First clinical. Where was yours??

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Our first clinical is in geriatrics. We get assigned to either a nursing home or to a skilled unit in a hospital.

I scored the skilled unit in a local hospital . . . not sure if that is better or worse than a nursing home.

Where was your first clinical rotation??

-J

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Specializes in ER, ICU, Medsurg.

Mine is long term care wing IN the hospital. Its a very small wing with maybe 15 rooms. There are 4 nurses that we shadow one-on-one while the other 4 students pass meds. We switch the next day. Tomorrow is my day with the nurse and I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lots of G-tubes, trachs yadda yadda wooooooo hooooooooooo

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Mine was in an acute medical admissions unit. I was very young and very timid starting but by the end of the six weeks id learned more than my peers and experienced so much more. There was a lot of different things going on we'd have stroke patients, respitory distress, DVT's, Wounds, falls, multisystem disorders. The age and range of the patients was vast. They ranged from 16 to 106, from the homeless to the well off, from the addicts to those who just couldnt cope ith life and didnt know where to go. It was a case of sink or swim. Care atendants taught me the basics; washes, bed bans, feeding. The rest was just a case of being nosey and getting other students to tip us off when somethin else was going to happen like lumbar punctures, catheters etc. I loved it, after getting over being terrified that is!

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My first clinical is Saturday in a LTC facility. I'm excited and nervous.

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My first term was in med-surg. I don't know how that happened, but it did. I was fortunate and had a great instructor so she made sure we got into see some "cool" things. I watched a PICC being placed, followed a wound nurse one day, went in on a surgery, etc.

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med surg unit!

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I will be in Neurology for my first rotation which will begin next week. I am sooo excited but nervous also. We only have two clinicals in the nursing home this semester.

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Specializes in Cardiac.

Our first will be in the Nursing homes.

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Specializes in Neuro.

I am in a specialized long term care facility. My group actually got lucky because our facility is the largest of the 6 possible facilities, and the nicest. I was scared to death the first day but now I have fallen into a comfortable rhythm. Plus, the staff is awesome and they bring us pastries and coffee every morning (it starts at 5:45, so we need all the coffee we can get).

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Specializes in Acute Care of the Elderly.

Our first clinical was in LTC. Second semester and this semester are med/surg. 4th semester is OB and Psych.

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Specializes in ER, Med-surg.

My first clinical was at the rehab center of the hospital- lots of ortho injuries and CVA patients who are no longer high acuity but still need daily PT and skilled nursing care.

I was so nervous but it actually wound up being quite dull- there wasn't much my patient needed and the floor nurses were very hostile and wouldn't allow us to do anything beyond tech stuff, which in rehab translates to "check vitals, give a bed bath if needed and change the linens". With one patient it's VERY hard to make that fill eight hours.

I like being on a regular med-surg floor much better, but I suppose it was good to get our feet wet in such a low-intensity environment.

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I think ours will be Med-Surg to start with (sort of like an orientation) then they will break us up and send us to different departments. The hospital that we are working with doesn't have the department I would like to go into (NICU) but I don't think they would put a first-year student in there anyway so I guess it doesn't really matter that this hospital doesn't have one. :nurse:

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