How to not suck at clinical

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Hey everyone,

It's my first semster in nursing school and i get so nervous and seem so doofy when i'm at clinical, while other people seem so calm, collected.

Any tips on how to calm my nerves?

Thank you :)

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Hey everyone,

It's my first semster in nursing school and i get so nervous and seem so doofy when i'm at clinical, while other people seem so calm, collected.

Any tips on how to calm my nerves?

Thank you :)

You're comparing your insides to their outsides. The key phrase is that they SEEM calm & collected. They're likely as nervous as you......and might even thing that they wish they were as calm & collected as you.

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Pay close attention to your individual clinical instructor: what does she seem to focus on? What is important to her? What does she say to bring to the facility?

I found that preparing well the night before + a good night's sleep went a long way. For early morning Clinicals, because I am not a morning person, I ended up buying several alarm clocks. I don't want to arrive late because if I do, it would start my day off as worried and flustered. I have my scrubs cleaned and laid out the night before along with my ID badge, extra pens, and other items.

Never forget to do the little-but-important things: hand washing when entering room, checking ID band and ask their name, following agency policy (in the nursing home here it was "never wear gloves outside patient's room").

For us, being prepared to give meds was a big deal. So learn how to pick out the important stuff from your drug books efficiently. Make note cards or use a PDA based drug book perhaps. Find out what works best for you. DOUBLE check drug allergies -- I've seen horrible mistakes in patient charts where somehow it was never noted pt was terribly allergic to a drug and the RN was seconds away from injecting the drug into the pt's IV. It's ok to ask the patient if they have any drug allergies! Also double check compatibilities for IV lines. Never assume the nurse before you checked or that the med order doesn't have conflicts.

Never be afraid to ask questions. The nurse's aide and the primary nurse know your patient far more than you do, so don't be scared to ask a "stupid" question. It might be as simple as "how does this geriatric patient transfer?" or something like that.

And just take a deep breath! Your instructor knows you're a beginner, and it's her job to help you in your learning process. Clinicals can actually be a lot of fun. You'll have a lot of time to spend with your patient, probably more than you'll ever have as a nurse. It's a great time to work on your assessment skills and practicing educating patients. And anytime I see anything new (treatment, equipment, etc), I ask my instructor or the primary nurse what it is, because some day I may need to know about it.

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Good question, fake it until you really are calm and cool! My friend suggested that I pretend I am the instructor and that the other students and my clinical instructor were actually the lucky ones to be able to watch my superior skills!

I also found that watching all the other students perform their procedures helped me feel more comfortable in doing them myself (PICC line drug pushes, caths, injections). You can learn a lot from watching your fellow students' experiences.

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Thanks everyone for your input!!

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Good question, fake it until you really are calm and cool!

:nono: DO NOT do this! This is really bad advice. Don't ever act like you know how to do something if you really don't. Nursing is dealing with life and death, not playing charades. You will always be learning as a nurse! If you don't know the answer, ASK!!

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:nono: DO NOT do this! This is really bad advice. Don't ever act like you know how to do something if you really don't. Nursing is dealing with life and death, not playing charades. You will always be learning as a nurse! If you don't know the answer, ASK!!

I understood the post to say "fake confidence" not fake knowing a skill. Faking confidence doesn't mean pretending to know something you don't (in fact, a confident person would feel free to ask questions)....but to not walk around trembling and timid. It just means to walk tall, head held high....that drill.

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:nono: DO NOT do this! This is really bad advice. Don't ever act like you know how to do something if you really don't. Nursing is dealing with life and death, not playing charades. You will always be learning as a nurse! If you don't know the answer, ASK!!

Clearly I'm not suggesting to fake knowing a skill and risk endangering the patient....I'm talking about remaining calm, cool, and collected in efforts not to show your nervousness.

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:nono: DO NOT do this! This is really bad advice. Don't ever act like you know how to do something if you really don't. Nursing is dealing with life and death, not playing charades. You will always be learning as a nurse! If you don't know the answer, ASK!!

I agree with the previous posts... I don't think the OP doesn't know what they're doing. I'm sure they know the procedures well and would ask for help if they didn't. It's the nervousness (due to "what if's", etc.) they want to improve on. You can still know what you're doing but want psych yourself out in order to appear calm, collected and confident for the patient and yourself.

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Specializes in MPH Student Fall/14, Emergency, Research.

Pro-tip: If you're inserting your first foley, don't let it look like you're inserting your first foley :up:

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