When I was a STUDENT, the clinical experience I remember most was...

Nurses General Nursing

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This is a long time ago! More than 24 years:

The first IM shot:

He was a cachectic old man dying of bony mets and he needed a pain shot. I just remember giving it in the vastus lateralis and hearing him moan when I stuck him. The instructor settled me and said, "you did fine, give the med now."

Getting faint because an old ENT used chloroform for his anesthesia agent. The only time I got faint in the OR!

First surgery I saw was a pneumonectomy, which is a surgery my dad had had. I also remember "getting" to hold a rectractor in an abdominal surgery. (Old Diploma grad.)

Getting to see an autopsy. Lady had had an MI and blew out her LV. Remember that the pathologist disected the coronary artery until we found the clot, we could see the area of necrosis and we could see the blow out.

Just how cool it was to see a baby being born.

The horror of being a brand new student and having to ask people about their bowel habits.

On med/surg, I did a cath on an old lady with renal failure. Only got about 15cc coffee ground material. YUCK!!!

On Post Partum, BOTH my patients passed out, one on the way to the bathroom, the other on the toilet.

:chair: :chair: :chair:

Specializes in Critical care.

A couple I remember---

First semester of clinical the second or third week. I went to the hospital the night before to get info on which ever patient I picked, I picked a lap chole that was to go in the morning, well during the night he arrested and died, so I get there right around 0630 to look at the chart, etc, and the chart is empty, no patient so I had to pick another one and do all the preclinical stuff before 0700, so I picked the guy in the room next to the previous patient, this is a young man I think around 32, with new positive HIV, low CD4 count, the beginning of KS. Well this first semester so all we did were VS, baths, linen changes, etc....Well he gets up takes a shower, I changed his bed while he is doing this, he gets done, sitting on the bed we are talking, he is talking about his partner, who has just left him because of the HIV, and then we were watching Price is Right, and out of the blue he asked me if he was going to die, I was speechless. I'm like, huh, I did not know what to say, so I started talking about the research they were doing into HIV, and said, you know my instructor is right outside and I went and got her, and told her the situation, she came in and started talking to him, and making him feel better, she let him cry on her shoulder. It was inspiring to me. I knew at that moment that I wanted to be a nurse, watching her calm this man down, making him feel better, making him laugh...I will never forget that clinical day......That clinical instructor made such a positive impact on me, she was by far the best instructor I had during nursing school. I had good ones but she was one of kind.....

The second one I remember, I was doing emergency room elective during my last semester at one the level one trauma centers in Houston, I learned so much about real world nursing that last semester..I had to do 90 hours over the course of the summer to get credit, so I would do 3-11 and Saturdays 11a-11p. Anyhow, one busy day, we had self-inflicted GSW to the head (fatal, most of the right side of her head ws gone), severe motorcycle crash (I believe in helmet law), severe car crash, and older man wo fell of ladder about 15 feet, and had open fractures of both wrist..Anyhow this all comes in over the course of about 4 hours, of course they were short nurses, so I got to do many things that I probably should not have been doing without RN watching, but anyhow, a little girl with her parents comes in and gets triaged, and taken back to pediatric treatment room, nothing severe or life-threatening, just a cough and fever. Well this little girl was only 10 years old, nobody in the 4 trauma rooms thought anything about her, well she had been there about 30 minutes, when the parents bring her out of the treatment room, screaming, she's not breathing. They bring her to the trauma room, and everybody goes to work, she is pulseless and breathless, that was the first time I did CPR on a child, then I helped record/chart things....She never regained a pulse, she was pronounced that evening...I cried..She was only 10 years old...I never found out what the autopsy showed or if they even did one, I am sure they did....That was a sad day for me and the staff.......Oh well those are my two most memorable...........

I was doing my psych rotation upstairs in the locked unit. One of the patients there was this HUGE transexual. "Sharon" must have been 6'4'' and 225. She had been taking hormone shots and had breasts and had this depressed psychotic look on her face. One day "Sharon" had blockaded herself in her room and had armed herself with some type of bar or pipe. The takedown team (I believe the page was for "Dr. Armstrong") came and broke the door down and there she was. The biggest, ugliest, scariest woman I had ever seen standing like an oak tree holding this pipe in the middle of the room. :eek:

My instructor hands me a syringe and says "When they take her down, shoot her with this."

My God, I can still feel the adrenalin.

Well, they took her down and someone said "Ok, she's ready" and I went over and they were still struglilng a bit. I started to pull down her pants and they all yelled at me to just do it through the pants. I did and stepped out of the way as they put her in 4 points.

Without a doubt the most exciting time in my clinicals.

-Russell

Russell, psych was anything BUT exciting for me...I was unlucky enough to have a run of psychotic violent sex offenders in the lockup when I had to do my rotation.

I still think it was unconscienable for my instructor to insist that us young ladies do a 'therapeutic conversation' with these men.

I was afraid to walk the streets alone after this experience, particularly since I knew they turfed these men soon after.

To reward my instructor, I made myself write word for word what these maniacs told me they wanted to do to me. I hope she enjoyed reading the details (but who knows...maybe she did, eh?) (((shudder)))

Needless to say, psych does NOT enthuse me....:(

Oh, and as an aside...one of these 'patients' after he was let out got placed in a job at an old people's home where he brutally raped and beat an elderly woman to death. Of course he was 'crazy' so he didn't go to jail....:(

What a system we have....:(

Specializes in ER, ICU, L&D, OR.

Howdy Yall

from deep in the heart of texas

I dont remember much of nursing school. it seemed so long ago, hell it was. But I remember doing psych rotation at central stae hospital in Norman Oklahoma. I was impressed as this is where they filmed the old hitchcock movie, was it called Psycho. Long time ago. Seeing the place I could believe it too. All of our class was there at the same time. Some of the female nurses were so scared they actually had hammer and nails to close their rooms at night. particularly as the moon was full at the time.

I'll never forget my first IM injection. This was 25+ years ago, when metal tubexs and glass syringes were popular. The patient had a bad case of DTs, and was having difficulty cooperating anyway. As a student, I was REALLY slow --marking out the exact perfect position (upper out quadrant of the upper outer quadrant, etc.), verifying the proper drug, dose, route, patient, etc. I finally got up enough courage to actually go for the injection (with my instructor standing over me, encouraging me to hurry it up before the guy went ballistic.) As I stuck the needle in, the guy let out a blood-curdleing shriek, lept out of bed and darted out of the room with the back of his gown hanging open, and the needle flopping up and down with each step until it fell out and smashed on the floor. No one could persuade the guy to come back and let me take care of him, and no one could persuade me to try another IM injection until the last day of the quarter when it was either do it or flunk.

The day a fellow student taped the central line to the side rails (so it wouldn't fall out) was memorable as well. Of course he forgot, lowered the side rail and pulled out the central line. It bled, and he (a big, burly former construction worker) fainted at the sight of the blood. I was walking by the closed curtain, and saw Jay lying on the floor. Just as I entered the room and took in the sights of the comatose patient, the central line on the floor with the IV free-flowing through it and blood dripping off the bed and into the mess on the floor, Jay woke up. He got up, said, "I'm really sorry. This isn't for me," and walked out of the room, leaving me to deal with his patient, the mess and our IRATE instructor. He kept right on walking, and last I heard, was quite happy doing construction once again.

originally posted by vicki k

the day a fellow student taped the central line to the side rails (so it wouldn't fall out) was memorable as well. of course he forgot, lowered the side rail and pulled out the central line. it bled, and he (a big, burly former construction worker) fainted at the sight of the blood. i was walking by the closed curtain, and saw jay lying on the floor. just as i entered the room and took in the sights of the comatose patient, the central line on the floor with the iv free-flowing through it and blood dripping off the bed and into the mess on the floor, jay woke up. he got up, said, "i'm really sorry. this isn't for me," and walked out of the room, leaving me to deal with his patient, the mess and our irate instructor. he kept right on walking, and last i heard, was quite happy doing construction once again. [/b]

vicky, thank you for a much needed laugh!!! rotf-lmao:roll :rotfl:..............lr

During OR rotation, watching a TURP (Trans Urethral Prostatectomy) through the scope. I innocently asked the Surgeon "Where is the Prostate in women?" He just about died laughing and I was sooo embarrased, I'll never forget that day.

My first clinical, which was just a few months ago, I was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo nervous even though I was working with the greatest RN's in no particlarly challenging circumstances, and so communications tended to be the major focus in most instances even over the care. I remember my first patient he was paraplegic with decubits ulcerations on both his ankles.The RN had to go an wash her hands before changing the dressings leaving me with my first patient EVER, and communication techniques freshly drilled into me and so I attempted to ask some semi intelligent and relevant questions about the ulcerations, BUT do you know what did I ask the paraplegic patient 'DOES IT HURT!!!'. If I could have melted into the wall I would have taken the opportunity. He was the nicest gentleman I have ever met and he politely descibed his condtion and that he really could'nt feel anything from waist down. A few days later I was back to see him again with a bit more experience under my belt he said to me 'you look like you've grown a few inches since I saw you last time' pointing out my confidence. My first ever patient and inspirations for why I want to do this job, plus he said a few other words of encouragement which meant the world to me.

My most memorable moments...

First semester, my instructor came in and was conversing with my patient (who was 80+ yrs and somewhat confused) and me and we were talking about religion. My pt said something about a hymn and my instructor began to sing the hymn. The pt began to sing it with her and she had this look on her face...as if she were reliving some wonderful memory, and my instructor looked to me like an angel at that moment. That was one huge moment that sealed my desire to be a nurse.

Another memorable time in 3rd semester, there was an elderly pt with a trach who was really grumpy, in soft restraints, pulled out his trach and threw it the day before, swung fists at care givers. Well, we were to practice suctioning trachs so I went in there, scared to death, with the RN. I told him step by step what we were doing and was sure to address him as Mr. so and so (noted the RN calling him by his first name). I sat with him while we took his restraints off and he took out his board with letters on it and began spelling out conversations with me. The RN was surprised, saying he never did that with others. Went home w/warm fuzzies that night too.

Funny moment in 2nd semester...in a nursing home, the instructor and a couple of students went to figure out how the whirlpool tub worked. A few minutes later, we hear screaming from that room. They had turned on the jets before the water covered them, so there was water spraying everywhere around the room. The instructor was soaked from head to toe. Luckily we had a camera that day and that was one of the pics that went up for the slide show during our pinning ceremony!

The psych facility with the chronic pts....we were so scared that first day but by the end of 4 weeks we were crying because we would miss these people....I could go on and on. I have many memorable moments. Thanks for the chance to relive them on this thread. I'm enjoying reading all.

Specializes in peds, office nurse and long term care fa.

Mine was actually when I finished nursing training, I was working 11-7 on pediatrics. Had a baby in the croup tent,and he was fussy. I had to take his temp rectally, and a brown worm about 5 inches was in his diaper. I couldn't believe my eyes!

I really ENJOYED knowing all you have written here..as I am just about to reenter nursing again..without much experience before..I just cant imagine what "FIRSTS" I have to go through this time. But reading topics like this gives me ideas and this is a great tool for learning as well.

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