NA Student, first time at clinicals! Help!!

[amyx1018]

So, today was my first day of clinicals and hell it was way different than labs in the class. Today, I had such a hard time lifting up a resident from their wheelchair to the bathtub. The resident was really heavy, 104lb or 104kg, I'm not sure but all I know is, I couldn't lift her up. I always had my partner help me and I feel like such bother to her, I feel bad. I'm tiny too, but I saw a CNA today lifting a resident with no problem and she was probably as tiny as me. How does this happen?! And when I first stepped in the residents room, my mind was blank, everything I learned was erased, were you guys like this too on your first day of clinicals?

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

First, 1 kg. = 2.2 pounds. If your patient was 104 pounds, she was small. If she was 104 kg., she was large. Please don't try lifting large patients on your own, especially if they're not able to help. Physical therapists can teach you some tips and tricks to help get larger patients out of their chairs independently, but you don't want to try it if you don't know the tricks. That's how you get career-ending injuries. (Said the nurse who had such a bad back injury that until she had surgery, she couldn't walk!)

I've never been a CNA. But I remember my first clinicals in nursing school -- and my first job. I was scared spitless. I didn't know how to talk to patients and was scared to death to say anything that might be the wrong thing. So I didn't say anything. (You can imagine what the patients thought of a tall, silent student who was afraid to even catch their eye!). I couldn't remember how to take vital signs, had no idea what I should be doing and if I could think of something I should be doing I was too frightened to be able to think of how to do it. I was a mess!

Being scared, feeling stupid, forgetting everything you thought you had learned -- all normal. Not fun, but normal. Even some of your peers who look as if they have it all under control may be feeling the same way, whether they admit it or not. But here's the thing about being new -- it passes. (Assuming you stick with it, of course.). Feeling scared, stupid or anxious passes. You start feeling comfortable with the patients and the tasks. One day, you even start to feel confident. It will come!