Am I the only one that hates clinical?

GardenDove · Dec 10, 2006

Zasha, I think you hit the nail squarely on the head with your insightful post. I never thought of it that way before, you really defined it for meI've been a nurse 14 years now. I was one who was a Nervous Nellie at clinicals. I had never been in a hospital before, and I felt totally out of my element. After my first semester of nursing school I got a job as a nurse's assistant on a Med-Surg wing of a local small hospital. It really helped alot. To make a long story short, I now work in a small ICU, I love pt care, have a great rapport with the pts, and get along with the docs really well. Once you are on your own things improve. My first semester instructors basically sucked, I really don't know how I survived it, I practically had a nervous breakdown from nursing school, but it was worth it.

AdobeRN · Dec 10, 2006

I really really hated my clinicals in nursing school years ago.
There just seemed to be a lack of direction and an inability to direct myself for fear of crossing some line. It was almost like this 'deer in the headlights' mentality. It's not that I didn't want to be in a hospital environment; it's that I just didn't want to be in an environment that I had no real control over.
Let me tell you a secret: the issue at play and why clinicals are so distasteful is one of autonomy. As a student, you have absolutely NO autonomy over the direction of care, and very little about your role in it.
As a 'real nurse': Autonomy is what I LOVE about my job. I have a 'give me report and then let me get started' mentality. For 12 hours every shift: ALL the reasons why you HATE clinicals are removed. I have autonomy, I set direction of my care, I have no eyes looking over my shoulders, unless I ask for them.
Learn all you can. It's a process, sort of you have to learn to crawl . . . But don't let bad experiences in clinicals taint your positive outlook for where you are going. There is a difference between clinicals and the real world and it is a difference that can only be approximated in school. So, tough it out and stick to learning everything you can, even if it's not on the planned 'menu' of things for you to do.
I'll tell you ONE of the things I learned in clinicals. I very closely watched the relationship dynamics of the nurses on the units: how they interacted with each other, patients, ancillary staff, doctors, admin, etc. etc. I looked at all these different examples of behavior extensively and when I was finally out on my own: I knew which behaviors I wanted to emulate and which I would never be guilty of doing. But more important, I very quickly not only recognized such behaviors in my peers, but I had observational experience on anticipating - and avoiding - some of the pitfalls of that behavior.
Good luck.
~faith,
Timothy.

This is exactly how I feel. I absolutly cant stand clinicals. To me it is so artificial. I am an LVN attending an ADN program, most of what I do in clinicals, I do in my "real" job. I am hoping my final semester in the spring will be different.

sissyboo · Dec 10, 2006

Clinicals sound scary! It has got to be much better than CNA clinicals though. We pretty well "wandered" around our assigned areas answering call lights, feeding (we were an afternoon class so AM care was done). Most of our LTC clinical was pt. and bed changes and feeding.

Hospital clinical was much more informational! The nurses almost always had a little something you could do or were doing something an aide could actually assist with.

truern · Dec 11, 2006

Surely its not just me...has anybody else noticed a trend with some newer posters just plain being rude?? I noticed it in this thread and I've seen it several times lately in other threads.

Just an observation.

PiperLPN · Dec 12, 2006

timothy, (zashagalka)

i love your post, thank you so much. i will keep all you have said in mind when i start clinicals on 1/8/07. elena

abbythetabby · Dec 13, 2006

We had an 11:1 student to CI ratio. Trying to find the instructor to pass meds or ask a question was very frustrating. And I am so not a morning person. But I loved clinicals. While waiting for my instructor, I'd read other patient's charts, help other students, offer to help other nurses, talk with my patient...anything that could give me a chance of learning something new. If I didn't the day would just drag on endlessly. Take whatever you don't like about clinicals and turn it into a personal challenge to increase your patience, raise the level of frustration you're able to tolerate, etc.

And if you can get your hands on a palm pilot with some medical software, you will never be bored in clinical. The things you can look up are limitless.

djkmc1998 · Dec 13, 2006

To me clinicals are exausting. Either they are super busy, or not so much, and it is boring. I would chose being busy over not, I love to learn. I dont look forward to clinicals at all. I hate to even admit it, because I want to be positive about this whole experience. But it is frusterating when there is one instructor & 10 of us. I can only imagine the stress of being an instructor, that would be stressful as well. Anyway, lets keep our heads up fellow nursing students, this is ONLY TEMPORARY!!!!

ok2bme · Sep 17, 2008

This is an old thread, I revived it instead of starting a similar new one. I absolutely d r e a d clinicals and I am relieved to see some others do too. I'm in Med/Surg clinical, and my clinical instructor is also my Med/Surg lecture professor, talk about pressure! I am an auditory learner, so I am academically strong, but when it comes to skills I am a slow learner. Last semester we were in LTC and I dreaded that as well. It makes me question whether or not nursing is for me.