Finally have an amazing clinical instructor

[peach2218, CNA]

      Halfway through third semester, and this is the first semester where I feel like I'm actually learning stuff. Our instructor is amazing. She makes sure all 7 of us pass our morning meds, and she assigns patients to us based on what we haven't done yet. Next week I'll be getting a patient with IVPB meds because I've never hung a med before. Yesterday I finally got to do an IV push med (and I miraculously didn't screw it up). She genuinely gets excited when we read our tricky tele strips correctly. She is patient with us and doesn't get annoyed at our stupid questions. She sends us down to procedures with our patients so we can watch and learn (I got to sit in on a cardiac cath last week).

 

Up until these last few weeks, I haven't felt the tiniest bit of confidence in my ability to do nursing duties and not just the CNA duties I'm already used to. I'm not as incapable as I think, I just haven't been given the opportunity to practice. 

[Mergirlc, MSN, APRN, NP]

This is quite common during nursing school; especially when it comes to being paired up with another nurse/preceptor when you are in clinical.  Sometimes you are paired up with nice, capable people and there's nothing bad about them, but there are some who are just better at explaining and showing you steps than others and engage you more.

I was very lucky to be paired up with many lovely people who were very helpful, but there were always my "go-to" people who I knew I would learn from.

Glad to hear you have an amazing instructor and get the most out the experience you can!