Getting a feel for patient care....

[2ndchance85]

Hi everyone

I'm an adult student (I'm in my thirties), I work full time and am taking my sciences to try to get into an accelerated BSN program. I also volunteer two times a week. While volunteering is interesting and rewarding, I was hoping to do something that would give me a better feel for what the physical work of nursing would be like. I want to take a phlebotomy course because I would have the idea that it would allow me to get the feeling of doing something "medical". My question has three parts:

A. Has anyone done a phlebotomy(or similar type of course) before going to nursing school and did it make you feel more comfortable when you did your clinicals? Did it solidify your decision to become a nurse?

B. Has anyone gone into a nursing program with no type of experience in patient care before hand? Were you stunned/shocked/jarred when you started to do medical stuff (taking blood pressure, starting IVs, etc)?

C. As anyone working as a nurse, how much technical/medical work do you do? I know nurses on medical surgical floors can be responsible for feeding/bathing/taking blood/wound care etc but if you work in an outpatient facility you wouldn't do things like that, of course I know you must do some technical work, but is it more administrative (charting/observing) or more technical/medical(giving meds/physical care)?

Please feel free to answer any or all parts of this question! Any feedback (which is reasonable) is welcome, I'm feeling a little lost in this way; and since I'm stupid busy with volunteering and taking the prerequisites to try to get into a accelerated BSN program and I want to try to see if it would be worth adding one more thing to my schedule.

Thank you!

[VerticalHorizon]

I worked in the medical field before starting nursing school but had no interaction with patients. Honestly working as a phlebotomist, CNA, etc may be helpful when you first start clinical and direct patient interaction but only at first. After a couple of days on the floor you will be comfortable and patient care will start to become more natural.

[Zyprexa_Ho]

There is an advantage to working as a CNA before nursing school, but I would imagine that the gap closes quickly. I would think being a CNA would be more beneficial than being a phlebotomist.

Outpatient would definitely involve more paper than skills, but you still do use skills.

[barcode120x, RN, NP]

C. As anyone working as a nurse, how much technical/medical work do you do?

I work as a telemetry nurse so I can't answer the part in regards to working outpatiently. If I am not doing/assisting with actual patient care (baths, feeding, attending to their needs, etc), the rest deals with nursing skills (IV's starts, NG tube, replacing tubing, etc IF needed), giving meds while a majority of the time is spent charting, checking orders, and looking at the patient history. It all depends on the patient. Sometimes the patient is pretty easy to handle (in terms of acuity) where not much meds or charting has to be done or can be done quickly. Technical/medical work IS our job as an RN. If stuff is done, then I guess you're on what we call "down time".

[SquishyRN, BSN, RN]

Technical/medical work IS our job as an RN.

I wholeheartedly disagree with this statement. All the technical stuff (like bathing, feeding, drawing blood, starting IVs, passing meds) are PART of our job, but these are the least important reasons why we are RNs. If that was it, why bother having more training and education than the CNAs, phlebotomists, med techs, and whatever other ancillary staff that can also do said technical stuff.

I think fundamentally as RNs we are coordinators of medical care for our patients. Sure we have to do the technical stuff, but it's not what takes up most of our day, and it's especially not the most important. Anytime anyone needs anything they look for the nurse. Whether it's lab calling to report a critical value, family calling to ask how their family member is doing, or us the nurses having to call the doctor to report changes of condition on his or her patient. Nurses are the ones everyone expects to know what's going on in the big picture and to coordinate everything to make things happen to keep the wheel turning.

I also agree with jsfarri in that while other healthcare experience might be helpful in the beginning, the gap will close quickly. Passing meds, starting IVs, bathing, feeding, etc are all rote tasks that don't even begin to define nursing even if that's all that people think nurses do.

[2ndchance85]

Hi Vertical Horizon

Thanks for your input. Do you mind me asking what you did in the medical field? I work in a hospital but not with patients, I worked for a bit in a Dr's office but not much besides that. When you were in nursing school/working as a nurse did the technical skills intimidate you (sounds silly I know)?

[VerticalHorizon]

Hi Vertical Horizon

Thanks for your input. Do you mind me asking what you did in the medical field? I work in a hospital but not with patients, I worked for a bit in a Dr's office but not much besides that. When you were in nursing school/working as a nurse did the technical skills intimidate you (sounds silly I know)?

I worked as a Lab Assistant inside of a major hospital. It helped me start to understand a lot of the medical terminology and also the business, charting and billing side of things. As far as intimidation goes I would say that when you are a fresh nursing student on the floor it can be a little overwhelming at first because everything you are doing is new to you but that quickly goes away. Dont let your lack of patient experience bother you, out of the 70 or so people that started with me in nursing school only around 10 or less ever had a job that had direct patient care so you will be in the majority.