Help for first day of clinical

zenurse · Sep 18, 2007

I had my first clinical at an LTC facility on Friday. We had an orientation with the assistant DON, then a tour of the place, and then we reconvened in the conference room to watch a few videos. After lunch we went back onto the floor and had the opportunity to look at several charts, and our professor assigned us the resident we will be working with so that we could review her/his chart. For our first assignment/interaction, we get to work in pairs with our client. We finished the day back in the conference room with an open discussion about our questions and concerns.

This Friday we will be taking a health history of our client and assessing neurosensory and psychosocial and sleep/pain. We reviewed all of this in lab today to prepare for Friday. Needless to say, tons of reading accompanies all of this!

That's the technical part. If you've never been in a nursing home, be prepared to feel kind of sad, maybe. Some residents are alert and friendly, but some may be suffering from various stages of dementia. Many residents have chronic diseases. Just keep your head up and say hello to the residents and the folks who work in the facility, who will be helping you a lot in the weeks to come! You'll be fine! It was a great feeling when many of the residents greeted us and were cheery and said "see you next week!"

Also, keep in mind that it's not a hospital, it is their HOME, in which they receive care...

Hope some of this helps! Good luck!

WDWpixieRN, RN · Sep 18, 2007

Wow, the most important piece of advice I can give you is the follow all instructions to the "T". Pay close attention if you're having an orientation and make sure to question you instructor if you're not sure about something.

Also, as has been pointed out numerous times on these forums, do NOT under any circumstances criticize the staff or the job they're doing or point out that they're doing something different or "wrong" from the way you're learning it. It's the best way to make enemies of the staff; these are folks you want to be YOUR friends...