First Semester Clinicals--anyone else need to vent?

[ZenStudent]

Only a little longer than a month into my first semester and I am getting my first really big blow to the ego--aka the start of Clinicals. I had my first clinicals this week and I felt like a total idiot! Is anyone else feeling a bit like a lost puppy? I am trying to keep in mind that this is normal and that my job as a nurse will not be the same as my experiences in clinicals--but it really shook me up! I felt like i had no direction and I felt helpless doing the simplest tasks. I couldn't even figure out how the patient's gown was supposed to be buttoned!:smackingf I am begining to worry that I am one of these people who is great with books and tests but not to great when it comes to acctually peforming skills--which is a all of what nursing is! I just felt like I was causing more work for the nurse I was supposed to be helping. My patient even asked if I would get someone else to make her bed because I was taking way to long and she was tired! On top of this...my instructor isn't horrible but she isn't exaclty warm and cuddley and ends up making me feel more upset.

I am just curious about how everyone felt or is feeling now about their clinicals. Any words of encouragement from those who have been through it all?

[HelloM1M1]

I'm the opposite. I'm in love with clinicals. But I wasn't like that the first weeks of clinicals though. I feel frustrated too, not knowing what to do. Making beds is actually more complicated than you think... wait til you have to put on the air mattress as well. I was so nervous I don't even know what a flat sheet is... I was like... "all sheets are flat to me" >__

But you know, as weeks go on, & you get to practice doing what you do everyday that you can even do it in your sleep, trust me. Everything is hard at first.

I'd like to trade my skills with your tests taking skills though... b/c I'm not doing so well in that =(

[CuriousMe]

I feel all dazed and confused at clinicals, too. As a previous poster said, I'm afraid I am good at book learnin' but not so good at the actual taking care of patients. We had one short day of clinical and I got NOTHING done and then the second day, which would have been longer, we no more than got there when we found out our instructor had called in sick so we had to get off the unit and go back to campus. So I am feeling about as UNconfident as possible. Today one of our instructors asked us how our first week of clinicals went (she is not an instructor who takes us to clinicals) and one of the students said "Awesome!" and I thought "Seriously? What was awesome?" I'm afraid this bodes ill for me!

Ok, so how good at "book learnin'" would you be if you had one short shift of it.....ever! At a guess, I'd say you wouldn't feel very confident. Give yourself a chance!! I'm sure you're not terribly confident about brain surgery, how about space travel? silly examples I know, but you've had next to zero experience....don't sell yourself short!

It could be that your classmate lucked into a ready made wonderful clinical situation for her first short shift...or it could be that she's just a really positive person and when asked by a nursing instructor about anything that isn't horrendously painful, her answer will be awesome! No matter how your fellow students appear, there's a high probability that they're just as unsure as you.....they may just hide it better or be more comfortable with not knowing.

Try and focus on the fact that you CAN NOT be expected to know anything if you've only had a couple hours on the floor.

I wish you the best!

Peace,

CuriousMe

[Do-over, ASN, RN]

I'm in my second year of clinicals, and it gets better! Which unfortunately doesn't mean you necessarily stop feeling like an idiot....cause as they increase your responsibilities at clinical...there's plenty of new opportunities to feel like an idiot all over again :)

But you do get more and more comfortable the more experience you get.

Truly, I'm not convinced the whole "feeling like an idot" is such a bad thing....keeps us humble

I am also in my second year of clinicals and agree with CuriousMe completely.

Some easy advice - Make friendly-like with EVERYONE on the unit. Nurses, techs, dietary, RT, PT, housekeeping, clerks, SW, transporters, ECG techs, etc. Ask questions, ask if you can watch whatever it is they are doing and why they do it. You may be really surprised at who is able and willing to help you out, answer a question, show you where to find something, etc.

Hang in there!

[That Guy, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

Some easy advice - Make friendly-like with EVERYONE on the unit. Nurses, techs, dietary, RT, PT, housekeeping, clerks, SW, transporters, ECG techs, etc. Ask questions, ask if you can watch whatever it is they are doing and why they do it. You may be really surprised at who is able and willing to help you out, answer a question, show you where to find something, etc.

Hang in there!

Could not agree more. Find someone other than your instructor to pester with questions and to stay busy at the same time. I hated my first semester of clinicals simply because I did like care plans. Heck I still dont, but even then we were able to have a lot of contact and everything was so new and it was a ton of fun. I would kill to go back to that compared to what it is now in my senior 1 semester.

[CandyGyrl1985]

I remember my first clinical - you are not alone!!!! It was scary - the entire semester.... But just yesterday as I was changing an occupied bed AND cleaning poo that the patient had smeared all over himself, I thought - WOW - this is a breeze. Seriously I thought that.

Here are my suggestions....

Be confident - even if you are not. The teachers know you have no idea what you are doing. Sometimes if you remind yourself that you know how to do the task it helps.

Ask your teacher questions. For example if you cant remember WHY you make an occupied bed in a particular order, ask the teacher to explain WHY it is made that way. I found that once I realized why we put things in a certain order - I remembered it better.

Make a flash card and put it in your pocket - this was a life saver. All your vital sign norms, an abbreviated version of supplies you need for bed bath, the order you make a bed, etc. Then if you ever forget - you can look at it. Just be sure you dont pull out that card if your hands are in gloves.

My best suggestion is that you practice at home. If you have a family member have them get in bed and change the linens. If you dont have a twin bed - thats ok - use whatever you have to practice. I even subjected my mom to a bed bath - excluding the peri of coorifice.

When I laid in bed at night - I would go over the order of things... Imagine yourself in your clinicals - going to the supply room and getting the things you need in order... Then imagine putting them on the bed in order. etc...

I wont lie - clinicals are scary to the end... But it gets easier every week. Just dont forget that one day in the future you will be doing these same tasks and look back on it and think - wow I cant believe I thought this was hard. LOL. But like learning anything new - it takes practice and repetition to get it down.

Good Luck!

[HyperSaurus, RN, BSN]

I love clinic--now. I used to get really bad heartburn at the start of every clinical for a while (and thats even when taking 40mg of Nexium). We're still in our first placement, a long term care facility and I have had no CNA experience previously. Everyday I'm learning new things, weven if it's just which way a depends goes on (they look the same). Sometimes I get really embarrassed and flustered when I feel like I don't know how to do basic stuff yet, but I push through and learn. It helps that I'm really good at improvising and acting confident. Oddly enough, my care plans have been 'excellent'. I thank AllNurses and my dad's old textbooks for that.

Anyways, it's natural to feel that way. Even your most confident classmates and the most senior nurses at one time didn't know how to do this stuff. If they can learn it, so can you. Just be flexible, ask alot, and learn how to fake confidence. Good luck.

[DolceVita, ADN, BSN, RN]

OMG ZenStudent! We just had a skills "round up" to show how we pulled together what we learned before scampering off to clinicals. I was terrible. I smoke the tests and the check offs etc. but then it came to putting them all together and I was not quite as good as I thought.

However, I think this is a good thing. That is because nursing isn't about discrete skills.

So we start clinicals next week and I already have a good idea of what I want to work on. The longer I am in NS the more respect I have for those really great nurses who seem to do all of this effortlessly.

I too find the academic stuff quite easy so I am glad that there is something to challenge me.