Psychomotor skills

[enfermeratobe]

Hello everyone I need advice on how to perked my psycho motor skills in clinical. I know the steps of what in doing and what needs to be done but I just turn to mush and stumble and kind of a fumble mess when giving meds. This is my third semester and I am an Lpn allready. My instructor keeps saying psycho motor schools is what I need to improve on. How can I do this? I feel so discouraged and embaressed about myself for some reason this has always been an issue for me. I tend to describe myself as more "book smart" than "skill smart". I also have anxiety disorder which doesn't help. Thank you!

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

Moved to general nursing forum

[BrendanO, MSN, RN]

Practice, practice, practice.

Do you have access to a simulation lab at all?

If not, try to practice on your friends! Go through the pantomime of doing every skill you feel nervous about in a setting where there are no consequences and your "patient" is sympathetic. Once you're comfortable with that, tell your friend to act grumpy/uncooperative while you practice those skills. There's no substitute for repetition with psychomotor skills. My first IV catheter placement was not nearly as good as my 10th, let alone my 100th. They're not something you can "think" you way to success with; you have to do them. You may eventually get to the point when you're not "thinking" about anything while doing the skill; you're just doing it.

But do try to keep deep and slow breathing through it all. Good luck!