My first Clinical class and how to best prepare for it

[Lawrence F]

Hi,

I go to a community college where they have an RN program, however I hear the dropout rate once you get into the program is very high, so what I did was buy the fall semester book along with test taking skills so that I can read them both over the summer. I keep hearing about critical thinking unlike any class that I've ever taken before. Can someone whose been through the mill before explain what they mean by critical thinking? I'm also scared because I don't want to be one of those statistics that fails and get's thrown out of the program after the first clinical. Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you

Lawrence

[Intern67]

Becoming a CNA sounds like an excellent idea except the hospitals that are near me are more likely to replace anyone who isn't a nurse than to get someone in to assist them.

In my personal experience, hospitals rarely hire inexperienced CNAs (nursing school or not.) Nursing homes, however, are often happy to hire them, especially ones accepted to nursing schools.

Nursing home CNA jobs are low paid, difficult, challenging, frustrating, and very highly rewarding. I learned so much during my two year tour in a crappy for-profit nursing home. So glad I did it and so glad I'm not there anymore (I finally got the coveted hospital job!)

Good luck!

[Lawrence F]

Thank you.

It's actually nice to hear some encouragine words once in awhile. I'm a little apprehensive as you can imagine but with the combination of using your fellow students, electronic case studies, I'll be well on my way to learning alot. I do need to ask you though 1 thing. What is the full name of that textbook that your raving about. I absolutely have to make sure that's a must purchase item. I hope you'll be able to tell me the name of the book and the author (or someone will); that would be much appreciated. It's funny back in my 20's when learning came easy I got great grades but didn't take a career too seriously. Now that I am, I find that I need to be twice as diligent to get a good grade as the rest of the class does. Or at least that's what I'm made to believe, I'm not sure:)

I'm in the m iddle of studying for an A&P final next Monday so I'm going to hop off for now and say thank you, I appreciate your help. If you know the name of the book and who the author of it is, i would be very grateful to you.

Thanks,

Lawrence

[Lawrence F]

Thanks again for the EXCELLENT heads up. Nursing homes didn't even register in my mind at first but your right. Experience is what I'm after. Thank you for waking me up.

[polka-dot, RN]

Tip #1: Know your physiology...if you paid attention in A&P, it's a LOT easier to learn the patho and know what to do

Tip #2: Get an NCLEX book and get used to the questions with 2 really good answers

Tip #3: Understand the nursing process....this is covered in Fundamentals Success, which someone else mentioned...great book!

Tip #4: Go with the ABCs...Airway wins every time!

Good luck!

[morningland]

I am almost done with my first year so I can offer some good clinical tips that will impress your instructor.

- For starters, understand that you are going to feel COMPLETELY lost and out of place your first couple days. You will feel like you don't belong but thats normal and it fades quickly.

- When you go into clinical, be ready to quickly introduce yourself to your patient, take a baseline assessment, gather labs, admiting diagnosis, get report from the nurse and formulate plan of care for the date. For example, if your patient is 1st day post op, your plan of care could be to ambulate the patient and teach about an incentive spirometer.

- For the love that all which is sacred and holy, COME PREPARED AN ON TIME!!! If it takes 30mins to drive to clinical, give yourself an hour. It's better to get to clinical and relax for a good 15mins before you walk in the door.

- Show your instructor that you are willing to work hard and learn

Clinical is not really that hard. You just have to follow the rules and be careful not to make mistakes and your should be fine.