Hate clinicals?

[Blinkie2003]

Do most nursing students hate clinicals as much as I do?? 90% of the time I'm not actually learning anything, I always feel like I'm in the way, and most of the time I feel inadequate or that I have no idea what I'm supposed to really be doing. Does every nursing student feel this way (outside of a teaching hospital environment)? Many of my fellow students also do not look forward to clinicals. For reference, I am in my final semester (Thank you Lord) of a 2yr ADN program. We started on site clinicals within 3 wks of our program, and we have traditional 15 wk (give or take) semesters. I am a 2nd career student (32yr old) who already holds a previous Associates and Bachelors degree in two other fields. Just looking for others input!

[emmjayy, BSN, RN]

It's so crazy that in your final semester they still have you assigned to only one patient and still have tons of clinical paperwork. At my school, we got bumped up to providing all the nursing care to two patients by the end of third semester and in our final semester, we are expected to provide all care to two patients and do all the care except for passing meds on a third. The nurses love having us as it cuts down on the time they spend passing meds and of course it's always nice to have lots of extra hands to help lift, turn, clean, and ambulate the patients. Because we no longer have downtime on clinical, our paperwork is just a concept map and two nursing diagnoses. It's way more fun than in the earlier semesters, and it's a little bit closer to what it'll be like to be an RN and have a full patient assignment.

Do you have exit interviews at the end of school? If you do, I'd bring up to the dean (or whoever does the interview) that they really need to be pushing their last-semester students more. I shudder to think of how hard it'll be to go from providing care to just one patient all day long to being thrown into caring for a typical med-surg load of 5-6 patients on days, more on nights.

[direw0lf, BSN]

Our instructors mainly just let us go do our own thing as well, and if I need assistance with something I could go to them, but it's mostly like "go pick a patient, let me know who you pick, meet me back here at this time for dinner break". Then, we pick our patient, hear report, introduce ourselves, do a head to toe, safety check, etc etc, go back and review patient chart and get our gazillion patient forms filled out, go check on our patients again, check with nurse to see if they need help or if they are doing something we can assist with etc, can pass meds with the nurse who is assigned our patient or the instructor (there is normally 8 students per group) but that's basically the gist of it. I don't know I feel like the only thing I get is anxiety and doubt on clinical days. I mean, I'm great with the people aspect (years of CS in the past) and in terms of skills when we do them in our lab scenarios I excel, but on site I just feel so blah about the experience. Last semester my instructor was the ANC for the cardiac floor, so we went to shared governance meetings and staff meetings and once we attended a code, so those other experiences broke up the monotony of the shift and were interesting to me. Maybe "hate" is too strong of a word, but I definitely do not enjoy them most of the time. Thanks for your input!

IMO and sorry if I sound like a B but you aren't thinking critically enough if you aren't getting anything out of head to toe assessments or reviewing lab and vital sign trends. Try to start learning who is critical and why, and what are labs trending toward, what are they indicating, and be sure to talk to nurses nicely tell them I know you are busy but if anything exciting happens on the floor can you let me know or say you would appreciate whatever they have time to show you. I know I wish I had gotten more out of my earlier clinicals but even when you are basically on your own, you could (and I could have) been learning more. And don't forget nursing is a lot different than clinical!

Ok read more replies now and yes I agree with you be more proactive and you got this!

[JamesRed]

I loath clinicals. I’m a middle aged second career student who made the mistake of telling my clinical instructor that I have no prior medical experience and that made me nervous. What has resulted is I have been the only person excluded from anything. I consistently get assigned patients that are awaiting discharge. There are no IVs to do. No catheters to assist with. Literally no opportunity. I failed to realize that people see low self confidence as incompetence. So I’m about done. My fellow students are learning a host of new things and are working in busy wings. I’m sitting by the nurse station waiting for lunch deliveries. 

We get assigned patients so just wandering around isn’t an option. I’m trapped.

I've just emailed the clinicals instructor over my frustration but it pretty degrading to have to ask why I’m out out to pasture. 
 

[SpokesAndCoffee, ADN]

It depends on a lot on the instructor and the site staff. I had the same instructor for two semesters and she pushed us to be our best. By the end, we were each handling three patients, all assessments, meds, cares, etc. for 6-7 hours/day. Staff loved the help and had extra time to teach us even further. In contrast, our classmates one floor up were bored out of their minds with only one patient each, not even passing meds everyday, and only staying on the floor a few hours at a time. As you can imagine, staff felt they just got in the way.

[Mergirlc, MSN, APRN, NP]

On 3/4/2021 at 10:53 PM, JamesRed said:

I loath clinicals. I’m a middle aged second career student who made the mistake of telling my clinical instructor that I have no prior medical experience and that made me nervous. What has resulted is I have been the only person excluded from anything. I consistently get assigned patients that are awaiting discharge. There are no IVs to do. No catheters to assist with. Literally no opportunity. I failed to realize that people see low self confidence as incompetence. So I’m about done. My fellow students are learning a host of new things and are working in busy wings. I’m sitting by the nurse station waiting for lunch deliveries. 

We get assigned patients so just wandering around isn’t an option. I’m trapped.

I've just emailed the clinicals instructor over my frustration but it pretty degrading to have to ask why I’m out out to pasture. 
 

So sorry to hear this.  Sometimes, it really is just the instructor you get.  They may (or may not) have a bias against students who are an older age.

What I might suggest is when you can, ask the charge nurse if you can help assist in doing a skill, if it's available. Or if you see the other nurses on the floor, ask if they have an upcoming IV, Blood piggyback, Foley insertion, etc.. they will be doing.  Then ask if you might be able to assist them because you're looking for practice.  Never hurts to ask.  Some of the staff is in a hurry because of the acuity of the patient, but there are many nurses who remember what it was like in clinicals and how you are always looking to practice skills, even if it's the umpteenth time doing it.   Practicing never gets old.

[JamesRed]

Great ideas! I’ve realized too that my assumptions about clinicals haven’t helped my situation either.

[Mergirlc, MSN, APRN, NP]

25 minutes ago, JamesRed said:

Great ideas! I’ve realized too that my assumptions about clinicals haven’t helped my situation either.

Yes.  We all go in with the hopes we'll be doing everything, but a lot depends on the types of patients and the nurses you are paired up with.  What I also might suggest is when you ask about assisting in a skill, give the nurse a choice, so to speak.   Ask them if they would be willing in letting you either do the skill or, at the very least, let you watch them do the skill.   Even watching how do they do things will be more beneficial than hanging out doing lunches.  Never underestimate the benefit of observation.  If you see it enough, it often sticks!