Recent clinical has me fearful of real world nursing

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Feb 26, 2013

You are a student, you are in school to learn those things, your clinical rotation is to help you learn to put them into practice, and your instructor is doing exactly what he should be doing, pushing you to think of what you need to be prepared and organized. You, however, are not -- you are freezing up. This is not a knowledge deficit, this is a risk for disturbed personal identity diagnosis (risk for the inability to maintain an integrated and complete perception of self), with the risk factors of social role change and change in stages of growth (student to grad, li'l ol' you to real nurse) (page 283, NANDA-I 2012-2014)..

You aren't expected to start your last rotation with everything in place. Why would a school bother with a last semester if you were all set to go at the end of the next-to-last one? :) This semester is what you are here for.

So, while you are falling apart and thinking maybe you are a total failure and life as you planned it is over, you should be thanking your lucky stars that your instructor cares enough to be pushing you, because he knows you can do it. He is being your nurse. You can do this, you know.

My friend Esme has some great "brains sheets" that will help you with your organization, and I am sure she'll pitch in with them in a bit. ::calling Esme, come in, Esme! Earth people need you! ::

The more you do it, the better you'll get at it. One day you'll be tooling along through report and suddenly realize that you did just fine. Really. You will. Deep breath.