I'm embarrassed. Almost all of my clinical was shadowing, until I started doing mental health. Then I was alone with a patient.
I can't imagine a clinical scenario in training where a student could possibly provide the actual care for multiple patients. The instructor would have to be literally right there every minute.
I simply don't believe that any student provided hands on care for more than one or two patients on a shift. There would be nobody to observe you.
Unless you had a one on one instructor.
I can't imagine what this program would cost. It would be completely unaffordable.
I don't see a student "totally responsible for 6 patients"
I am glad people are getting all this great experience in their RN programs. Mine was 30 years ago.
I know clinical times have lengthened greatly. Ours were literally about 4 hours a week. First a pre-conference, then a post conference. You were with one or two patients for 3 hours and it seemed like an eternity. You were aften stuck in a room killing time.
We would never have been allowed to do anything by ourselves.
I still vividly remember donning sterile gloves in lab.
As far as my NP program, I self prepared. Our program director was a devotee of Freud.
I did have some excellent mentors, and one that was truly so horrible, she was good.
It's great people are getting real clinical in their programs. They should.
I can remember my first male catheter as an RN. The patient had a penectomy, and nobody had told me.
By the time I got to the end of my program I was managing a six patient load.
Very good for you. In my area, nurses eating their young was very extreme 30 years ago. Nothing remotely like the clinical experiences described here would ever have happened.
My first "nurse manager" looked at me very disdainfully when I inquired about getting nitroglycerin for a patient. Did he have an order for it?
The bullying, disrespect and absolute crap I then experienced throughout my RN career was unbelievable.
I finally got a job at the County Health Department, where I was verbally and mentally abused for 4 months as an experienced RN before being fired.
Two nights later, the union called to say- you are the 5th or 6th RN that hasn't been successful at that clinic in two years. We know something is wrong, and what is it?
Personality disorders.
But, hey, you can still buy a house here for 150k, but why would you want to live and work with a bunch of morons?
Unless you are the NP and now mostly above it all.
I am glad many of you have had a better experience. Mine was mostly what we used to call Axis II. Yes, it still is a pejorative term.
I have to thank some of these people. They made me realize how much undiagnosed mental illness there is.
I started taking full patient load (6-7) about a month before I graduated from my BSN program. It was the final semester capstone so it was 1:1 and my preceptor was great (I was lucky). My program requires that students take full (or nearly full) patient load by graduation.
Oldmahubbard
1,487 Posts
I am glad people are getting all this great experience in their RN programs. Mine was 30 years ago.
I know clinical times have lengthened greatly. Ours were literally about 4 hours a week. First a pre-conference, then a post conference. You were with one or two patients for 3 hours and it seemed like an eternity. You were aften stuck in a room killing time.
We would never have been allowed to do anything by ourselves.
I still vividly remember donning sterile gloves in lab.
As far as my NP program, I self prepared. Our program director was a devotee of Freud.
I did have some excellent mentors, and one that was truly so horrible, she was good.
It's great people are getting real clinical in their programs. They should.
I can remember my first male catheter as an RN. The patient had a penectomy, and nobody had told me.
I guess that was the joke of the night.