Im going into my third yr of nursing school and was wondering one thing...i keep reading that alot of nursing students have to go to the hospital the night before clinical and get all their pt information and their drug info, etc then read up on it and be informed the night before going to clinical.
We have never had to do this at my School...basically we get our pt at the start of clinical and have to read their chart / MAR medication sheet and then note all their pertinent info in a very short period of time and read up on anything we dont know during clinical or ask our instructor if we dont understand something.
I was just wondering if anyone else's NS does the same thing or is it just mine?
The advantage of doing it the night before i guess is you are more acquainted with your pt and their medical conditions...can look up drugs, etc. Isn't it a pain in the behind lol though to commute all the way their to find this out. Doesnt it take up a huge part of your day to travel then find all this info then go home and review it? Its probably better though than what my school does...
Well, one reason could be that you may be assigned a patient one day, but depending on the patient's condition, they might either be discharged or transferred to a critical care unit (this can happen on a dime!).
I am surprised by this practice. I realize that is how it is in the real world but I feel that school is the time to learn. I don't see how you can provide truly comprehensive care if you are not aware of the disease process. I am with the poster who said you only have so much time to bake. To counteract this, as a student I would look up the nursing dx. of each patient even though it is not required. At my school, if we came to clinical without being prepared, you would have been sent home and if it happened more than once, you were out of the program.
Im going into my third yr of nursing school and was wondering one thing...i keep reading that alot of nursing students have to go to the hospital the night before clinical and get all their pt information and their drug info, etc then read up on it and be informed the night before going to clinical.
We have never had to do this at my School...basically we get our pt at the start of clinical and have to read their chart / MAR medication sheet and then note all their pertinent info in a very short period of time and read up on anything we dont know during clinical or ask our instructor if we dont understand something.
I was just wondering if anyone else's NS does the same thing or is it just mine?
The advantage of doing it the night before i guess is you are more acquainted with your pt and their medical conditions...can look up drugs, etc. Isn't it a pain in the behind lol though to commute all the way their to find this out. Doesnt it take up a huge part of your day to travel then find all this info then go home and review it? Its probably better though than what my school does...
Thanks! :)
We went to the hospital the night before as well. As a student you need that. If you are up on the Dx, med procedures etc... before you go in then you are more prepared to catch things that may be happening with the pt as you care for him/her. I always found it helpful to let things sink in a bit before I was drilled by the nursing instructor. As we progressed through our education we eventually became team leaders , under the watchful eye of an instructor, and at that point we were expected to go be a nurse, able to care for a team, delagate , document etc.... That is when I found out whe the school made us do the dreaded deads during the firs 2 and a half years. We even worked different shifts and holiday. Besides if you spend an hour or more looking up things then your not doing nursing. The usual shift for students is 8 hours, so if 2 hours are spent doing research, then what's the point.
SarasotaRN2b
1,164 Posts
Well, one reason could be that you may be assigned a patient one day, but depending on the patient's condition, they might either be discharged or transferred to a critical care unit (this can happen on a dime!).