Scared in clinical...

[SNIXRN]

hi all,

to make a long story short i am a block 2 student. in block 1 i got a 92% (a) and currently, i am in my 2nd month of block 2 and after 3 exams, i have a 89%. i really enjoy theory and i am more of a "book smart" person. my goal when i graduate is to become a psych nurse.

i just started clinicals in an acute care setting and i love it, the only thing is, i am a wimp. in school we are only allowed to practice on dummies, so naturally i am a little nervous when i am doing something for the first time on a human in clinical.

well, i get extremely nervous, to the point where i try to back out and i hate doing this.

also, it didn't help that one of my friends, on our first day of clinicals at an acute care center dropped a ng tube for the first time. i would have never had the courage to do that, esp on my first day there.

next week i know i will have to start an iv, and i am soooo nervous. i can practice over and over on a "dummy" arm but i will freak when it comes to doing it on a real person, i feel so umcompetent.

does anyone have any advise??

[wife&mommyRN]

being scared is something most of us go through, especiallly if you've never worked in a hospital setting. i was the exact same way, i was even nauseated everytime i smelled something. & we all know everything in the hospital smells funny . you should have seen me trying to change a bed, you would have thought i was doing brain surgery. i made a vow that whenever i went to clinicals i would immerse myself in the gross stuff, i know it sounds crazy, but it works. i have never sat down @ the nurses station (best adivce i got off allnurses), i was too busy asking questions/ offering my assistance. there is always something to do, whether it's with the nurses/ the students. because i was so interested, i got to see lots of cool things that students in other clinicals didn't get to see. if you are @ a teaching hospital take advantage of everything they are offering you. don't stay in the shadows because people notice and it's not a good look. my group was complimented all the time by the nurses on our unit of how enthusiastic we were to learn and would be happy to see us on the days we worked because we actually wanted to learn and were willing to get our hands dirty. you'd be suprised @ how many students go to clinical sites and just sit the entire 8/12 hours. i've heard from many students in my classes that they are not touching a pt. because they are going to be a np or crna and they won't even need to do this. try working with partners, we did almost everything together in our groups because we didn;t want to miss out on anything. take advantage of your clinical experiences, best of luck!:)