How did your clinicals start??

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Did your instructors throw you into it or did they sort of ease you into it?? I think the first couple of weeks we are pretty much just observing and not getting involved in patient care. Then we will be doing VS and basic skills after that (and hopefully learning more about how to document bc they keep telling us how important it is but they sure haven't gone into it that much in class!!). Eventually this semester we will be going to the hospital the day before clinicals to pick up our assignment and then provide pt care Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Is your program similar to this??:nurse:

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Ours is EXACTLY like that!! Sometimes I wish they'd go as slowly in lecture/lab as they do in clinicals!:lol2:

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My 1st day of clinicals is Friday. We found out today that we will get our 1st patient Friday!!!!!! We were told it would probably just be doing vitals but I wish the 1st day we could just observe. I'm excited, but also scared to death :eek:

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Our first day was last Thursday. We were very much thrown in. We got there at 6:45, met our patient and got report from the nurse and then were pretty much on our own. We (so far) are allowed to do vitals, head-to-toe assessments, and we just checked off on PO meds yesterday.

Our first day, we were doing all basic care. Bed baths, vitals, assessments, I&O, transfers, peri-care, etc.

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I remember the night before the first day of clincals i was SOO excited, but SOO flustered...ironing my uniform....making sure there were no stains...making sure my shoes were spotless(I can go on forever).

I was actually thrown right in lol sure my teacher says "just observe" but when the nurses ask for some help you get right in there and help out.

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Specializes in CVICU, CPCU, Cath Lab/IR.

We just started last week and we were thrown in! I felt a little overwhelmed but it all worked out. I am sure we will have more put on our plates this week. We were resposible for doing a head to toe assessment, 15 page data base, baths, lunch, vitals we just didn't pass meds yet. I think we are doing that this week. We had to go through the chart to get all the information needed to turn in care map on Tuesday.

It was crazy, but fun!

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Specializes in Future Nurse-Midwife.

We started clinicals two days ago. I am in an Associate Degree Program and will graduate May 2010

Our routine has been the same from day one and will continue to be that way.

We got to our unit and find out who our patient is for the day. Clinical starts at 6:30am. Since change of shift reports start at 7:15, we have about 45 minutes to look over our patient's chart and start filling out the "chart" that we have. We turn this in at the end of the day but it is not graded. Assuming that the residents or staff nurses do not have the chart, we really focus on getting the history from the chart, lab test results, and list of current medications. The medications then have to be looked up in either the pyxis or our drug guides on our pda.

After change of shift report, we go meet our patient. We take vitals and do a full head-to-toe assessment. Then we start with a bed bath ((if the patient is total care. If not, we let them do that on their own)), we give breakfast, and change sheets. Then we go sit down with our chart and write down our initial assessment findings, and come up with at least three diagnoses for our patient. From there we formulate a care plan and go back to the patient's room to start that. Vital signs must be taken every two hours and the patient is also re-assessed then. At the end of the day we chart the final evaluations of our care plan.

If the patient needs a foley, IV flush, Injection, Blood Sugar Testing, or anything else like that....we must do it in front of the instructor once and then after that we are on our own for the rest of the semester.

That is all. :)

I was so worried about it before we started, but it ended up not really being that bad.

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Yay!

I'm so glad I found this on the first page. I've been freaking out about my clinicals.

I have my first one tomorrow morning at a psychiatric hospital, and I have no clue what we're doing. I'm thinking we'll just be learning our way around maybe introducing ourselves to some patients, nothing too involved. It's Thursday's clinical that I'm really anxious about/scared of. We're being assigned one patient, and I just found out this person will be terminally ill. As for what we'll be doing...I have no idea! We're told we'll be observing and working alongside an RN, but it seems as though our instructor will be expecting us to do more.

I'm just so stressed out right now with everything else that's going on around here... lol It's the not knowing how things are going to be that's getting to me.

Good luck to all of you with your clinicals. Have fun! :D

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Ours started 4 weeks after the start of the semester...on tuesday mornings (which is when our clinical time is this semester) we had "lecture" and then we also went over things like drug math because we had to get a 90% or better on a drug calc test or else we wouldn't be placed into clinicals! as for the actual clinical, we were sort of "eased" into it...at least for me. we worked on therapeutic communication the first three weeks (some people with more difficult patients had to help with things like toileting, etc) then we switched over to the nursing home and now we're doing the "skills" aspect.

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Our first day of clinicals was orientation to the hospital and the unit.

The next week we were thrown into the fray! We were totally responsible for our patients, except any skill we were not trained to do (mostly IV related stuff). We got report, did vitals, got out patients ready for breakfast, did baths and bed making, I and O, toileting, Accu checks with instructor present, charting, passing meds with instructor present . . . you name it, we did it!

It was a total blast!

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Our first day was last Thursday. We were very much thrown in. We got there at 6:45, met our patient and got report from the nurse and then were pretty much on our own. We (so far) are allowed to do vitals, head-to-toe assessments, and we just checked off on PO meds yesterday.

Our first day, we were doing all basic care. Bed baths, vitals, assessments, I&O, transfers, peri-care, etc.

Ours is exactly like yours....

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We have been to clinicals at an LTC facility 3 times so far. The first time we were assigned a partner and the two of us had to provide AM care for one patient. Our patient had C-diff. At first everybody was all sorry for us, afterward they all wanted to know what we got to do for our patient and how it went. The 2nd trip we did vitals on 2 patients. The 3rd trip we did glucose testing on 2 patients and then assisited with feeding. In between we answered call lights, etc. It was pretty much sink or swim. The instructors were around, but with so many students to watch we do not see them that much.

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