It's all too fast.

NurseGirl525, ASN, RN · Mar 10, 2015

It sounds like to me you are very intimidated at your clinical and are messing up the basics and just walking away. You should not have walked away from drawing the blood. You can't be scared that you are going to hurt the patient. You need to get over that. Plus you try not to be around people who vomit? I understand it can be a bad smell but this is something you need to do as a third year student. We did it in fundamentals last semester. Puke is part of the job and always will be. You just get the patient cleaned up and his area clean. Believe me, the patient is very embarrassed by this. Our job is to make them comfortable about it and I don't think you are comfortable around patients at all. You may have to evaluate if this is the correct career path for you. Yes, you are a student. This is the time to make mistakes. But you are not really making mistakes on procedures, you are just walking away from uncomfortable situations. That is where I see this issue. You have to learn to be independent.

Lina1 · Mar 10, 2015

Thank you for taking your time to reply. I am not uncomfortable about patients vomitting or soiling themselves. But you're definetly right that I'm uncomfortable around patients because I dont know what to say or do of a situation comes up.

How do I become more comfortable and less intimidated?

im a shy person

i want to get better

vanilla bean · Mar 10, 2015

How do I become more comfortable and less intimidated?
im a shy person
i want to get better

You become more comfortable with more exposure to the uncomfortable events, not less. If you want to get better, you need to stick it out and push yourself beyond your comfort level. In addition to observing how other people perform physical skills, observe how other people interact with patients and each other and adopt practices that you think will help you. Dropping out, as you mentioned in your original post, will do nothing to help you get better. It would be just another manifestation of your knee-jerk reaction to want to bolt every time you get uncomfortable. Don't do it. Stick it out. Stand your ground and push through in those uncomfortable moments and you will get stronger and more confident.

RachRN11 · Mar 10, 2015

I think you need to just breathe and be kind to yourself. You haven't failed at those things you mentioned in your post. You are still a student and you are still learning.

I can also be an overly anxious person with the first gut reaction of running and quitting, but you have to dig deep and push yourself through uncomfortable situations. We've all made mistakes, a lot of mistakes, that's how we learn.

By the way, does BSL stand for blood sugar level? If so, next time have the patient put their hand in a dependent position (hanging down) so blood will go to the finger tips. You can also try a warm blanket to help dilate the capillaries. It's okay to not want to hurt the patient, but sometimes you have to cause a little pain. If it happens again, just laugh it off and try again.

Give yourself a chance to keep trying. If you need to, find a quiet corner, bathroom stall, or stock room to breathe and calm down for a minute or two. Then give yourself a quick pep talk and get back out there!

You got this!

Cruz.Cookie, BSN, RN · Mar 12, 2015

Get a job as a pct ...trust me it'll make THE difference!!

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Mar 12, 2015

Thank you for taking your time to reply. I am not uncomfortable about patients vomitting or soiling themselves. But you're definetly right that I'm uncomfortable around patients because I dont know what to say or do of a situation comes up.
How do I become more comfortable and less intimidated?
im a shy person
i want to get better

Look at it this way: If you knew everything already, you wouldn't be in school to learn it

One day of experience? Let me tell you about my first day in clinical. Well, not exactly mine, but a girl in my group. We got to the floor and got asked to pass breakfast trays. Piece o' cake. Except my friend took a tray in to a guy and he was stone cold dead in the bed. She had never been a nurse's aide and never seen a dead person. THAT's a bad first day experience! :facepalm:

Because we never, ever say, "Don't worry" to a patient, since doing so would tell him that his fears aren't justified and then maybe he'll never confide in us again, and that could be bad, I will not tell you not to worry either. I will tell you that what you are doing and feeling is something that many hundreds of thousands of nurses have done and felt in their early days of clinical. Look around the unit. Tell yourself that, see how they are working anyway, and let it give you encouragement and a little bit of laughing at yourself. In the words of the Cowardly Lion, "What have they got that I ain't got?" The answer isn't, "Courage," exactly, but it might be, "Confidence from experience." You WILL gain confidence as you gain experience in school. That's what it's for.

Because I can promise you that you will be confident, five or six years from now when they ask you to have a newbie student shadow you and you know that no matter how cool she is trying to look, she is shaking in her boots. You can tell her, "Let me tell you about my first clinical day. I thought I had to quit nursing altogether!" And she'll look at you, you supernurse, you, in her eyes, and she won't believe you. And you'll tell her about the blood glucose debacle, and then you'll say, "Let's go get this guy's accuchek, and we can talk about it."

See how that works?

Hang in there, kiddo. It gets better. Keep coming back to us. We can help. :hug:

rob4546, ADN, BSN, MSN · Mar 12, 2015

Except my friend took a tray in to a guy and he was stone cold dead in the bed. She had never been a nurse's aide and never seen a dead person. THAT's a bad first day experience!

Holy hell, that is a bad first day!!

futurenaijaRN, BSN, RN · Mar 13, 2015

I really love your reply and words of encouragements! I'm starting nursing school this May, please do you mimd being my mentor?

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Mar 13, 2015

Keep coming here. There are lots of good people to help you. You'll get to know us all!