nursing student discouraged

[Tsatalstrana]

Hi, I'm an LPN with one semester left in the RN program and wondering why I don't feel anything close to being an RN! I just clean patients and change their beds. The nurses I follow won't let me do hardly anything and my instructor just sits in the staff lounge and reads. I wondering why I even went back to school. I don't even want to finish my last term eventhough my grades are 4.0. Any help out there?

[Boog'sCRRN246, RN]

I'm also a LPN approaching my last term of RN school. I've found that with clinicals, if you tell the nurse you are with what you are able to do, and what is expected of you by your instructor, they are more receptive. Many times, the nurses have no idea what level you are at in school so they have no idea what skills you are capable of.

[~KelRN~]

Even as discouraging as that sounds I would stick it out. Your almost done.

Nothing worth having comes easy. Your hard work will pay off in the end. :)

[nlion87]

Be assertive and take initiative seeking opportunities to perform skills you have been checked off on but not yet performed in clinical. Once they see your assertiveness, they are more likely to take an interest and think of you when a learning experience arise

[dudette10, MSN, RN]

It sounds like the clinical expectations of your school are very low. Are you not expected to do head-to-toe assessments, give "report" to your instructor, and pass meds (with all that entails)?

It's also possible that the clinical sites do not have a good relationship with the school.

As for what you should do...you've come this far. How would you feel if you quit now?

[MrazFan]

Don't quit! You've worked too hard to just give up. In clinical, speak up to your nurses and ask for opportunities to do things. Tell them what you can and can't do and even if you can't do something, ask that they let you observe them doing it. Many times the clinical experience is what we make of it. You have to take charge of your learning and try to get the most out of it. We get such limited amounts of time in clinical anyway, so you're not going to learn/see/do everything there is, but you should be able to get a good grip on assessments, meds, IVs, wound care, etc.

I wish you the best of luck!

[shann106]

Don't quit. Your last semester usually includes preceptorship, where you work one on one with a nurse and you are pretty much given your own patient load.