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Discussion

Help!

So I'm less than 6 months from graduation and I am feeling somewhat overwhelmed. I dont feel like the experience I have gotten in nursing school has fully prepared me to be on my own. Am I alone in feeling this way?

Clinicals are stressful because I feel like if I'm asked to do something I still have to say, "I've never done that, can you walk me through it" I've done minimal hands on skills and this weekend I'm working in the ER. I always do whatever I am asked and have no problem asking for help but I'm feeling like the nurses think at this point I shouldnt need that much help.

Anyone have any suggestions or words of wisdom?? :bugeyes:

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  • Experts

when you get out into the real world you are not going to have that many opportunities to be "walked" through procedures. while you are in nursing school your opportunity to "see" procedures will be on video tapes, cds, on the school computers, and opportunities that you will have to actively seek them out when you are in your clinicals (ask the staff nurses if they are going to be doing any procedures that you can watch). when i was a manager we found that most of the new grads we were interviewing and hiring were often barely able to actually have been able to have done any of the major nursing procedures when they were student nurses. part of their new grad orientation program was to get them at least one experience doing a number of nursing procedures under the guidance of a preceptor. it was a difficult mission to accomplish. in some cases, some procedures were still left for new nurses to do with the first person they could find who was willing to stand by and help them when the time came. if you know the steps of the procedure and the nursing principals involved, what is left is the actual hands on doing of it.

this is one of the reasons that i strongly recommend that new graduates who go to work in acute hospitals do so in facilities that offer new grad orientation programs for them. these new grad orientation programs are specifically geared to address this kind of over sight that does occur in most nursing programs.

you have to understand that as your years in nursing go onward, new procedures are going to come along. what most hospitals do is introduce the hospital policy on how these procedures should be done--usually in inservice training sessions, but not always. then, it is up the nurses to do them. what you will find as you get some years of experience behind you is that there is a lot of practical crossover in performing some procedures. also, like learning to ride a bicycle, doing procedures over and over increases your dexterity and adroitness. once you get over your anxiety about them you begin to see some similarities in performing them.

  • Author

Thanks for the advice. I definitely plan on looking for a job that has an

8-12 week new grad orientation program. At clinical I always seek out opportunities to do any hands on skills or just observe if necessary. The problem I have found is that we have too many students per available RN's that are willing to teach us. Its hard to find a balance between being helpful, learning and feeling like we are in the way. Our experience is completely RN dependent and many of us have been paired with nurses that really want nothing to do with us or wont allow us near their patients. Not all of them, we have also worked with wonderful nurses that were excited to teach. But, unfortunately with our limited clinical time a 50/50 shot doesnt seem like its enough! Thats one thing I hope to always carry with me during my career, what it felt like to be a nursing student!!!!!!!

*SIGH* I know I'll get through it, I just needed to vent a little.

I will graduating in December of 2007 and I too feel like I know nothing...it's interesting because a year ago I thought I would be 'okay' !!! I work in a cardiac icu and have the luxury to be able to see many proceudres there and ask LOTS of questions - the one thing that I am told OVER and OVER though is that I will be okay - there is orientation and I can always ask questions in the future too!

one other thing - it seems like you have more ability than you give yourself credit for - youa re already trying to prepare your self for what to do and know that you are not going ot know some things and that can be scary. I am reminded many times that it's the nurses and/or students that are overconfident and don't ask questions that we should 'fear'

Good Luck and just have faith in yourself! :)

I was told by many nurses that when u graduate you will feel dum as a rock and that it takes years to be comfortable and not scared of what can happen today. So u r not alone it seems. I was also told that u will always have questions throughout your whole career because new things will be popping up everyday.good luck!

You're not alone. I work as a apprentice nurse in a CIC/CSU floor and there are so many things i'm not comfortable with. Although my experiences now are gear towards getting the hang of how it is to work in a critical care setting, I still need to do a EKG class with a ACLS class. I'm also going to graduate in may.

But there is also the clinical part where you get what you can get with the experience. I seem to be having a so/so experience for this last semester and it doesn't really help when the nurse that is taking care of the patient you've picked the day before has an orientee or apprentice following them around. You will learn more after you graduate and everyone starts from somewhere, right.

And as the previous poster said, ask questions.

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