Mell Bell

Thank you guys so much for your replies, it honestly made me feel a lot better, I needed it. I'm going to go in there today and try to be assertive and find things to do. I feel prepared, so hopefully today will be better.

I am in my second semester of a RN program, on a basic med-surg floor. I love my clinical preceptor, my group, the hospital, but I feel as though whenever I am there that I am sort of "bothering" my patients and the nurses on the floor. Today I walked into my patient's room while the nurse was in there hanging an IV to introduce myself, and neither one of them said a word. I asked the nurse if she needed help with anything, she said "no", and I didn't see her much the rest of the day. It was our first day, so my preceptor told me I could do a head to toe assessment on my patient if I wanted, but my patient was going through heroin withdrawal and I chose to leave her alone. Thinking back, maybe I should have assessed her? I just feel like I have such little experience and I don't know what I'm doing. I second guess myself, should I assess if the nurse assessed 20 minutes ago? I feel like I'm annoying the patient. I mean, all I can do right now is assessments, PO meds, ADL's, ambulation... and if all of that is getting done by the nurses and techs who don't need or want my help, I just don't know what to do. I really just had a bad day and want some advice. Any response is welcome.

I am a new nursing student, doing a clinical on an ortho floorr. My patient is in traction, history of COPD, GERD, asthma, diabetes, hypertension. So I'm trying to think of simple interventions, like cough and deep breathe every 2h. I just don't know what other nursing interventions I can perform other than keeping him clean, dry, and comfortable?? We can't do foley care or anything but PO meds. So I get vitals, do assessment, and then I don't know what to do? Help!

OMG, they just left the room and hid!? I am pretty scared about haivng to call a code as well. I have been on the hospital floor for only 2 clinicals, and I got home and realized that I don't even know what button to press if my patient codes. Nobody went over that with us, and I was too busy assessing and doing things for my patient to observe where the actual button is. First thing I do today will be to go in my patient's room and scope out the code blue button.

I'm a little confused, there are only 6 of you in the program? Or is it just 5 girls in particular that are in this little clique? Either way, you should NOT let them get to you, at all. You are there to learn, not to be best friends with these women. Don't be rude, just be polite, get done what you need to get done, give your presentation with confidence, and go hang out with your friends afterwards. Don't medicate to get through it, you don't need to, just know your material and focus on that, don't even think about these women. It sucks to be in a situation like that, but you have to just have confidence in yourself and let people like this roll off you.

Thank you for your reply, I really like checking cap refill by leaving a ring with the stethoscope - I will definitely use that.

I am in my first hospital clinical rotation (orthopedic floor), and the main things we are doing is passing PO meds, physical assessments and vital signs. My question is, when you start working as an RN, do you actually do things like PERRLA and test strength (strong against resistance, strong against gravity...) and Range of motion every time you assess a new patient? I'm just a little foggy on how nurses actually go about assessing once they're in the field, I don't see any of the nurses on the floor assessing they way we are being taught. Can anyone give me a general idea of how you assess your patients? Step by step, or any tips would be so helpful.

This is the best.

I just finished the long term care rotation, and tomorrow is the first day on the hospital floor. I am so nervous, I feel like I'm just not going to know what to do. I really just need some encouragement, tips on what to do and what NOT to do. Or any personal experiences would be really helpful.

You have to find out what works best for you. I'm not a study group person, I have to have silence and I have to read everything. What I usually do is read and highlight the chapters first. Let that sit for about a day, and then go back and take notes on what I high lighted. Study those through a few times, go over things I don't quite understand. Then I'll go over the notes that I took in class, and the notes that were sent out by the professors. To not get distracted: turn my cell and computer OFF - I will procrastinate on Facebook if I don't. Also, if you start to read sentences over and over and just are not paying attention - move to another chapter or topic. Hope this helps :)

I'm in my first semester of an "evening-track" program: Mon: fundamentals lecture 5-9:30 Tues: pharmacology 3-6 Wed: Lab 5-9 Thurs: clinical 3-10 Fri: clinical 3-10 We have to go during summer, but the "day-track" at my school has summers off.

Got the results, I got an 84%, and I got the question wrong The answer that I forgot was "Patient complains of nausea", and that's the right answer. If you administer a feeding to a patient who says their stomach hurts, there's a high risk of them vomiting, which brings about more problems. I'm kicking myself for not getting it right - I should have known that! 200mL after 4 hours is not too high, but what you would do is just put back 150mL of the residual. (One of my clinical professors told me that she always puts ALL of it back, but for tests 150mL is the correct amount.) Hopefully this will help someone else out!

This was a test question yesterday, and it's really bothering me. You go to administer a patient's g tube feeding, for which situation would you hold the feeding? A. patient complains of constipation B. you ausculatate swoosh of air over abdomen when administering 30cc air bolus C. residual is 200mL when last feeding was 4 hours ago I forget the last answer - but I put C. If residual was that high after 4 hours, wouldn't this mean that the stomach was not adequately emptying, or that there is a blockage?

Death bothers me too, you can go insane thinking about it. You have to just accept that it's a part of life, everyone dies. But that's easier said than done. It might be helpful to do a little research on different religions and how they view death, maybe you'll find something that will help. Also, try not to spend too much time thinking about it, get your mind off it and go out and do something fun.

Aw, come on, we do have lives!!:)

I am just finishing my first round of clinicals. It was at a long term care facility, and the first couple of days I was absolutely terrified, uncomfortable, nervous...I didn't know how to talk to actual patients, I felt like I didn't know ANYTHING. But now I don't want to leave, I love it so much! The best advice I can give you is to never say no to doing something new. If a nurse or CNA asks you to do something or to help her out - do it! You will learn the most from the nurses that are working at the facility every day. Watch how they interact with the patients, and always ask questions. If there is something in particular that scares you, confront it, get in there and do it. I was terrified to feed the patients that couldn't feed themselves. The first time I was asked to feed someone I just sort of stood there frozen, so the CNA showed me how to do it. Something as simple as feeding someone was just so scary to me, but I'm a pro at it now. Talk to your clinical instructor and the people in your group for support, they will be there to help you out. Go in prepared and ready to learn. If you hate it the first day, or feel like you have no idea what you're doing, don't beat yourself up. You will get the hang of it. Also, don't skip meals, I chose to go straight through and didn't eat dinner, did a pretty messy dressing change and almost fainted. Eat that protein!

Honestly, I would stay out of it. Yeah, she shouldn't be telling her daughter that stuff, but when it comes down to it, it's all just heresay. I don't even think it would be investigated. Like the poster above said - it's your word against theirs.

Ask someone that you're fairly close with what's up. Do you think you could have done something to offend someone? Being friends with the charge nurse doesn't make people not like you unless you're sucking up or talking about them. Just watch what you're doing, if you did anything, it was unintentional. Don't get too hung up on the drama.

I'm in my first semester of nursing school, and to tell you the truth, I'm breezing through. I'm rarely stressed and I have time to go out and have fun. It all depends on you situation. I'm 21, no kids, and I'm living at home until I'm done with school. I have it super easy. I'm having more fun now than I was before I got into nursing, I've met some amazing people. It's true that you develop a bond with your nursing classmates, you can share things with them that your other friends won't understand.

You're not the only one! I'm finishing up a clinical rotation at a LTC facility right now, and I can't believe how sad I am to leave. The first day I almost cried I hated it so much, I got so depressed. But now I look forward to going and seeing all the patients, doing whatever I can to make them feel more comfortable. It took me a while to warm up, but LTC is definitely somewhere I would think about working once I'm out of school. :)

Yeah, it sucks that they sort of mislead you like that, but it really will help you in the long run. Now you will always check and re-check, and I bet you won't ever fail another lab due to something like this.

I think the best reaction is no reaction. If you're not being threatened or verbally abused, just let them talk, and let it roll off you. It seems your patient was just making some ignorant observations, I think you acted appropriately. You're not going to change or enlighten a patient in 4 minutes, so just do what you need to do and move on to the next patient.

You know, all you can do now is just keep pushing. Go tomorrow with a positive attitude, and I think there's a good chance they will let you re-do the course. It's easy to beat yourself up about this, try not to get too down on yourself, it happens. I didn't pass one of my pre-req courses for nursing, and I almost thought about switching my major. It has taken me longer to get into my school's program than some of my friends, but I am here. You just have to keep going. Good luck!:redpinkhe

I generally study at least an hour a day. Just go over notes, read, do practice questions. Yesterday, though, I spent about 10 hours studying because I have 3 exams this week plus clinicals. I haven't scored below an 88 so far, hopefully I can keep it up. The thought of spring break is keeping me going!

Nope. Just the fact that you're questioning whether or not it's professional should tell you that it's probably not. Even with your good intentions, it's just crossing that line.