Ideas for a clinical "cheat sheet" ?

[AOx1]

I am in the process of putting together a clinical "cheat sheet" for my first semester students. What information would you have loved to have had in a miniature booklet for clinicals? So far, I have:

normal vitals by age range

normal labs for adults

ABG info (trying to make it something they will use in later semesters)

mini skills review cards (injections, NG tubes, cath, etc)

small map of the floor they will be working on

helpful facility phone numbers

objectives for that rotation

my cell phone number

Any other suggestions??

[Silverdragon102, BSN]

Way cool, what a great caring instructor!!!! Can I get a copy of that to use to? Thanks!

Just look on page 2 as that is where I think you will find it

[owl_in_daylight]

Wow! Starting school in Jan for BSN and I just had my first extensive nursing dream last night.

It was quite frantic, but at the end there was one woman who told me to type up helpful notes to keep in my badge holder for easy use. Then I got my weekly allnurses email with the "cheat sheet" as one of the major topic headlines! Love it when dreams and reality come together so well!

[missy--kay]

That is amazing!! Thank you, thank you!!!

[BeenAroundTheBlock]

Skills: Accuchecks q______; trach care q_____; cath care q______;

[momicat]

Wonderful tool - thank you for sharing your brain cells - I am currently on winter break from LVN classes - this supplements what our class has been working on - with lecture and clinicals.

[LilJessieLynn]

These are all great ideas! You do sound like a great instructor...wish I would have had this during my first semester, and now in third. :) Kudos!

[stillinschool]

wow! what a nice clinical instructor

a big help to me ... i had an instructor who gave us something invaluable.... the top 10 nursing diagnosis we were probably going to see on the floor,,,, not worked out ... just the top 10... i guess looking back the real work WAS working out the goal, interventions and rationales, but it helped to know what the important stuff was so we could concentrate on that.

[CountyRat]

Important contact phone numbers (in addition to yours): labs, radiology, whoever changes burned out light bulbs, suicide prevention hotline, etc. O.K.; the suicide prevention hotline thing was just a bad joke, but the other phone numbers help. Our ID badges were blank on the back, so I made a list of frequently needed phone numbers and pasted it there. Used it often.

[kellyp374]

Room for them to list all the meds & what they are for, how they are given, etc.

Would love to see the final result - wishing someone would post some online clinical worksheets for us to use!

[Eaglelady]

I graduated May the 8th took Nclex July the 8th of this year so I have only been a nurse for 5 months but a book that has helped me so much (I wished I knew of it while in school) it is called "Nurse's personal preceptor" from Lippincott it is awesome--just a suggestion but I would not hestitate to recommend this book as part of any new nurse's library --mine stays with me along with the RN notes and IV med books---

[harleyridingirl]

I just graduated from Nursing school. The whole time the teachers talk about what is normal but no one really ever talks about what is not normal and important to look for and tell their nurse about finding. Also, no one really explains IV pumps in detail until later on and lots of times new students are asked to quiet the pump until the nurse can get to it because it's bothering the patient/family.

The drugs most used by that hospital/on that floor so the students can have those drug cards made up ahead of time is the best idea. My ob teacher gave us 40 drugs to have done before we even started class and that helped me a lot.

[pjb63]

Questions to ask regarding functional health patterns.