Need help with review for nursing students

[JaneyW]

Hi ortho nurses! I am finishing my MSN in education and am working on a project for nursing students. I am an OB nurse by trade, but am doing the project in ortho. I am student teaching at an ADN program that covers ortho only in 1st semester lecture. However, the students see ortho patients on the floor also in 3rd and 4th semesters. I am putting together a review self-study packet for the skills lab so these students can brush up on their ortho nursing skills.

So, I am askiing the experts (you) what you think nursing students (NOT new grads, but those still students) need to know when in their clinicals on the floor. Maybe you can give me a short list or something like:

1. Pt positioning

2. Pain control

3. dressing changes

Something like that or really anything you want to tell me. Again, I am not an ortho nurse and am in need of some real life input from the experts. Thank you!!!

[Practicalone, LPN]

I graduated back in July and then in October took a fulltime position at the Othopedic surgeons office at my hospital (I worked in OB before that). I wish that while in school that we would have learned more about the different types of orthopedic surgeries and the care that went along with them. As a student, I had my share of hip fractures and TKA's. It would have been nice to have a little bit more background on the terminology. There are days that I look at my docs and ask them to explain the procedure for me, because it truely is a language all its own. We do a lot of TKA's, Hips, broken arms, legs, rotator cuffs, carpal tunnel, meniscus tears, etc.

Transfers would have been a great instructional tool, different types of dressing changes, signs of infections and the lab work that will more and likely be ordered, a huge one that we've seen in our area is MRSA.

Ortho is such a huge area, that it is hard to get it all in, but brushing on a little bit would have been nice. What I learned about ortho in school was what I learned in clinicals. Good Luck!

[JaneyW]

Thank you!!