Not prepared for clinical!

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It's my Second semester, first clinical rotation, second week. My intructor contacted us tonight to say she had an "emergency" can't make it to the hospital tonight to prepare our clinical assignment so we are just going to go in tomorrow morning "cold"

I am so nervous about being totally unprepared and knowing nothing about my patient and what to expect.

Any suggestions as to how I can prepare myself for this?

Thanks!

Specializes in Med/Surg, Tele, Critical Care.

Flag the drugs in your book that you most commonly see used at the hospital... for example, if it were me I would flag things like lopressor, lisinopril, darvocet, lovenox, rocephin, etc.. so it's quicker when you go to look them up. And be sure to get to the floor early, maybe you can look up labs and history while waiting for report?

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I think all programs should make the students go in cold. Just like the real world of nursing. You have no idea what you are gonna get until you get to your unit and see your assignment. You get report and take your load and go on with your day or night.

It serves no purpose to go to the hospital and look up your pt info beforehand. And it makes no sense to have 1-2 pts throughout nursing school either. This is why alot of students have trouble making the transition from nursing school to the real world of nursing.

If you are worried about meds, look them up as you go. Most hospitals have drug reference manauls connected to their eMARS.

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Specializes in LTC.

Every clinical in nursing school we went in ICE COLD! Except for OB(we knew what to expect the next day because the instructor would tell us whether we would be assigned to the delivery room, nursery or postpartum floor the day before)

It was scary and to be honest, I dreaded going into clinical because I had no clue what would be ahead of me for the day.

I had one patient. Sometimes I had another student from my clinical group with me and if it was some certain one who I strongly disliked his working ethic... I was basically working by myself.

I am a new LPN in a long term care facility and learning everything about the residents on the unit that I am on is a little difficult but I'm getting there.

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We always went in cold too - grabbed the chart after briefing and write down the diagnoses, note his history and allergies, and then go do your assessment. Don't panic - its likely better this way! You don't get prepped the day before in the real world...enjoy it!

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Specializes in being a Credible Source.
It's my Second semester, first clinical rotation, second week. My intructor contacted us tonight to say she had an "emergency" can't make it to the hospital tonight to prepare our clinical assignment so we are just going to go in tomorrow morning "cold"

I am so nervous about being totally unprepared and knowing nothing about my patient and what to expect.

Any suggestions as to how I can prepare myself for this?

Thanks!

It looks like today was the day... I'll be interested to hear how it went.

What I would've told you was to relax... in our case, our entire clinical experience was this way... our instructor would show up an hour before we did and assign us our patients. We knew nothing about them until report. It was a little nerve-wracking in the beginning but it was good training... that's how things are in real-life.

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I wish I would have had that problem when I was in school. Except very rarely, we had to go the day before to choose our patients. Then there was a mountain of paperwork to complete before morning, which meant I always arrived at clinical after very little (or no) sleep. This left little time to actually focus on the patient's diagnosis and just study it.

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Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.

We don't have to have our CI with us to do our patient research. We just have to have on our scrubs and badge and let the Charge Nurse know we are there to pick our patients. If our patient is discharged we have to pick a new one. We have these really extensive Patient Sheets we have to fill out for each patient and we have to pick 2. Have a separate lab sheet for all labs, values, what they are for and why your patient would have abnormal ones.

I know for our school, the reason we don't do it during clinical shift is, they don't want us spending clinical time doing them, they want us to be prepared and have a good idea of what we will need to do and how to prioritize for our pt and practice charting. I am glad we are free to do the research whenever we want, I have evening clinicals so I go in a few hours early on the day of and get it done.

I did have a pt that ended up being discharged by the time I got to clinicals before though and it wasn't bad. Didn't take long to skim the chart and get a good idea of what was going on and then go in and do my assessment and talk to them. Good luck!

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well... Just to let you all know... It really wasn't that bad going into Clinical "cold" I was so nervous about not knowing my stuff, but If you really concentrate on what the "main focus" of all patients. A,B,C and Safety... You just apply that and see how their condition/diagnosis compromises these assesssments.

However, I was a little nervous when my instructor would approach me and ask stuff like..."how does his diabetes affect this condition, How does this med affect this or that, how does this effect electrolytes... ect.

It is hard to think of this stuff off the top of your head without reading up on stuff "already learned" (but seem to forget) But... overall, I think it's a good way to keep you on your toes! :)

thanks for all your insight!

Bea

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