Seeking advice for my senior year preceptorship experience

[musicdocs]

Hello!

Hope everyone had an enjoyable New Years.

I am in my last semester of nursing school and am about to begin my senior clinical preceptorship. I will be spending my clinical hours on a cancer care/medical-surgical unit.

It has been over a year since my last medical-surgical clinical experience, yikes! I was wondering if any nurses or students had any tips for me on what I can do to better prepare myself for this upcoming experience. I'm searching for advice regarding time management, drugs I should review, patient-nurse interactions, prioritizing tasks, patient teaching and comfort care, effective team communication, and whatever tips/advice you guys deem worthy to provide :)

I am open to receiving any and all kinds of advice!

Thank you,

L.

Mostly, I'd recommend trying to relax and take the experience as it presents itself.

Be a hard-worker and be respectful of your preceptor. If there are things which you'd like to experience, be sure that your preceptor knows.

Look for opportunities to be helpful, to your preceptor and to the other nurses. Learn where supplies are and what things are called. It can be very useful to a nurse to be able to send a student to gather something for which an unanticipated need arises.

[classicdame, MSN, EdD]

agree with above post. Also, ask about psychosocial issues, like family and patient support when death is imminent or how to deal with pain issues. Pain management is a big deal in acute care settings, so the more you know the better off you will be. What adjunct meds are there to boost the effect of analgesics? Non-pharm modalities?

[nursephillyphil, BSN, RN]

Find a good nursing brain to help you organize your pt's and shift and use that to guide you. If you feel nervous (which is pretty obvious), explain how you feel to your preceptor, they know you're a student and will not expect you to operate as a full fledged seasoned nurse. I was nervous when i started my preceptorship in a medsurg-transplant unit as we maintained a high census and would get admits in the middle of shift or just hours before our shift ended. As ♪♫ in my ♥ stated, work hard and be respectful, if any opportunity arises to help out, take it. This is the last rotation you will have as a student and non-licensed personnel, learn as much as you can!!

[RunBabyRN]

I'd review some of the more common stuff you saw in med/surg. In the beginning, follow your preceptor's lead. You'll find your way soon enough.

I'm going into mine this semester as well, in L&D. It's been a year since I've been there, and I know I'll be a little shaky on my legs at first, but I'll be fine soon enough. I've been reviewing my textbooks and notes on the subject and brushing up on the meds I'll encounter there.

A few meds for you:

Dilaudid

Morphine

Protonix

Ativan

Xanax

Zofran

Rantidine

Albuterol

Hydrocodone

Oxycodone

Tylenol

Aspirin

Ibuprofen

Fentanyl

Docusate sodium & senna

Prils, lols and tans

Lactulose

Albumin

Vancomycin

Cephalosporins

Antidepressants

Corticosteroids

Diphenhydramine

Ceftriaxone

Methadone

Thiazides

Ciprofloxacin

Codeine

Coumadin

Lovenox

Good luck!!

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

Is this some place you'd like to work? If it is, keep in mind that the preceptorship experience is like a 12 week job interview and put your best foot forward. Asking questions is great; asking the same one over and over because you didn't listen to the answer is not. Being friendly with the staff is a plus, because the manager will talk to housekeeping, the CNAs, the unit secretary and the hospitalist before offering you a job. Being too friendly with the staff and going out getting drunk with them after work every night may be seen in a poor light.

Don't be the student who is afraid to get her hands dirty, or who claims that as an RN, she won't need to clean up poo. That isn't going to impress anyone.

Even if you don't want to work on this particular unit, keep in mind that the manager of the unit where you DO want to work will contact this unit's manager to ask about you -- how did you fit in? Did you have a good attitude? Were there any problems?

Be prepared to have to study. You're going to run into things you've never heard of before, and you'll have to look them up, probably on your own time.

Good luck! I hope you have a great experience!