kat0408

I am a senior BSN student and completed an internship last Summer, so I have some experience from a student perspective. In my clinicals, I never had the opportunity to look at charts before shift report. So I'd just listen during report and write down anything I understood/whatever I could write down as fast as they were talking. I found this really helpful when I was just starting clinicals, because it really showed me what's important to nurses in each unit (I.e. ICU tells you all the vent settings, L&D tells you dilation/effacement/station, etc). As the shift started, I just would basically jump in and as my nurse was looking through the patient charts, I would follow along with them. If they were looking at labs, so was I. If they wrote something down from the H&P, so did I. This showed me more and more what each unit found important from their charts. Soak in every unit even if you don't think you want it after you graduate. You may think you know what you want but, also, you may fall in love with a unit unexpectedly. I also was never afraid to ask questions from things I saw in their chart. There was one patient I had who had labs that were way off and I was trying to reconcile what their symptoms were with the lab results. I suggested something it could be to my preceptor and she agreed, but we didn't have doctor orders to treat what I was concerned about. An hour later, we did. This was in my third semester of the program. I was super nervous to even suggest what I thought I was seeing, but I was right. Don't be afraid when looking at the chart to try to ask those hard questions and really critically think through what you know! I know this might not have fully answered the question, but I get it's overwhelming. It's hard to process it all. Once you get more experience, you'll get it down. I'm graduating in a few weeks and can't believe the same baby nursing student who walked onto a med surg floor for the first time a year and a half ago absolutely terrified is about to be a "real" nurse working with my dream patient population. It does get easier the more times you read charts, the more clinicals you have, the more experience you get. Trust the process! From one nursing student to another, you got this!!

I am still a student, but I love Danskos. They are so comfortable and I love that if I get something on them, I can wipe them off easily!

Hello! I am a student nurse going out of state to do an internship next Summer. I am having some difficulty finding housing for the three months I will be there. I mostly am finding 2 bedroom places, but am traveling alone. Travel nurses, how do you find housing? Is there any place that you can connect with other travel nurses who might be interested in living together in a 2 bedroom? Any advice would be great!