I have many questions about clinical as a student nurse. Please help? :)

[studentnurse711]

Hi everyone :) You may have seen my other post about taking initiative in clinical. I received such great advice that I wanted to post some other questions if you don't mind.

Here's how it works in my BSN program... Each student nurse is assigned to a RN. The RN has about 4-7 patients per day. We as student nurses have to pick one patient to do our care plans on. So here are some of my questions...

1. How can I organize my day so that I receive all of the needed information for my care plan, while still being able to shadow my nurse? Last week, I spent a LARGE amount of time with my patient and hardly shadowed my nurse at all, because I needed so much information from the patient.

2. Are patients generally open to student nurses asking them for their full health history (even though they have been asked multiple times before?) I feel so bad asking for their information if they've already been through the rounds. What do I tell them?

3. I have to complete my physical assessment of the patient within one hour of the shift. Should I do my assessment before I complete a health history on the patient?

4. How do I approach the hard questions to ask? For instance, we need to ask about sexual activity and religion. Those questions seem so out of place, especially when the patient has a roommate.

5. Last week, when I wasn't with my one patient, I was walking around and around the unit waiting for call lights. It got boring, and I didn't find myself being very productive. However, I didn't want to just sit at the computer. How can I make myself more useful?

Thank you so much everyone! I'm sure I have more questions, but I'll remember those later. :)

[NICU Guy, BSN, RN]

Most of the information for your care plan is in the Electronic Medical Records (EMR). Getting yourself familiar with what each section of the EMR contains the information that you need. Past medical history, current medical issues and religion are easily obtained from the chart. If time permits, ask your nurse or instructor to help you find the information in the computer, so that next time you will get quicker finding it and can spend more time with your patient and shadow the nurse.