I Wish I Were A Walking Patho/Pharm Book and Drug Guide

[Soliloquy, MSN, APRN, NP]

So I've been on the oncology floor for Med Surg clinicals and I don't feel as though I'm getting enough skills. Fortunately, one of my other instructors lets us come hang with him on the ER and get skills there whenever we feel like it (and his schedule permits it). So I've been learning how to give shots, draw blood, etc.

But I'm nervous. While I'm learning basic skills, I still don't know how much of it pertains to nursing and tbh, I'm nervous that when I graduate I'll damn near be incompetent. Last year I took Patho/Pharm and while I passed with a C+ and then a solid B (I did amazingly on the final HESI exam) for the final semester , I feel like I don't really know anything and I'm at a loss for where to begin.

I wish I had better knowledge of documentation especially and that I knew every single thing there was to know about Patho/Pharm, every single drug there is on the market, it's dose, route, and time so that I'd feel so much better. I just feel like I don't know enough and that makes me uncomfortable. I wish I was a walking Patho/Pharm book and drug guide....

do you guys ever feel that way?

[Despareux]

I wish I was a walking Patho/Pharm book and drug guide....

do you guys ever feel that way?

Me too!

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

it may be helpful for you to know that nobody, nobody who knows anything at all about nursing expects new grads to be expert (or even experienced) in all those learning-lab-check-off tasks that nursing students so focus on-- the "shots" and ivs and foley cath insertions and all that stuff. give yourself permission to take advantage of what opportunities come your way and don't worry about the ones that don't. believe me, you will have plenty of chances to do your first xyz in your first year or so of practice. it is perfectly acceptable to say to your preceptor or other mentor, "hey, i see we have a lot of xyzs here and i've never had the opportunity to see/do one. can you keep your eye open for one for me?"

as for the walking patho/pharm book, that too will come in time. i used to put up a picture of the krebs cycle early on in my first pathophys lecture just to scare the pants off the students, then tell them that they do not have to memorize this. but they do need to know what it means and why we care. i went to a pretty darn good school of nursing and learned to love physiology in my second - fifth year out of school because i worked in a fabulous icu where everything we did, we had to know the physiology behind it, and it was assumed that we would like to know why the hell we did all the great things we were doing so they taught it to us. you'll get there.

again, nobody expects you to know it all in your first year. we actually get sorta nervous c new grads who think they do, come to think of it. keep asking to learn new stuff all the time, ask for the why's. if the person you ask doesn't know, or can't explain for toffee, ask someone else. knowing that you have a lot to learn will take you far. enjoy the ride!

[Soliloquy, MSN, APRN, NP]

Thanks you two especially the 2nd poster (GrnTea). I get a little concerned because whenever I ask my clinical instructor she says, "Figure it out." or "You'll figure it out." And walks off or looks away as if me asking wasn't my way of trying to figure it out. Makes me feel like I should've know the answer before I entered the clinical setting.

But thank you. I'll continue to try and learn as much as I can while I have the instructors and professors backing me.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

you might get further with an instructor like that if you approach her saying something like, "i have a question about abc. i read in the med/surg chapter on a that b and c are sometimes related to this, but then my xyz professor said blahblahblah, and i thought that maybe qrst, but i can't seem to see how those two fit together. can you point me in a better direction?"

then she isn't like some cranky old an guide who says, "don't just ask us all your questions, tell us what you have done to help yourself figure it out first and then we can help you.":jester:

[Soliloquy, MSN, APRN, NP]

you might get further with an instructor like that if you approach her saying something like, "i have a question about abc. i read in the med/surg chapter on a that b and c are sometimes related to this, but then my xyz professor said blahblahblah, and i thought that maybe qrst, but i can't seem to see how those two fit together. can you point me in a better direction?"

then she isn't like some cranky old an guide who says, "don't just ask us all your questions, tell us what you have done to help yourself figure it out first and then we can help you.":jester:

lol i'll be sure to try that. hopefully she's more receptive.