First semester nursing student

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I'm in my first semester and I just started clinicals today. Doing geriatrics, which is my least favorite area. I'm not at all liking nursing anymore. Does it get better than this, is this a normal feeling?

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Hang in there! First semester can seem overwhelming. I hate med surg, but its part of fundamentals. I'm in my third semester. Things will get better.

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Specializes in Nursing Management.

Being in first semester I don't think you have a real grasp of what nursing really is. What do you not like about it?

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Nursing is so much more than what you learn first semester. First semester is the basics. All of nursing isn't caring for geriatrics. You'll likely do OB and peds rotation, probably psych (I'm assuming all schools pretty much do the same rotations). This is just part of what you have to do in school. It doesn't mean it's what you have to do once you are a nurse, but you just have to get through it in school.

Geriatrics isn't for everyone just as peds or OB isn't for everyone, but it's necessary to get through for school.

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Specializes in ICU.

First semester is learning the basic nursing skills and assessment. It's not all glitz and glamor. What exactly are you disappointed with so far?

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Nursing is so much more than what you learn first semester. First semester is the basics. All of nursing isn't caring for geriatrics. You'll likely do OB and peds rotation, probably psych (I'm assuming all schools pretty much do the same rotations). This is just part of what you have to do in school. It doesn't mean it's what you have to do once you are a nurse, but you just have to get through it in school.

Geriatrics isn't for everyone just as peds or OB isn't for everyone, but it's necessary to get through for school.

Lol I hate OB more than anything else

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I'm in my first semester and I just started clinicals today. Doing geriatrics, which is my least favorite area. I'm not at all liking nursing anymore. Does it get better than this, is this a normal feeling?

In many programs, first semester is almost more learning basics of the absolute basics. The first 6 weeks that I spent in long term care seemed like a drag at first. But I've come to realize and appreciate that this portion of the nursing program has actually very little to do with geriatrics. It's about practicing your basic assessment and basic skills on a sick but relatively stable population.

Bored, get vital signs on different patients (bonus points for helping the CNA s get the vital signs they need). Listen to different lung sounds and maybe you'll catch some adventitous breath sounds. You'll learn that there are variability in baselines, why is that important.

When a patient call bell rings and they are incontinent or need help ambulating to the bathroom or you are giving a bed bath, what assessments could you and should you be making? Have you learned to cluster your patient care so that you are not coming back to the same pt over and over? Are you remembering to let your patient do as much for themselves as possible? Why is this important?

If things are slow during mealtime help pass trays and feed patients. Notice the differences. Review while you feed, What signs and symptoms would you be looking for to indicate airway obstruction? Which patients are at higher risk? How can you help prevent this while feeding? What would you do?

Do you have access to your patients charts? Look at their usually many diagnosis. How do they interconnect? Which meds are for what? Why have they drawn those labs? What should your assessment of this patient focus on now that you've seen their chart?

Still bored? Ask if you can follow a nurse while she is giving out meds. The system and efficiency which they do this surprised me and earned my respect, passing out all those meds while helping pts and not being short with them if they are behind. I did this once, all I intended to do was follow quietly, and she took the time to teach me things, and it's even how I got to do my first subQ shot.

Point is, your clinical time is what you make of it. There isn't a lot of it. Use it wisely.

Sincerely,

2nd semester student who didn't hate LTC as much as she thought she would.

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Seeing as it's the first day of clinicals in your first semester, I would give it another shot. The first day can seem overwhelming, boring, too-busy, gross, tiring, and just not what you were expecting. I think it's normal to feel the way you're feeling.

Let's figure out what's making you dislike it so much.

First of all, why is geriatrics your least favorite area? Have you had a job working with the geriatric population before?

What did you expect your first day to be like? Did it go wrong because you messed up on something? Was it hard for you to interact with the patients? Did the staff at the nursing home intimidate you? Was it overwhelming?

I think every student has a rotation they dread. I myself am dreading OB, which I'll take next semester. We just have to do our best and get through it. It helps if you can fully understand why you're feeling a certain way.

And like I said, yes, that is a very normal feeling.

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Specializes in retired LTC.

Comments by all PPs are soooo accurate. Just be aware that all thruout nursing you will run into geriatric, elderly pts. Be it in the OR, ER, ICU, med/surg, psych, ONC, gyn and other areas (all but peds).

You can't avoid them (us!). We're the largest growing population of pts with health-care needs, we baby-boomers.

Be nice to us! (Note : Am kind of being silly here, not meaning to be a smarty to you!)

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The first day of anything new is almost never indicative of what it will really be like. I remember all the first days I have had at new jobs and they were just scary and stressful. Try not to make judgements right away and just learn as much as you can.

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Hang in there; I hated my clinical first semester, especially early on since i didn't have many skills and only one patient. Now, I'm in my second semester and am doing critical care; I love it. At least in my program, you don't really feel like a nurse until the second semester.

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I absolutely hated my first semester! I spent a good 12 out of the 16 weeks stressing over what a horrible mistake I had made entering nursing school.. We didn't start any clinicals until our second semester, but even then they were...not my thing. After that things only got better. I'm not a fan of MedSurg and hate anything to do with critical care, but I still enjoyed my clinicals thanks to my instructors and the nurses I worked with. Then I hit OB. There is no doubt in my mind that I want to be an OB nurse, I love it!

There are sooo many fields of nursing that you can't dismiss the whole practice just because you don't like geriatrics. You're going to go through school and you'll hit a class that just clicks. I have classmates that love the ICU, some that are passionate about trauma, the NICU people, and the aspiring midwives. All of us have found a specialty that we love, but very few enjoy all areas of nursing.

If you really don't think that nursing is for you, there's no shame in that. Just don't quit simply because you don't like geriatrics. If you get through this I'm sure you'll find an area that you love, and then you'll be glad you stuck with it ;)

Good luck with whatever you do!

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