First LPN School Clinical... woot!!! (not)

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Telemetry, Stepdown, ICU.

:down:

Hey all,

After orientating at all of the clinical sites, my clinical group had our first clinical yesterday morning. It was pretty exciting. 5 of us and our clinical instructor is the program director for the LPN program. She handed out the patient assignments and we realized that one of the guys had not yet arrived. It turned out, he was 15 minutes late... and when he arrived, he wasn't even dressed appropriately. He was wearing brown Sketchers sneakers and a colored undershirt (not allowed under our dress code). Nothing was said to him about his tardy or his non-compliance to the dress code. And what do you know... he was paired up with me for the clinical.

Well...we went down to meet the patient and it was time for his bed bath. The patient was on full care. My cohort simply stood by while I started the bath, looking dazed and confused. He didn't know how to even give the bed bath appropriately. And when it came time for perineal care, he was no where to be found. So, I took it upon myself to finish up the front side. I rolled the patient onto his side and started with his back and had that going, finishing up with a back rub when my partner returned. I changed the water and handed him the basin, letting him know that he could finish up, scrubbing the "poop deck." HaHA!

But, rather consistently, this guy didn't know vitals, clinical procedure or anything.

It's a shame that people come to clinical like this. How frustrating.

Chord

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Where do you go to school? I started my first clinical on Sunday morning too!

We just had orientation and didn't get patient assignments or do anything patient wise.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Telemetry, Stepdown, ICU.
Where do you go to school? I started my first clinical on Sunday morning too!

We just had orientation and didn't get patient assignments or do anything patient wise.

I go to school in eastern Missouri.

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I go to school in eastern Missouri.

Are you in a night and weekend program?

I go to school in Eastern Iowa, and my program is nights and weekends, so our clinicals are always on Saturday and Sunday.

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Specializes in CDI Supervisor; Formerly NICU.

There's always at least 1 or 2 in every clinical group. They show up late, haven't learned their meds, don't even have their stethoscope with them...yet, by some fantastically magical happenstance, they continue to pass each semester and follow along with the rest of the group.

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They don't always continue on, although sometimes they get far enough along that it does get a little scary.

We had one classmate get passed thru our first clinical because the instructor was new and didn't want to fail him. He entered 2nd semester with a false idea that he was cut out for it, and failed out half-way thru when a more experienced instructor realized he was more dangerous then anything else.

Then there is a young woman I know who does VERY well in all our lectures, but hangs back at clinicals and lets other people do her work for her. I think she is afraid because she has no related work experience, only what she has gotten through clinicals - which really isn't much hands-on. However, it is annoying for those of us who buddy up with her.

This frazzled guy will catch the instructors attention at some point, if he hadn't all ready. Hopefully they will deal with him appropriately. Good luck to you in your clinicals.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Telemetry, Stepdown, ICU.
Are you in a night and weekend program?

I go to school in Eastern Iowa, and my program is nights and weekends, so our clinicals are always on Saturday and Sunday.

The program I attend is a full-time M-F 8am-3pm affair. It's tedious, but I feel like I am getting it. Thanks for your response. :)

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