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This is more of what my previous post was directed to. This sounds like I have been continuously doing something that I should be getting in trouble for. Like I keep putting my hand in the cookie jar not caring that I shouldn't do it. Which is why I felt the need to say I did it once because I did not know protocol. Not because once is OK or anything like that. Here, I asked for opinions on what to do in the situation. The quote on top (along with a few other comments) did not answer this question, but more went into judgement that I was doing this on purpose and/or wanted to meet people outside of clinicals. Not quote on quote on what was said, but more of my impression of what they were trying to say (again, it was only a few comments). I tend to not let myself get angry over posts because I like constructive criticism. I do not like feeling that I am being judge and feel the need to defend myself to begin with. Plus, I felt a nursing student is a nursing student and, young or old, age shouldn't matter because we are all learning so why must me being young have anything to do with this question; older students could have this same question and done the same thing. Also, I never meant to irk anyone by saying my patients adored and loved me in my first post. I was going from quote where my patients literally said, "we loved you being here, I really wish you could stay" and "is there anyway/anyone I could talk to to extend you taking care of me because I loved you being here; well I want to invite you to my wedding and would love for you to be there." And I also meant adore as in a way a grandmother adores her grandchildren or a friend adores a best friend. Not in an "I'm so great, everyone loves and adores me." So I would like to sincerely apologize if I gave anyone the wrong impression on what I was trying to say earlier (first post) and for my previous post as I was feeling judged and angered by it, so I shouldn't have posted at all.

Ok, this topic needs to be closed by a moderator. Honestly, I do feel these posts are being very judgemental. To answer your questions, NO, it was never discussed with my clinical instructor or any other faculty member. So I did not know protocol or what to do when put in the situation. I am in my first semester of nursing school as stated above and have never been in these situations before. You all seriously make it sound like I'm giving my phone number left and right saying something like, "Hey we should hang out sometime!" or actually trying to keep in touch with my patients outside of the hospital. I was never comfortable giving my phone number out as I never had the intention of meeting anyone outside of the hospital or even talking to them outside of the hospital as nice as they were. I was caught off guard and I did not know what to do in the situation, so I just gave my number ONCE to the older couple. I am aware it was wrong now, but what can you do. But let me clarify that again, I have given my number only ONCE ONCE ONCE. The second time, the man and his fiance gave me THEIR phone number to come to their wedding. Again, I did not know what to do in the situation and I did not want to insult them and just be like no and not take it when they had it out and waiting for me to take it. If I could, I would go back and tell them what I plan on saying to patients from now on, but I can't. I never had any intention of actually going to the wedding or even ever calling. And also, please to do not bring my age into this. This has nothing to do with me being young at all and I find that insulting. I am not "young and naive" or miss "young hott nurse". I am in nursing SCHOOL for a reason, as I am still learning and age has nothing to do with it. Do not paint me as some ignorant person because you say I am young and need life experience. I was put in some awkward situations and I came here to find out what to do in the future to avoid/deal with these situations because I want to LEARN what to correctly do. I am sorry that I did not know the proper thing to do when it is the FIRST time I have been put in the situation and it was never discussed. Edit* I just wanted to add that I only feel some posts were judgemental and not all of them; some were informative and very helpful which I appreciate.

I appreciate everyone's feedback. It gave me some ideas to bypass sticky situations. I think I will tell them something, as mentioned above, in a matter of fact tone of voice, something like "I'm sorry, it is against our school policy to give out any personal information or engage in outside hospital activities with our patients. But I appreciate *insert whatever they are saying*". It sounds professional, yet sincere.

Elderly is generally defined by many definitions; some will say 60 is the magic number, while others will say 65, and others will say 80. Everyone has their own definitions of what they consider it to be. It is also not based solely off of a specific older age, but also state of the specific person, such as if they can take care of themselves, their mental health, etc. So yes, I will say for my patient who was 65 and in her specific condition, she was elderly. I am sorry if I offended you. But I do appreciate your input, so thank you for your response.

I am in my first semester of nursing school and I have my clinicals on the Med Surg floor of a hospital. So far I have had 3 different patients and they have all absolutely loved me; I do not say this in a cocky way. I am just super nice to them, I'm attentive, I actually listen to what they say, etc. Side note: For clinicals in my school, we are assigned a new patient each week and take care of them for 2 days in a row for about 6 hours. The point I'm trying to get to is I get into certain situations and I'm not sure about the correct way to respond and what is appropriate/inappropriate and what should I do in these situations. Here are some examples: My first patient was an elderly women in her 60's that had to get a surgery. Her and her husband both loved me and wanted to have my name and phone number on my last day taking care of the women in case anyone asked about me or if I ever needed them as a reference because they would love to do that for me and only had great things to say about me. So I gave them my name and phone number because I did not want to be rude and say no; I did not really know what to do. My second patient also loved me, but didn't ask for any of my information. My third patient was in for respiratory issues in his mid 30's due to obesity. By the end of my second day with him, he was was somewhat joking/serious and asked if there was any way he could extend my time taking care of him because I had been so great. I told him I couldn't due to the way my school works. He understood and then invited me to his wedding in a few months and gave me his cell phone number and his fiances cell phone number and I took it because I didn't want to be rude by not taking it. So what do you do when your patients loved having you and ask for personal information? Do you just give it or do you politely say no? Or what about if it's turned around where they invite you to something and give your their phone number and you don't plan on going? I really would like to know what to do because I don't want to be doing anything that's inappropriate or be rude or anything like that. What would you do? Input would be greatly appreciated!

"Yesterday you said you were feeling blue. Tell me more about how you are feeling green today." Therapeutic communication.. haha

Thanks everyone for the quick replies. I'm gonna make sure to wear them for now evertime I give a bath now. I would rather wear them than not anyway so it's good to know.

In lecture, we were told to not wear gloves when we perform bed baths unless coming into contact with bodily fluids or feces, or open wounds. So basically no gloves giving the bed bath until we are about to give perineal care/change the brief. The reason being that it makes the patient feel like something is wrong with them and you don't want to touch them. And they say you don't wear gloves when you wash yourself, so why would you need to for someone else (assuming they have no open wounds, infectious diseases, giving perineal care, etc.) Well, last week was my first start in clinicals in a long term nursing home. My partner and I had no issues at all with anything including the bed bath; we did not use gloves when giving the bed bath until we did perineal care (patient had no additional issues to worry about). This week however, I have a new patient and a new partner. Anyway, the gist is my instructor decided to critique my new partner and I today on almost everything we did (correct and non-correct). Probably because even though I was knowledgable in what we were supposed to be doing, my new partner was not and my instructor knew. Don't get me wrong, if I am doing something wrong then please correct me, but if I'm doing something right, I don't see the reason to find some way to criticize. Anyway, one of the things she criticized me on was what I had done with my gloves because she had seen me grab some earlier. And I explained I had my gloves on my person, but I had only just finished washing her upper body so I was waiting to put them on for perineal care and the conversation went on from there. My question is, as a nursing student, what is the correct way? To wear gloves the whole time or only in cases of contact with open wound, perineal care, etc.? Because hearing two different things is confusing and now I don't know what the right way is. I want to do this correct and I don't want to continue to be critiqued over something because I can't get the right information. Do I follow what I learned in lecture or what my particular nurse instructor wants? Edit- I just realized I posted in wrong thread area, opps!

Thank you Esme12. I am glad we can refocus on the initial topic. To answer some questions on the app Notability- It is a great app, although I have only used it this once so far. But I have played with it for a bit. Basically the whole gist: Kinda has a Microsoft Word look to it. You can edit which buttons to have immediate access to at all times such as bullet points. there is a highlighting button. There is a voice recording button that supposedly syncs to words your instructor is saying to words you have typed out (need to check on that to confirm). There are more things to it, but like I said, I have only used it this once so far. I would say those are the ones that have been the most useful so far for me. I also have a stylus I use so I keep my Ipad screen looking clean with minimal smudge marks/finger marks. I am also going to look into Iprocrastinate that another fellow poster had mentioned. Like mentioned earlier also, you don't necessarily need to get an Ipad. I'm sure other tablets that you can use a keyboard with would be just as good. I can only go by what I am using though. :)

Thanks everyone for all your positive feedback. I did let the negativity momentarily bring me down, but I bounced right back! To everyone that hasn't had your first day, I wish you the best of luck! Go in with a good attitude, be organized and ready for notes, and talk to the people next to you before you start class; they are all probably feeling the same way you are and it feels good to know you've made a new friend. If you come prepared, there is no reason to worry! I will admit, I was filled with anxiety the night before and my stress level spiked when I couldn't figure out which books I should bring. But I figured it out, went to bed, and woke up with excitement! *A side note: everyone should consider for your particular nursing class (such as mine is the Spring nursing class of 2014) on making a private Facebook group for you and your fellow nursing students. We use Angel as some of our classes are hybrid and a fellow student sent a message to all of our classmates on Angel saying he made a private Facebook group for us all to join so if we have any questions, concerns, etc. we will be able to ask! He made it about a month ago and I can personally vouch on how effective it is! That's how I figured out what books to bring for the first day; I posted my questions and I got my answer. Just make sure that whoever decides to make the private group (you or someone else) keeps up with it and everyone tries to answer each others questions. No point in having a group if no one participates/tries to help one another! The only thing with a private Facebook group is that you have to add the person who created the group so you can be invited to it. So the guy who sent the message had told us he created the private group and to add him on Facebook so we can be invited into the group. It's worth a try and it can potentially set some of your fears aside!

Sorry, Nursing_Mamacita and triquee, I think you guys got my post mixed up with another that wanted your negative feedback. You're sarcasm/jokes are in a negative light which are not really appreciated nor amusing. Contrary, I find them a bit offensive, so I'd appreciate it if you took it elsewhere. Also, being naive has nothing to do with being a newbie. Just because I am new does not make me naive. I understand the factors of nursing school, that it will be extremely hard, and will take a lot of commitment. Sorry if my excitement for MY FIRST DAY of nursing school is amusing to you. I only wanted to share my excitement and thoughts with people that are going through/feeling the same way. Especially for those that were thinking on investing in a tablet or not. By the way, I measured my success today by not being overwhelmed, making the most of my learning experience on day one, and making some new friends. My apologies if my definition does not match yours. EDIT* I also forgot to mention, there are a few other threads in the forum with peoples excitement for their first day. Better go snuff out their newbie flames too before they get out of control.

...and it was a SUCCESS! I enjoyed every minute of it, even the parts where the lecture got boring haha. For the first half of the class, I was taking notes by hand even though I had brought my Ipad to take notes. The second half after my hand was tired and starting to cramp, I decided to try out my Ipad even though I was pretty self-conscious since no one else was using any electronic devices to take notes (we are allowed to use them in class for note taking). Let me tell you what! I LOVE taking notes with my Ipad. I am paying more attention and focusing more because I am typing instead of handwriting where I occasionally will put my head down, be tempted to doodle, let my mind wander, etc. I am using the app Notability for taking notes and it is awesome! It also has a voice recorder, so as I am taking notes, it is syncing what the instructor is saying to correspond with the words I am typing. I haven't checked on that yet, so we will see if it is really syncing. I have a case with a "built in" keyboard that can be removed from the case and set on the table. The side of the case has Velcro so I can angle the screen as much as I want and move the keyboard to wherever feels most comfortable. **And to those who will say things like "might as well just use a laptop if you're going to add a keyboard" or "it is just an oversized Iphone", please refrain. I have a laptop, but fact is, my laptop is huge. It has a big screen and considering the amount of big, heavy books I have to take to class, I really appreciate something small, light, and compact. My ipad fits perfectly into my backpack whereas I'd need to carry my laptop case seperately. I'm not saying that using an Ipad or any other electronic device will be some life altering event towards note taking, but for me, it really did make the difference. If you can afford it, I HIGHLY recommend doing so! And if it's not within your budget, you will still do awesome note taking anyway. :)

I think you can over study. As in, if you study for like 8 hours straight and you're studying because you know you need to study. You eventually reach that point where the information isn't sticking anymore, but you're still studying because you know you have to and want to get it done (which is a waste of time in the long run). Yeah, I consider that over studying and I am guilty of it. That's why you have to take breaks or else you're studying becomes a waste of time.

I have already reached this point. I had orientation two weeks ago and it feels more real now. I still had the 'this isn't real' feeling as I was purchasing all my supplies and doing the vaccine requirements before orientation. Now I am just super excited to start school on August 20th! I won't lie though, I still get those moments where I'm just like 'did I seriously get into nursing school!?!?' :)

I am 22, but when I went to my orientation, I noticed a lot of people probably in the age range between 25-45. To put it in perspective (granted that having kids does not in anyway shape or form give an accurate read of the ages of anyone!), but when the speaker at orientation asked everyone who had kids to raise their hands, only myself and probably 5 others out of 60 did not raise our hands.