Tips on Choosing First Patient

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I'm finally giving care for my first patient next week in clinicals after passing the skills test on injections/meds, hygiene, physical assessments, transferring patients, and all the fundamentals. We are pre-planning the day before and I was wondering if anyone had some tips on choosing a patient to care for. Thanks :)

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Do you have an interest in one item over another? A particular "gag factor"? I could not handle suctions. The sound, the site, made me wanna barf.... I made sure I had patients that needed auctioning so I could get over it. Next up- vents. Was terrified. Made sure I got those patients so I could learn. Not everyone learns like I did (I knew the book material, I needed to make sure I could handle the person!) so that doesn't work for everyone....but just my two cents.

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I would choose a difficult patient. Choose one that is diabetic with injections, one with a good amount of meds. It is better to get exposure from the beginning. It may be hard but you will learn a lot.

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I would choose a difficult patient. Choose one that is diabetic with injections, one with a good amount of meds. It is better to get exposure from the beginning. It may be hard but you will learn a lot.

While I agree with this, it all depends on the OPs personality. Can she/he dive right in or does she/he need to be eased in? I thought like you though, lets get the hard stuff out of the way!

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Wow you get to choose? Our CI let's us know what patient we will have. I think my school does this do they can select the patients on our wing that best suit our abilities at the time.

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Do you have an interest in one item over another? A particular "gag factor"? I could not handle suctions. The sound, the site, made me wanna barf.... I made sure I had patients that needed auctioning so I could get over it. Next up- vents. Was terrified. Made sure I got those patients so I could learn. Not everyone learns like I did (I knew the book material, I needed to make sure I could handle the person!) so that doesn't work for everyone....but just my two cents.

I am not sure yet. We've only been in the hospital twice; once was when we were paired with a CNA and the second we were following a nurse and doing vitals and assessments. Haven't really been exposed to those "gag factors" but I'm okay with pee/poop haha. Everyone is telling me to choose a harder patient that will probably take me hours to care plan for (since this is my first patient), but I have an entire day to do it.

@Oraelo: Our instructor basically said: Here's what floor you're going to, pick a patient, make sure they aren't going to be discharged the next day, and write your name down. So it's totally up to us.

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Specializes in General Surgery.

In the first couple of semesters, I tried to find a balance of complicated so I can get good practice (you're not always going to get those "walkie talkie" pts!) and ones without pages and pages of meds. Some instructors wanted you to write up ALL meds (scheduled, PRN, IV, Continuous) and then I had instructors that wanted med write ups for only the ones you were given but were still responsible for knowing the others if asked about them. I also tried to pick a patient with a disease that we learned about in lecture, it helps things "stick" and you will understand their care a little bit better. Had a pt with fulminant liver failure secondary to metastatic colon ca. We learned about liver failure just a couple weeks ago and now it's easier to put the pieces together.

Now in fourth semester, as a sr. nursing student, we don't do preps or write ups anymore so I'm not bummed when they get discharged and it's easier to pick up another one of my nurse's patients to care for. Only one more week of clinicals before my ED preceptorship, SO *******' excited!

Good luck to ya!

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Specializes in Acute Care Pediatrics.

I would always look for patients with chronic illnesses.... these patients can often teach you a lot about their disease. :)

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Specializes in ICU + Infection Prevention.

It is your first patient. Just pick one. You will probably learn just as much from any your first time.

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Specializes in Forensic Psych.

I'd Ay complex is good, but still able to and willing to talk. In the beginning you aren't able to do much so taking a patient who spends all day sleeping can be very, very boring. You aren't ultimately responsible for the patient and probably won't be doing anything life threatening anyway, so dive on in head first and learn as much as you can!

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Specializes in ER, progressive care.

Don't choose the easiest patient. Choose a patient you think you will learn something from.

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Specializes in HH, Peds, Rehab, Clinical.

LOL, we NEVER got to choose our patients---the CI's assigned them to us, always

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