Nervous....Starting Clinical Assistant Job

TiggerBelly · Feb 9, 2008

Hi everyone,
I am hoping to get into nursing school and wanted to get some hospital experience before I made the commitment. I was hired as a clinical assistant (nurse assistant/unit secretary) at a local hospital. I am very nervous because I have absolutely no experience in the medical field (I am switching careers from education to nursing). The training session is only three days long, and then I will work part-time, two days a week. People have been telling me it will be difficult for me to get the hang of things if I am only part-time. However, I have a second job that is better paying at the moment, so I am cautious to give that up. Can anyone give me some wisdom/words of advice/an idea of what this job will actually entail?? I feel very unprepared and am afraid I will make lots of mistakes in the beginning, because I am brand new to the whole hospital environment. Please help!!

I too totally switched careers when I started working in healthcare. I worked as a custom picture framer for 8 years before I became a CNA. I started off in Assisted Living and for the first two days I drove home near tears because I kept thinking to myself "what have I done?! I have no idea what I am doing!!"

As with all things new, it will take time to adjust to the new environment, routine, work load that you have. It took me a good month of full time work to really feel like I wasn't a burden on my fellow employees and that I wasn't going to seriously harm any of the residents.

Your job role will depend on your facility, however at the hospital I work at I bathe the total care patients, assist others with washing backs, lower extremities, help people to the bathroom, change linens, empty foleys and give results to nurse, assist with meals and also transport patients to the different departments (x-ray, endo etc). I also assist the nurses wherever needed such as dressing changes, inserting foleys, NG tubes etc.

Yes you will be physically and emotionally tired by the end of your shift, some days you will feel like you have been run over by a truck. But let me tell you something. Bad days seem to go away when the family of a dying patient thanks you up and down for your caring touch when you bathe their family member and that Thank you card you may get makes up for all the days when you feel as tho there just aren't enough of you to go around.

Yes this job is demanding. But I love it.

Good luck

codi1226 · Feb 9, 2008

Thanks Tigger, that really helps. I went to a nursing school info session this morning and they were stressing the importance of getting an aide job before nursing school so that when clinicals start, you will know what to expect. I know aides do a lot of the difficult "brunt" work and are a saving grace for both patients and nurses, and I am glad that I will get to experience that. I think it's really important that I see things from an aide's point of view before I go into nursing. I just can't wait to work with the patients. Thanks again for your input, it makes me look forward to starting this job because I know the hard work will be worth the rewards. :redbeathe

pagandeva2000, LPN · Feb 14, 2008

If you are also functioning as a unit secretary, expect some clerical functions to be included in your job function, such as possibly creating a medication administration record. This may mean picking up orders and documenting them so that the nurses can administer medications, taking messages, calling on the intercom to tell nurses that a call bell rang from a certain patient's room, paging the physician, calling the code teams, making appointments for discharged patients and filing. Good luck!