Med surg 1 clinical

**NICU Guy, BSN, RN** · Apr 24, 2017

Is it common for Med/Surg 1 clinical to be at a nursing home? no. Our Intro to Nursing clinical was at a nursing home. Med Surg 1 and Med Surg 2 clinicals were at a hospital on a Med/Surg floor. It is common for your first clinical course to be at a nursing home doing CNA work. It is a way of getting you used to patient contact and care (irrelevant to you but not to your other classmates.)

Double-Helix, BSN, RN · Apr 24, 2017

Is this your first clinical experience? Each school will have different names, so you can't really rely on the name of the clinical to determine the content. In general, your initial clinical experience is an intro to basic patient care. Vitals, ADLS, and assessments are essential functions that a nurse must perform correctly. These skills also allow the student to gain comfort interacting and communicating with patients. (By the way, head-to-toe assessments are absolutely an RN skill, not a CNA skill. Performing/documenting assessments is not within the scope of practice of a CNA.) It may seem trivial to you, given that you're already a CNA, but the nursing program is designed for those students without prior healthcare experience as well. There are always things to learn, practice or improve in any clinical- don't get caught up in the I know it allâ€ attitude when you're only just beginning your nursing education.

~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN · Apr 24, 2017

Our first clinicals were LTC. They weren't considered med/surge clinicals so that might just be how your school classifies it. But it was very similar. More so helped with patient care and you already having that experience probably aren't going to learn a whole lot. If this is the same thing that goes on once you move to hospital clinicals I would be more concerned.

Susie2310 · Apr 24, 2017

My first semester ADN clinicals (over 20 years ago) were entirely hospital based in acute care, as were most of our clinical rotations throughout the program. Under our clinical instructor's supervision we provided total care to our assigned patients from the second week of classes. Once we had been checked off in skills lab on new skills we were responsible for performing these skills during clinical on our patients under our clinical instructor's supervision. There was never the opportunity to feel one wasn't learning anything; we were constantly being challenged (bombarded) with new information. My ADN training provided me with a solid foundation in acute care hospital bedside nursing.

englishgarden · Apr 25, 2017

Trust me you will be getting busier! Use this time to advance your assessment skills, study your pharmacology, and look up all those abnormal lab and microbiology results that abound in nursing home. Start reading up on trach care and how to stage a bed sore!

It's up to you to make sure you are always learning.

C0SM0 · Apr 26, 2017

Your experience is very similar to what I experienced during my Med/Surg I clinical. Just to verify, My Med/Surg I is the second semester nursing course. Our instructor had us do nothing but CNA tasks the entire semester including vitals, ADL assistance, changing linens, and yes, bed baths. While I completely understand that having these skills is a vital part of nursing, I was half way done with nursing school and had no experience with actual nursing duties. I hadn't gotten to pass meds, do an assessment, or any other skills learned during the first semester. Luckily, my third semester instructor was much better and I finally got some experience in putting those skills to use. I would explain to your future clinical instructors about the areas you'd like to get some experience in, and they should make sure you get what you need.