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

[MollyJ]

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.

[momrn50]

My first IM injection to an 8 month old baby boy.....or almost passing out at seeing a C section...those were the days!!!

[Heather56]

I don't think that "Firsts" ever end in our field! Even after 10 years in neuro I keep coming across them. I believe the day that I think I've seen it all is the day I'll have to quit.

[MommyRn39]

I had two experiences that I will never forget. One was really great and the other was really awful.

The great one was when I was doing my obs rotation. I was able to stay with a first time mom from the moment she came into the hospital until her baby was born. Afterwards, she sent me a thank you note and sent a really nice letter to my school saying how much help I was. I was sooo touched. :)

The second was horrible and resulted in my failing the last semester of my last year. I arrived on the floor one morning to find that my assignment was changed. Instead I was given a rather sick lady with a couple of IVs and a chest tube. I had never seen a chest tube before and even though I knew what it was, I didn't know how to care for it. My instructor disappeared for most of the morning and even though I did ask several of the staff nurses for help, I ended up making a mistake which resulted in my patient nearly developing a pneumothorax.

The head nurse was furious and had me kicked off the floor. My instructor raked me over the coals and backed the head nurse up. My school washed their hands of me saying that they use the hospital's resources and they can't go against what they say.

I was weeks from graduation when that happened.

I nearly gave up on nursing right there and then. Took me a whole year to get up the courage to go back and finish. I'm glad I did too.

[santhony44, MSN, RN, NP]

My very first clinical ever. I was scared to death! We were at a VA hospital to take care of the little old men. The first day, I think all we did was baths, beds, and vital signs, and we were assigned in pairs. Neither of us had ever had *any* hospital experience. Our little old man was a CHF case. Of course, we didn't have a really good understanding of "heart failure." We were both terrified he was going to do something too strenuous and die on us! We wouldn't let him do *anything* for himself! I'll never forget it.

Another memorable day was also in my LPN clinicals, near the end. We were on an ortho floor and I had a lady who'd fractured a hip and had surgical repair. Her Foley had been pulled and she couldn't "go." So I turned the water on in the bathroom sink hoping the running water would give her the "urge." Then for some reason I left the room forgetting about the water. I ended up going to lunch and came back to find housekeeping in the hallway with a shop vac! The sink had stopped up and flooded the bathroom, the patient's room, and part of the hallway. I was soooo embarrassed! My instructor just laughed and told me I'd never forget again!

[Anna Maria]

OK...here's my most embarassing moment....

My first clinical day as a nursing student. I was 18 years old and the only time I was in the hospital was to visit people. So there I am...scrubbed in my all white uniform and cap when one of the nurses asked me to help hold a patient. So, off I went. When I got to the room, I saw this little old woman, a bag of bones really, crying out. Four of us rolled her over on her side while another nurse proceeded to disimpact her. She was screaming at the top of her lungs "Wait until you're old and they do this to you!!!" Next thing I know, I'm looking up from the floor where I had landed after I passed out. Right above me, I saw a nurse looking down at me shaking her head saying "Let me guess...a nursing student"

I was mortified. I survived and now I work in a trauma unit....oh how far we go in our lives :)

[pebbles, BSN, RN]

Pediatric rotation.

7 year old chinese boy - his family were brand new immigrants to the country and neither teh boy nor his mother spoke any english. Interpretere was unavailable at the time. Prepping him for surgery, he needed an NG inserted. H ewasn't my patient, but I had never put in an NG so my instructor came to find me.

So my instructor and two other nurses held this boy down as he kicked and screamed, and I shoved this tube down his nose. My instructor (a brand new grad herself) somehow thought this would be a good learning experience for me....

That was the day I decided pediatrics wasn't for me.

On a side note, too many of my instructors were brand new-grads themselves who decided that they wanted to get into teaching. Since more advanced education isn't a requirement of a "clinical facilitator"... we got to be their guinea pigs. Still makes me mad.

Also hated my labour and delivery rotation - the most common thing we were told was "it's really diffiocult to explain this... it's difficult to teach it to your patients... if you've never had a baby yourself" I felt like rolling my eyes and saying should I come back in ten years?

[RNConnieF]

...The time I did post mortum care with Maggie-who was right off the boat from Ireland and VERY superstitus about a dead body. She was trapped between me, the body and the instructor. I guess we should have told poor Maggie that dead bodies make noise when they are moved. When we turned poor Mr. Jones over his eyes FLEW open, he groned, and he vomited a blood type product. Poor Maggie was trapped in the cornere with me blocking her way out and Mr. Jones blocking the other exit. I'm not sure to this day HOW she got past me and out of the room.

[CATHYW]

Giving my first Im injection. I am sure I felt it as much as the lady who received it. She'd had a radical mastectomy the day before. I did it without a hitch, but was awfully shook up. My little instructor ( a tiny lady with a pronounced listhp), said afterward, "Sthee there? With the pain from the thergery, the pain from your injecthon wasn't bad at all. You actually helped her feel better." I never had another problem with another injection, but I am empathetic with the receipient, every time I give one, to this day!