student duties

[Bekster]

Can anyone give me a rundown on what a student nurse does at clinical and in what order?

Thanks.

[RN4NICU, LPN, LVN]

It varies greatly school to school. You would have to ask the school you are interested in.

[purplemania, BSN, RN]

basically you are practicing being a nurse with someone there to supervise you. So you will answer the call bell, give medications, change dressings and assist or perform other procedures.

[AprilRNhere]

In our program we pretty much did everything the RN did. We didn't do careplans or dr's orders...but did everything else. We started in the hospital second semester....so all of our labs were finished. We had to have our instructor or a willing RN with us to do any new or difficult skills..but otherwise we were the RN.

[teenycar]

The clinical instructor should be able to tell you what is expected of the students. You also need to evaluate what the level of performance of each student is. Just because you have students in the same year does not mean they all know how to do the same work. I was extremely proactive in seeking out clinical experience and I knew how and was very comfortable with proceedures such as wound care, Trach management, IV's, and the like. Others in my class were timid from the get go and I wouldn't trust them to give meds. I look forward to teaching students, but I will always ask why they are doing what they are and why they are giving the meds. they are. The nurses I worked under always did this for me and they trusted me to take care of several of their patients and I was grateful for that trust and confident in my knowledge. Every student will be different though. I encourage you to teach as much as possible, coupled with the hands on experience they can only get at clinical. This will help them remember ever so much better.

[vashtee, RN]

You will probably be doing anything you learned in class. First semester for me was physical assessment, wound care, medications including injections, blood sugar sticks for diabetics, bathing, linen changes, foley catheters, D/C IVs, I&O, etc...

Second semester we are so far hanging IV meds in addition to first semester stuff, and have an additional patient.

[buff nurse]

Can anyone give me a rundown on what a student nurse does at clinical and in what order?

Thanks.

well when i was in school we had to go a day before clinicals and get the patients history and meds off his chart then on clinical days we would meet up early and discuss our patients with the prof. and she would come around and watch us do certain things for patients (foley, feeding, wound care, dressing changes, giving meds, enema, ect) its not bad i never made lower then an B in clinicals

[BBFRN, BSN, PhD]

You should also get a check off list at the beginning of your clinical rotation. The check off list will coordinate with what you have learned in lab/theory. Your instructor may be able to help you pick patients that will give you the learning experiences you need. Some of my students like to pick their patients by what nurse has them as well. I find that if they connect really well with one of the nurses and buddy up with them, they get to see/do a lot more.