LVN needs help with anxiety/fear in clinicals

GingerSue · Jul 28, 2008

First thought is - try to arrange for more opportunities to practice those skills.

Good for you to achieve A.

nurseshepherd · Jul 28, 2008

The best thing you can do is be prepared. Know your patients, your patients' medications and treatments, and have your day planned out so you can show them you are ready. As a former clinical instructor I can tell you most students deal with these same concerns, clinicals can be very intimidating. I work with some of my former students and even though they were rock-solid in their knowledge and skills they later admitted that they were a nervous wreck. Hopefully you will have supportive instructors who remember what it was like to be in your shoes. Best of luck to you and God bless. :nurse:

annaedRN, RN · Jul 28, 2008

I graduated last May (2007) with my RN...doing the LPN-RN through my local college. It was definitely a challenge to go back to being a student after being a LPN so long. I think that every person has some anxiety about clinicals no matter what their background/experience is. I found most things a refresher, but the ICU rotation was all new for me. Just remember your basics and you will be fine. You have a great foundation on which to expand your new skills on. I found that if I prepared by utilizing the skills labs or my fundamentals book, the skill itself was fairly easy. I learned SO much more than I ever thought I could...and realized that I want to keep learning too!

Hopefully your instructors will be encouraging and approachable. I found that if I approached them first and gave them the pertinent info ( labs, S/E, diagnosis, meds, tests...) it showed that I did my homework, and they did not drill me too hard. Also, showing organization skills, prioritizing and critical thinking are often more important to the instructors than the skills itself. Just be prepared for clinicals and you'll do great! :up:

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Jul 29, 2008

what would you tell a new grad lvn you were orienting who continually stood back not coming forward and doing procedures? something you need to realize, and i'm surprised this hasn't crossed your mind already, is that being an rn is more than doing procedures. maybe subconsciously your mind already knows that. as an lvn you always knew you had an rns shoulder to lean on and you know that pretty soon the buck is gonna stop with you. it's an awesome and scary thought. you've been a nurse long enough to know that getting good at procedures is all about practice, practice, practice. your bigger worry, i think, should be on how you are going to deal with emergencies and other problems that come up. procedures like ivs can be mastered over time. thinking and rationalizing how to deal with problems that come up is not as easily learned as sticking a needle in a person's arm--and once you make a decision that kills a patient you can't say, "oops, sorry", and do it over like you can with an iv. you can fail to volunteer to do procedures if you like, stand in the back of the group of nursing students if you like. after all its only school. but think about those patients of yours you said you don't want to hurt because you might not do something right. because you failed to volunteer or because you continually stood at the back of the group a patient's life may one day very well be in jeopardy because when the time comes that you are needed you won't know what to do or how to do it. school situations are your opportunities to fail in a safe environment. we learn most from our failures. the wrong place to fail is on the job and especially when you're doing something for the very first time. but if that's the way you want to go, hey, be my guest, but, no offense, i don't want you to be my nurse.

http://www.accd.edu/sac/history/keller/accditg/sspc.htm - procrastination

please don't misunderstand me. i'm not trying to be mean. i had a real problem with ivs myself as an new rn. i, an rn, took the lvn iv certification class for help and worked at this skill for many years, eventually worked on iv teams and became nationally certified as a crni. i also dreaded working with chest tubes when i worked on a stepdown unit and finally just immersed myself in learning everything there was to know about them. what i found was that i wasn't the only one with a fear of chest tubes and getting stuck assigned with a chest tube patient. procrastination can kill you. the cure--meet your fear head on. use your brain. learn all you can. look for every opportunity to practice and perfect your skills. when you master them, especially the harder ones, you experience a great sense of accomplishment and relief of the anxiety for yourself.

MimismomRN · Jul 29, 2008

Thank you to all for your thoughts and advice. I think I need to push myself through the fear and get as much experience as I can at the things I most fear. I hear what you are saying, the more you do things the more comfortable you will be with doing them. Thanks again to all.