something where the people are very sensitive. She was very nervous on the first day because the guy she was with had some sort of IV (herapin?) that couldn't be moved at all and she was nervous about making a mistake. The CI is wonderful she says, very nice and helpful but the nurses are not interested at all. At least she is getting good experience.

coolpeach · Mar 16, 2009

This is my second semester, and both semesters have been the same as far a clinical goes. We meet at 6:30 am with our instructor as a group for preconference. She tells us what she expects, and we turn in our careplans. We then go to our floors were it is up to us to get along with staff, and find a nurse who will allow us to follow her, and teach us. At the end of the day we meet at post conference where we discuss our days, give reports etc. During the day our instructor meets with us one on one to go over our care plans, and each day she usually has one item she will sneak up on us, and want us to do for her while she watches. There are 10 of us spread out across 5 different floors so she can't be everywhere at once. She doesn't teach much, but I know if I asked her to show me something or teach me something she would. Have you tried asking your instructor to teach you what you want to know? It's just a matter of me stepping forward and asking for her help. It's been a good experience overall. This semester's instructor is a lot hard than lasts, but I am learning more.

As far as the nurses go I have pretty much had a good experience. Eight times out of ten I will get a good nurse who teaches me a ton, and I leave the day feeling like I learned a lot. Everyone in a while I will get a nurse who says she wants to teach, but doesn't really show me anything, goes from one thing to the next in such a hurry that I learn nothing. And then of course we have the 8th floor at our hospital where every nurse is rude. No one would got there so our instructor started asking why, and I think had a talk with them so it might be a bit better.They were horrible on 8. My first day in clinical no one would volunteer to let me shadow them, show me where the linen room was, or help me in anyway. I ended up following a tech that day. I personally won't go back to 8.

sh1901 · Mar 16, 2009

I think that I have been very fortunate with my nursing instructors thus far. I can not say the same for some of my friends in their rotations. One friend in particular currently has an instructor who was telling them that they would work on CPR & vitals for most of their rotations....apparently, she has forgotten which group she was teaching and thought it was a bunch of new students with no skills. I know that is has been a stressful rotation for her.

I think that having a difficult or "bad" instructor is kind of just par for the course....not that it makes it any easier to deal with and I'm saying this now but I am 100% certain that when the time comes that I have an instructor that I don't like, I'll be on here writing a vent!! :nurse:

Old and New · Mar 17, 2009

It sure feels that way sometimes! Our clinicals are pretty good, but as I've heard here, the instructors are busy and so are the nurses. I try to find somebody that's doing a procedure I haven't seen firsthand and tag along to watch. My feeling is that the sooner I learn to deal with chaos and uncertainty the sooner I'll be prepared for the real job of nursing. If you can muddle through the return demonstrations and graduate, you'll probably learn most of the useful hands-on skills on the job. It's not like they turn newbie nurses loose without an orientation program of some sort.

RockinLadySN · Mar 17, 2009

coolpeach
There are 10 of us spread out across 5 different floors so she can't be everywhere at once.

WOW! Are you serious?? How in the world does she even keep up? What if you really needed her for something? I'm still a fairly new student, in my first year, but there are only 8 of us in a clinical group and we're all on the same floor.. same wing even! Is that the norm for a lot of places?

AOx1 · Mar 18, 2009

Yes, that is very normal. A typical day for me in clinicals is this:

5 am- arrive and listen to report and make assignments on 4-5 different units.

6:30 am- preconference

6:45- students go to receive report

7:15- Students begin am assessments and discuss meds with me; I can usually only be with two students per day as I discuss and supervise med pass and watch them perform an initial assessment

9:15-12 I will begin to discuss with each student individually their patient's diagnosis and priorities of care; this takes a long time for questioning; if I have extra time, I will assist other students in any 11am meds

12-12:30 eat lunch. Maybe

12:30-2 Again, more time for questions and physical assessments.

2-3 postconference

Throughout the day, I have to deal with numerous issues (ex- patient assigned leaves, student questions, looking for opportunities for my students to perform skills, ensuring all are "on task" and learning). It is insane.

This means that, after taking away time for lunch and conference, I have 6.5 hours left, and 10 students who all need my assistance. This doesn't include the walking up and down several flights of stairs to visit the various units, lol.

Part of the solution should be a serious look at how we undertake nursing education; I believe preceptorships throughout the curriculum and partnerships between hospitals and schools have the potential to make things better for both students AND faculty.

Honestly, 10 is too many. As a practicing nurse, I would not want to provide total care to 10 patients, yet faculty are routinely expected to be able to safely monitor 10 novice students and ensure that not only are they safe, but that they are learning. That is a difficult proposition. I love my job, but can honestly say that I work harder than I ever did in the ICU or NICU.