help! I'm terrified of clinicals!

[picurn10]

I started NS about 5wks ago and we have about 4wks until our clinicals begin. Pretty much everyone in my class is already at least a CNA, but I have NO medical background. The only time I've even been in a hospital was when I had my son a few years ago. I've never seen a chart, or anything. It seems like when we're in lab most of my classmates know what they're doing or at least have seen the stuff we're talking about.

How can I get over these jitters and what can I do to prepare? Do they just toss you in, sink or swim style in your clinicals or do they hold your hand through everything? I just have no idea what to expect. Help!

[StudentNurseAndi]

i hope that none of you are offended or anything. i am not trying to be mean just a question. how do you guys know that you want to be nurses if you have no clinical expirence?

i mean work so hard and pay so much money and not know what you are getting into? i know several cna's that have worked on my floor that got their cna as a pre req for nursing school and saw what the nurses really do and quit (the did know that nurses had to clean up poop, give baths, take people to the bathroom, etc.). not to say that you can't be a nurse w/o having prior expirence, there is no doubt that you can and you can be a really good nurse.

i just don't understand why putting so much time, effort, and money into something that you don't "really" know what they do. again i'm not trying to sound like you can't do it but i just know that if i was going to be spending money on a new car (same price as a few semesters of college) i would be trying it out first so i knew what i was gettin into and making sure that it was the right car for me. good luck to you all! i'm sure you will do fine! i'm sorry to anyone who is offended. please help me understand it.

:spbox:

do teachers, doctors, and lawyers work in their field before putting in the time and money to earn their way to those jobs? maybe as office assistants, or teacher's aide, but they can't really know what the job is going to be like until they do it.

[lemonaidangel]

i hope that none of you are offended or anything. i am not trying to be mean just a question. how do you guys know that you want to be nurses if you have no clinical expirence?

there are some things in life that you just know. like i have always known that i wanted to be in the medical field from the time i was 3 years old, i just didn't know what area. for a while i wanted to be a vet, then i wanted to be a paramedic, then a doctor, and so and so and so. every few years i changed my mind, but i was always consistent in the genre. when i graduated high school, i had to make a choice. so i went over all my options, and i decided that nursing was for me. that's the route i took, and that is where i am still. now nearly 23 years old and a senior in nursing school, i love it, and i am never going to change my mind again. clinicals are my favorite part of school, even with all the paperwork and poo and vomit that goes along with it.

medicine has been my passion forever. i was one of those weird 8 year old kids who watched rescue 911 or trauma: life in the er or brain surgery over cartoons and kids movies. when i was a teenager, i read medical textbooks for fun. seriously. also when i was 14 i got extremely sick, and i was admitted to the hospital 9 times in one year for respiratory distress. twice i was in the icu, once i was actually on a ventilator, i got to ride in an ambulance and a helicopter, and i spent 3 weeks in the u of m while they were trying to figure out what was wrong with me. (this isn't to make you feel sorry for me, but i'm just trying to make a point.) so even though i never actually had first hand experience as an aide or a medical assistant, and i never had to "clean up poop" as you so aptly stated, but i had plenty of knowledge of what i was getting myself into. based on my experiences being sick as a kid, i have decided to become a pediatric life flight nurse, hopefully at the u of m. i love flying, i love kids, and i love medicine--what a great way to combine all three! i figure i'll be able to be more empathetic with the kiddos, and i think it will make me a better nurse in the end.

so that is why i decided i nursing is for me. you don't have to have clinical experience to have a passion for helping people. the only way to get experience is to step up to the plate and to just do it. for example, i had never stepped foot in an er as a part of a medical team until the other day, and the first patient i got assigned to was a code blue coming in on an ambulance. the docs told me to get up there and do cpr, so i did. it was scary, but i didn't panic and i was able to stay focused on the task in front of me. being an aide would have never prepared me for that. and i know now, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that i have what it takes to be a nurse in an acute setting.

so yeah, some people just know. you don't necessarily have to be experienced in order to have a calling.

[scuttles]

Be worried about clinical's, not terrified. Its what we are striving for.

You sense all the negatives, but the positives are far more often and encompass all that we hope for.

Talking to our patient, learning from a "older generation," or a different point of view, seeing that spirituality isn't just a bible or a formal structure and it is vital to most everyone, learning tricks of the trade (even from those nurses with the "going to eat you" attitudes), or how "I never want to be like..." lessons, the sense of getting a IV cath in, dealing with doctors, getting the medications right, being the one to correctly answer a question by your instructor or nurse, and the sense worth from getting an old patient to drink contrast for a xray procedure...where for 2 days everyone else failed to. So, don't be terrified. As nurses we do more than just give out medications, its vital and critical, but so is taking 5 minutes and talking and joking with our patients. Remember that those theorist we had to learn about...some of what they teach is important.

And not having prior expierence is a godsend. You'll not sit there with your mind 1/2 open. Ask all the "duh" questions , read everything, and you'll be great!

And nursing, is a artform :redpinkhe, not a something you take out and kick the tires to see if it "suits you."

[9livesRN, BSN, RN]

there are different ways of achieving something!

you dont have to become a CNA and practice it for a while, and then go for your RN, at least i think some people will agree with me in this one.

With all my respect, KUDOS to those that are CNA's for a while and work really hard, and eventually become RN's or just stick with what they like... AWESOME

But i believe that if you have the BALLS to take it and cram info, pass the entrance test, get acceptance and can absorb info just like a sponge, there is nothing wrong with that!

it all depend on what is in your heart! and you will achieve it on the best way you can, some people like to feel confortable first, other just take it and learn from it!

I have never been on the medical field, other then being responsable for first-aid on the boyscouts...

and i will tell you what, I CANT WAIT to get through clinicals and get going, i found out that i dont need to TEST DRIVE, to decide, i just feel it, and i know it will take a lot, it will hurt it will bug and stress me, but you know what? I LIKE IT because i am going to school because I WANT, and not just because i have to....

i was actually 1 semester away from graduating on my Bachelors in Administration, and gave it all up for NURSING and i am lovin'it!