First Clinical Day!

[RusticSandy]

Today we had our first clinical day! I haven't got the chance to tell anyone about it so I'll tell everyone on here. The floor I was on was pretty chill - no one was running around crazy or anything. My first patient was very nice. We students were paired up to reduce nerves on our first day. It was ok, but I'm actually looking forward to being by myself: I like to take the initiative and I felt like I had to stand back and let the other student do some things. She was kind of nervous/reluctant so it was really hard for me to say "why don't you try this," instead of just doing it all. I'm excited for next week when I have my own patient. There wasn't a lot for us to do because my patient was very independent so I kept walking around asking the nurses and aids if they wanted anything. This ended up getting me two tasks that I wouldn't have otherwise had and I was glad. One of the tasks was rotating and changing the linens for an immobile patient. I hadn't done anything like that before, so I grabbed another student who is a CNA to help. I'm so glad I did. I don't want to invade the patient's privacy, so I will just say he had a lot going on and I wouldn't have been able to handle it. Our instructor came in to help too, which was great because she explained a lot of what was going on for us. My instructor said we all did very well with the computer charting and she kept saying what a great first day we had. I think she really liked us, and we all really liked her too. I think we've got a crack group.

I'd say my biggest reflection was this: I've always been told wiping old people's butts is gross and that there are a lot of things in nursing you don't want to do. I know I haven't seen anything really bad, but what I have seen was a very bad, painful looking "diaper rash" as well as incontinence of stool. I didn't feel grossed out by it or anything. I wasn't shocked by seeing an old person. I was just sad that it looked painful and I wanted to help. I'm not one of those people who chose nursing because I'm compassionate; I was a little surprised to find myself having this reaction. I like people, but I mostly love the science and I wasn't really sure how I was going to *feel* about my patients. I expected detachment, but all I felt was gladness that we were there to give this person the care he needed. Even during the poo wiping bits :). I hope to keep this attitude in the future. I work hard to try to feel positively about things because perspective changes how you actually feel about life. Bring on the butt wiping!

Over all, if I didn't have so many tests coming up, I would be super excited for next week! Ok so I'm excited anyway, just not about Pharm. Oh, where's my positive attitude: Bring it on Pharm, we got this!

[ChipNurse]

I'm glad you had such a great day at clincal. Study hard! It sounds like you will be a great nurse :)

[Lev, MSN, RN, NP]

I really love your excitement! Welcome to nursing...and happy to have you.

[sjalv]

This is such a nice thread compared to the too-frequent "I hate my clinical instructor/group/site!!!!". I loved my first clinical this semester and it's been great being in the hospital. Here's to us nursing students who like what we are doing!