How do nurse clinical usually work?

[ImThatGuy]

I think the question asks it all.

You show up at the hospital or whichever setting with your handful of stuff. Then what? Grab charts and go at it? Shadow someone around the whole time? Shadow at first then do on your own? I'm curious.

[ImThatGuy, BSN, RN]

I think that is what might confuse you. Unlike med students and EMT's you don't just help a patient, then move onto another patient. I use to think nursing was like that. When you're a nurse, you are that patient's nurse for the entire day. You are the only nurse that is responsible for that patient all day (for your 12hr shift). Think about something like Labor and Delivery. After the baby is born, they are moved to the maternity ward aka postpartum floor. They spend 2-3 days there recovering. They are your patients for those 2-3 days and only you for that shift. If there is couplet care you will be fully responsible for the care of their child as well for your shift (whether the baby is in the room or the nursery). You will be the only nurse to care for them, the only nurse to give meds to them ect.

I know. That's why I made that crack about EM (emergency medicine) or the emergency department rather. They're only there for a few hours (usually).

[cmonkey]

I think you can read and understand something without first filling out a form. Thanks for the input though.

If that were the case, don't you think that most if not all schools would operate that way?

[ImThatGuy, BSN, RN]

If that were the case, don't you think that most if not all schools would operate that way?

Most schools involve only class work in which you can really only be tested with tests. I don't see how a gathering of documents is really a test, but oh well. What do I know?

[mammac5]

ImThatGuy...

Are you interested in becoming a nursing student?

[cmonkey]

Most schools involve only class work in which you can really only be tested with tests. I don't see how a gathering of documents is really a test, but oh well. What do I know?

Most schools aren't doing practical training, they're concentrating on theoretical. Nursing schools need to concentrate on both.

Also consider that no amount of class time can prepare you for the myriad medical situations in a hospital/clinic/warzone, and individual assigments are critical to exposing you to different experiences.

I think there's also a not-small aspect of weeding built into these assignments. There are people who will quit school over having to "gather documents", and frankly, I don't want a nurse who isn't willing to put the time into understanding why I'm on their floor and what my care involves. But to each his own.

[ImThatGuy, BSN, RN]

I'm all about understanding pathophysiology, pharmacology, etc.

[guiltysins]

I'm all about understanding pathophysiology, pharmacology, etc.

If you're going into a hospital as a student after only being in those classes for 6 weeks, you're not going to know what every drug does to every part of the body just yet. You might get a patient with a disease you've never even heard of in class. So how would you be able to provide care? A pharm and patho class aren't going to teach you about every condition and every drug you'll come in contact with or the class wouldn't just be one or two semesters long.

[ImThatGuy, BSN, RN]

If you're going into a hospital as a student after only being in those classes for 6 weeks, you're not going to know what every drug does to every part of the body just yet. You might get a patient with a disease you've never even heard of in class. So how would you be able to provide care? A pharm and patho class aren't going to teach you about every condition and every drug you'll come in contact with or the class wouldn't just be one or two semesters long.

Yeah, I kind of wonder why clinicals occur while didactics do. It seems like you'd finish the didactics first before progressing into a clinical setting. Having the curricula of patho and pharm horizontally aligned sounds reasonable with clinicals after completion, but once again I'm only a layman. What do I know? Oh well. Moving onto another thread. Thanks for the replies!

[kk83]

Do clinicals usually take the place of the skills lab? Like, if I had lab from 7 - 1, would I instead be at my clinical location for that time frame? Are clinicals 12 hour shifts?

[whichone'spink, BSN, RN]

Do clinicals usually take the place of the skills lab? Like, if I had lab from 7 - 1, would I instead be at my clinical location for that time frame? Are clinicals 12 hour shifts?

In my school, we did skills first before we were assigned to our units. Skills took up half the semester and the other half was spent in clinicals. My school has 8-hour shifts, morning and evening.

[That Guy, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

Do clinicals usually take the place of the skills lab? Like, if I had lab from 7 - 1, would I instead be at my clinical location for that time frame? Are clinicals 12 hour shifts?

Depends on the school. Mine has skills lab all through the 1st semester as well as clinicals. It made some days very long.