LPN student on 2nd day of hospital clinicals

[student6]

I am an LPN student and I just got home from my second day of clinicals at the local hospital med/surg unit. Before this week we have only been to the CNA portion clinicals in a nursing home. I still feel a little unsure of my capabilities and unconfident in caring for a patient with little instructions. However, it seems that the RN and Tech staff seem to be disappointed and annoyed with us being there. I don't feel that I have enough experience to go into a patient's room and figure out what they need done during my shift. I want to excel and I try to ask the nurses on the unit if they need assistance with anything but most seem to say no or shrug me off. I felt extremely overwhelmed today as I was assigned a patient in a vegetative state with a trach and PEG tube, compression boots and he was on a therapulse bed(which I had never heard of until today). I did the head to toe assessment and then was having difficulty documenting in the computer because I was unable to access the program. I was on the phone with IT and while I was getting login information for the program, the RN and Tech completed his bedbath, bolus feeding, and the RT suctioned him. I had nothing to do with my patient the rest of the day except vitals. I'm trying my best to be the best nurse I can be but I just don't know how to go in to a room and feel confident enough to be by myself. HELP.

[astethescope&aplan]

Dive in!!!! the only way you get experience is to go and experience!and dont be bothered by the nursing staff they are gonna act like that until you prove you really want to be there, nobody wants a timid nurse if you are in te RN program i kno you know something so own that! that is a step that alot of people want to take and cant or havent so be proud of that! let that give you confidence. show them what you are made of!!!!

good luck!

[danny_RN]

Keep your head up. From reading your post I can tell that you care, which a lot of people lack. Likely that RN and CNA you mentioned didn't care! Don't take it personal when people don't treat you perfect, they are probably just angry at their job for other reasons and not upset with having nursing students. Look forward and keep trying, you'll make it! If you dont feel overwhelmed in nursing school then you don't need to be in nursing school! You mentioned that all you got to do for the rest of the day was vitals... So from this experience you learned something: Communicate with the nurse at the beginning of your shift. Tell him/her what you plan to do for the day; she probably didn't know what you were going to be doing that day! As a staff nurse, if I have students working with me, I can't sit around and wait all day when things need to be done. But, if I knew you were going to bathe the patient I can assure you that I would come find you if the patient needed to be cleaned!!!!! I'm sure the nurse would have loved for you to bathe the patient which would have been one less thing for her to do that day!

[tiredstudentmom]

Be straight forward with the Tech and RN. Let them know exactly what you can do and make it clear that you do want to help as well as learn. You can do this! Speak with your clinical instructor if need be or the clinical Team Leader if you guys do that sort of thing. Good luck to you! (I am about to embark on hospital clinicals as a SVN! Yikes! I commiserate with ya!) :hug: You got this!

[sleepdeprived1]

Wow! I know EXACTLY how you feel!! i am in my 4th semester nursing clinicals and have to say every clinical experience is different and new and without prior hospital experience alot of the equipment and hands on clinical being thrown in there to sink or swim can be completely overwhelming and intimidating..we as students should not and cannot have all the answers until we have practiced for years..so why do schools insist on doing clinicals in this way?? i do not think it is fair for the patient either..all i can say is be as confident as you can and ask instructor as many questions as you can..it sounds like ur patient had a lot goin on dont feel bad u dint get to it all..theres always next time..and whats more important than performing skills is the critical thinking aspect of providing planning care for ur patient...good luck!!