froze up!!!!

[sweetie3.14]

:eek:i am currently in my seventh week for lpn. we had an all day clinical at our school today where we had to check off inserting a foley. i was so nervous that as soon as i began the procedure, i froze up!!!! i knew the correct order of how we were taught and i just went blank! it took me a second to regain my composure and even though i did finish doing it and my teacher even told me good job, i cant help feeling like i could have done so much better. what i want to know is this, does the anxious, nervous feeling ever go away? how do you cope with the stress of the lpn program?

[Jules A, MSN]

If your teacher told you that you did a good job, take a deep breath and pat yourself on the back! If you can recover in the midst of a mini-brain-blip and finish the task you are going to be fine. It gets easier and your confidence will increase. Being nervous is normal. I worry more about the "cowboys" that aren't ruffled by anything, they are the ones that can be dangerous, imo.

P.S. welcome to our group!

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

Moved to the LPN Nursing Student forum.

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

It's no different than the "butterflies" that actors get. The way they overcome that is to ignore the audience and focus on what they are doing. That's why they practice, er, reheorifice, reheorifice, reheorifice, until they cannot only say their lines, but perform their actions on stage in their sleep without thinking. That's the same thing you need to be able to do at this point in time. The anxiety will disappear over time as you actually perform these procedures--successfully--on patients and your level of confidence begins to build. Until then, memorize and reheorifice, reheorifice, reheorifice.