RN without much direct care experience

[luvjosh07]

So I currently work at a residential psych facility. I work as a med nurse but work on the floor about half the time. I feel like an idiot most of the time. Like I wasn't familiar with a fracture bedpan and put the poor client on it wrong. The CNA made me feel like an idiot. How did I make it through school without a basic grasp of direct patient care? Please tell me I'm gonna get the hang of this

[Sour Lemon]

So I currently work at a residential psych facility. I work as a med nurse but work on the floor about half the time. I feel like an idiot most of the time. Like I wasn't familiar with a fracture bedpan and put the poor client on it wrong. The CNA made me feel like an idiot. How did I make it through school without a basic grasp of direct patient care? Please tell me I'm gonna get the hang of this

The basics fly by pretty quickly in school and aren't revisited very often. There are some CNAs hungry to feel superior for five minutes while new nurses struggle to find their footing. I say let them have it. You'll figure out the bedpans soon enough.

You'll hear experienced nurses putting down "stupid" new doctors on occasion, too ...same type of situation.

[Davey Do]

I wasn't familiar with a fracture bedpan and put the poor client on it wrong.

I recently did this, luvjosh. But it was with a regular bedpan.

The basics fly by pretty quickly in school and aren't revisited very often.

Thanks, Sour Lemon. I was chalking it up to early dementia.

Please tell me I'm gonna get the hang of this.

You're gonna to get the hang of this.

[JBMmom, MSN, NP]

You're going to be fine, you obviously care about learning and doing what's best for the patients. It's too bad the CNA took the opportunity to make you feel badly about being inexperienced rather than help you gain experience and confidence. In nursing school there were so many skills being introduced that you couldn't possibly retain every detail, they'll come back to you when you're practicing regularly. Or you'll learn some new ones that you didn't have in school. Don't get discouraged, find some positive people that you can use as resources and just keep your head up.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

So I currently work at a residential psych facility. I work as a med nurse but work on the floor about half the time. I feel like an idiot most of the time. Like I wasn't familiar with a fracture bedpan and put the poor client on it wrong. The CNA made me feel like an idiot. How did I make it through school without a basic grasp of direct patient care? Please tell me I'm gonna get the hang of this

No one can make you feel like an idiot without your permission.

You're going to get the hang of this. The first time I saw a fracture pan, I put the patient on it wrong, too. It's not rocket science, and I had several years of nursing experience at the time -- in Med/Surg even -- but I still messed it up.

I could fill a major thread with the dumb mistakes I've made over time -- heck, I probably HAVE. Patients survive being placed on a bedpan wrong, and if that's the biggest mistake you ever make you're a far better nurse than me.

[brownbook]

There is an old thread on Allnurses about nurses, me included, who can't get patients on or off bedpans without making a huge mess. I've seen experienced CNA's intentionally put bedpans backwards saying they catch the urine better that way.

Check out you tube videos. They have excellent ones about basic CNA nursing care. Unfortunately the patient is usually a maniquin, or a thin cooperative adult, but still you get the idea.