I did something in clinical that may fail me? Pls read.

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I have an instructor who is really mean, today at clinical. He told me I had total care of my patient. But he said he wanted to see me pass meds. I passed meds and he said I did great. Well, not thinking I saw my patient needed wound care and the nurse told me how to do it and I did it. And then I charted it with her. My instructor is suppose to check off on all our charting. He didn't say anything to me but one girl who's repeating the class because he failed her at clinical said he'll get mad and try writing me up because he would have want to see It. I then asked the nurse and she said he may be upset. I get checked off in lab and at another clincial by a different instructor and thought it was ok but now I'm worried next week he may write me up or worse fail me

Any advice?

The wound was from a cast, was to be cleaned with ns, honey and 4x4 and gauze. I don't know what I was thinking and this is why I hate clinical because I get so nervous I do dumb things that makes me seem incompetent. I don't know if he saw my charting or not but he didn't say anything to me but thinking next week he will. He just gets really mad and failed alot of students over not knowing one med.

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Does anyone have any advic

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The instructor would have wanted to see your charting first, or watch you do the wound care? I'm assuming you're using some kind of electronic charting?

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Yes, we use electronic charting. The nurse told me how she did it and I did it and afterwards, the nurse and I charted. He's suppose to sign off on our charting by the time we leave. I'm afraid now because I think he should've been there with me and will get upset.

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Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.

First, you cannot control the past. Moving forward, be very sure you know what your instructor wants.

Second, you describe him as 'really mean' and failing students for 'not knowing one med'. I doubt he is actually mean, but rather strict in what he expects from students. The two are different. And you have no idea what students get failed for- only what they tell you. In my experience, students minimize their shortcomings/ failings around such topics.

In summary: Make sure you are crystal clear on expectations, head down and do your best. It's all you CAN do.

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That's a good point, but do you think I should bring this up that I did a wound treatment without you? Or see what he says? He's very protective over his liscense which he should he and I feel like he'll be upset if he knows I did this without him being there. I don't know if he knows or not but I know he have to approve our charting and he seemed in a good mood that day and let us all go home we early.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

I swear the hardest part of clinical is not knowing what is okay to do alone or with the nurse and what the instructor wants to be involved in. Has he ever said that he wants to be there for all dressing changes? Honestly if he is checking your charting and didn't say anything I would think you are fine. The rule in my clinical is all meds and anything to do with the IV pump (even just silencing) needs to have the instructor with you. Otherwise they say at this point we should know if we can competently do something or not. I'm in the 3rd semester. first and second semester we couldn't do anything really without an instructor. I would just ask him, say that you thought it was fine to do dressing changes at first alone but after thinking about it you wanted to double check and realize you should have checked with him first to make sure before doing one.

Though it might seem like someone got kicked out for not knowing one med it probably was an accumulation of things.

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He didn't specifically say anything about dressing changes about wanting to be there. But one of the students he failed who's with us now says he will get mad if he's not there during all care. Plus, I'm only in LPN school. I thought it would be ok. Though he hasn't said anything, and the nurse I was assigned to also said maybe he should've been there. So now I'm terrified. I go back to clinical Thursday.

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He didn't specifically say anything about dressing changes about wanting to be there. But one of the students he failed who's with us now says he will get mad if he's not there during all care. Plus, I'm only in LPN school. I thought it would be ok. Though he hasn't said anything, and the nurse I was assigned to also said maybe he should've been there. So now I'm terrified. I go back to clinical Thursday.

If you did something wrong yes tell him. If not then leave it alone. You have a big mouth. Stop telling the repeater everything or anything. Do things by the book stop stressing so much! You sound like you will be a good nurse! So, good luck in your classes and your future Endeavours.

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Lol I know I'm a big stresser but it's because I want this and honestly I don't know if I did something wrong or not. And don't want to open up a can of worms. He should've definitely saw my documentation knowing I did it. That's why I'm asking how to go about it? And asking ng did it sound like I was wrong?

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You have to find out your schools policy. For our school, we are allowed to assist the nurses if the professor isn't there such as (for wound care) hold the patient, hand the nurse the materials, hold the patient's hand. But we are not allowed to actually touch the wound without the teacher there. So find out what your school's policy is. As for documentation, us student's have our own documentation we write that goes into the chart that gets signed off by our teacher every night. If your nurse did her own documentation and you just reminded her of some things she missed, then that is fine. If you did your own documentation and your teacher didn't sign off on it, then that's a problem because you are not an RN, and you're not allowed to document anything without a teacher who is an RN sign off on it. But these are policies that your school should have gone over with you before clinical. If they did not go over the policies with you before clinical, then that is their wrongdoing. Your school technically should have handed out a rule book, and if they have then it was your responsibility to read it.

Remember, you are a student nurse and will be making mistakes. You did nothing to jeopardize the life of your patient. And just make sure to think about if you're allowed to do something next time you jump in. Good luck with the rest of nursing school and I hope everything works out!

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You have to find out your schools policy. For our school, we are allowed to assist the nurses if the professor isn't there such as (for wound care) hold the patient, hand the nurse the materials, hold the patient's hand. But we are not allowed to actually touch the wound without the teacher there. So find out what your school's policy is. As for documentation, us student's have our own documentation we write that goes into the chart that gets signed off by our teacher every night. If your nurse did her own documentation and you just reminded her of some things she missed, then that is fine. If you did your own documentation and your teacher didn't sign off on it, then that's a problem because you are not an RN, and you're not allowed to document anything without a teacher who is an RN sign off on it. But these are policies that your school should have gone over with you before clinical. If they did not go over the policies with you before clinical, then that is their wrongdoing. Your school technically should have handed out a rule book, and if they have then it was your responsibility to read it.

Remember, you are a student nurse and will be making mistakes. You did nothing to jeopardize the life of your patient. And just make sure to think about if you're allowed to do something next time you jump in. Good luck with the rest of nursing school and I hope everything works out!

Usually, in our clinical we are allowed assess to the computer and chart and our teacher sign off on it. They can see what we've done, so I'm guessing he has seen it or was alerted don't know how that works. Since he said we had to do everything for our patient. I felt competent to do the wound care because it was like a scab and was just clean with normal saline and put honey based and dressing and tape. I just feel like I've messed up. I wanted to tell him the day it happened but some classmates were like just don't say anything because he might fail you for it.

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