Second year of NS and not feeling smart enough

[bella147]

Hello. I am in my second and last year of nursing school, and I am feeling like I am not smart enough to be a nurse. I feel as if I am behind in my classes, but I am getting 100% in all of my classes. I feel as if I can do the skills but I think I am lacking in the classroom aspect. When I am in clinicals, I feel like all I do is pass meds, do VS, treatments, etc, and that I don't really know physiology what is happening with my patients, and that I am not 3 steps ahead in case something happens. Does anybody else feel like this? Thank you!!!

[2ndyearstudent, CNA]

When I am in clinicals, I feel like all I do is pass meds, do VS, treatments, etc, and that I don't really know physiology what is happening with my patients, and that I am not 3 steps ahead in case something happens. Does anybody else feel like this? Thank you!!!

I felt like that too. I wasn't thinking ahead, I was going off the MAR. Partway through clinicals this semester, my wonderful instructor changed our clinical documentation a bit. We still had the same forms we could use, but we didn't have to turn them in. Instead we had a sheet that had some questions we had to answer:

1. What are you concerned about in your patient today?

2. What assessments will you make?

3. What could go wrong?

4. What interventions will you do?

I found the better I could answer these questions, the more I was thinking ahead about my patient's care. I started getting equipment prepositioned in the room and carrying needed items on me and was just more prepared in general. I wasn't just doing the treatments on the MAR and worrying about having my meds or skills checked off.