What Can I expect once I get to Clinical?

Hello, my name is Bridget and after almost 10 years I have decided to go back to school to become an RN. When I first graduated from high school I went to college in hopes of becoming a nurse. Well, there was a change in plans and I became a single mom and abandoned school. I have a job in customer service that pays 23 dollars and hour, but I want to complete what I started 10 years ago. I have a JOB not a career or shall I say a trained profession. I have all of my basics classes complete, but I will have to retake my A&P due to time limitations. I had like 3 classes to complete before I left a BSN program all together. I was ready for clinical, but life consumed me so to speak. My plan was to buy a house since I will have my car paid off in about a year. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks that now that I won't have a car payment, I could afford to scale back on working and go back to school. I plan to take a 6 month educational leave from my current job once I take the A&P classes again to experience clinical. Can someone please tell me what the hell clinical is like??? What does a typical day consist of? I just don't want to quit my job if this is something I can't handle. I have seen soo many different views posted at this point I really don't know what to think??!!

[bellarosa]

Hi Bridget,

Clinicals will vary depending on the class and the school. For instance, during a med/surg clinical in the hospital my class had 12-hour days- 7a-7p. We had to come in the day before to pick our patient out on the unit we were assigned. The rest of the evening was spent writing up the paperwork on the patient. This paperwork was turned in upon arrival to the hospital at 6:30am. We usually met w/our instructor for a few minutes before going to the unit. On the unit the charge nurse told us what nurse was assigned to the patient we chose. We would take report w/the nurse and work out w/the nurse how we would care for that patient. Some nurses were nice and helpful, others were not. I usually tried to help the nurse w/her/his other patients to learn more. If there was a certain skill I felt comfortable practicing I would search out the opportunity- IVs, arterial sticks, foleys, meds. We were to assess our patient and write this up to turn in. Sometimes the nurse assigned to the patient would let us chart our assessment, other times not. At the end of the day or somewhere in the middle we would have our clinical meeting. This lasted 1-11/2 hours. We would discuss our patients. At the clinical meeting we would usually get our preclincal write-ups back. We were expected to make the changes and add stuff to it for the official writeup due usually a few days later. These were between 5-25 pages depending on the teacher and the form used.

I found clinicals to be quite stressful. I'm sort of a perfectionist and try to always be prepared, but the nature of clinicals puts a student in a situation with many variables- the clinical instructor, hospital, unit, nurse, other nurses, patients, etc.

For some classes we were assigned to the same nurse for every clinical. This was a better situation b/c you were on the same unit w/the same people so less variability and less stress.

I hope this helps you.

[tramalady45]

Hello, my name is Bridget and after almost 10 years I have decided to go back to school to become an RN. When I first graduated from high school I went to college in hopes of becoming a nurse. Well, there was a change in plans and I became a single mom and abandoned school. I have a job in customer service that pays 23 dollars and hour, but I want to complete what I started 10 years ago. I have a JOB not a career or shall I say a trained profession. I have all of my basics classes complete, but I will have to retake my A&P due to time limitations. I had like 3 classes to complete before I left a BSN program all together. I was ready for clinical, but life consumed me so to speak. My plan was to buy a house since I will have my car paid off in about a year. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks that now that I won't have a car payment, I could afford to scale back on working and go back to school. I plan to take a 6 month educational leave from my current job once I take the A&P classes again to experience clinical. Can someone please tell me what the hell clinical is like??? What does a typical day consist of? I just don't want to quit my job if this is something I can't handle. I have seen soo many different views posted at this point I really don't know what to think??!!

Clinicals are tough. Where I am I would have to get up at either 3:45 or 4a.m. and sometimes I'd have almost an hour drive to the clinical site. By the time I get there I am ready to go back to bed because you are so nervous anticipating what kind of patient that you might get-you can't sleep the night before. Then I would always get some ratchety nurse that had a serious bad wedgie or bad attitude about god knows what and they always made it crystal clear that they did NOT want any students. Then, one time I actually had a nurse ditch me! She told me to wait outside the med room and then I kid you not-I could see around the curved corridor that she went out the opposite door all the way to the end and even looked guilty doing it. So, if you can get by some of that then it isn't really that bad. The patients are usually pretty fun or at least nice. I had decent experiences with them. Then there are the clinical instructors that I have a suspicion don't care about why they are there other than the fact they are making butt loads of money babysitting us lol :chuckle I have a had a few good ones. But, when a conflict arises between you and a nurse or you and another student and you try to approach them about it, they say something like "well, in nursing you cannot always like your co-workers and you must get along" and I say "no, if I don't get treated with mutual respect and dignity by my co-workers, I will find employment elsewhere" That always really chaps their hides! I didn't mean to get on a rant. I can tend to be long winded...Over all, clinicals are tiresome, but some of the most amazing things you see that you will remember until you die, happen during clinicals. It has forever changed me as a person, for the better. Good luck to you! :)

[finchertwins, BSN, RN]

I like yourself abandoned my dream of becoming a nurse, allthough for different reasons. I went back to school about four years ago and have been a nurse for about a year now. I found that clinicals were fine. The pre-clinical paperwork is a bite of a pain in the butt but it is all doable if it is what you want. Single parents do this all the time, I did. Don't listen to those that say it tough or too stressfull. Of course it is all that, school, tests, clinicals, paperwork, care plans, they are all hard and often felt pointless. But in the end I wouldn't change it for anything. If you want to be a nurse, do it. Don't let anything you hear distract you from your goals or dreams. Yes people fail clinicals or class but many more of them make it. You can still work and go to school, you can still be a parent that works and goes to school. I know I rambled about a lot of diff things but I used all those excuses to not go to nursing school earlier. If yo want to become a nurse them by goly go enroll now and listen to yourself not the rantings of others and how nursing school is so hard! Or clinicals are so hard! Or this teacher will fail you because she is so mean! You have the power to make it what ever it needs to be for you so think positive and dive in head first.

[finchertwins, BSN, RN]

i like yourself abandoned my dream of becoming a nurse, allthough for different reasons. i went back to school about four years ago and have been a nurse for about a year now. i found that clinicals were fine. the pre-clinical paperwork is a bite of a pain in the butt but it is all doable if it is what you want. single parents do this all the time, i did. don't listen to those that say it tough or too stressfull. of course it is all that, school, tests, clinicals, paperwork, care plans, they are all hard and often felt pointless. but in the end i wouldn't change it for anything. if you want to be a nurse, do it. don't let anything you hear distract you from your goals or dreams. yes people fail clinicals or class but many more of them make it. you can still work and go to school, you can still be a parent that works and goes to school. i know i rambled about a lot of diff things but i used all those excuses to not go to nursing school earlier. if yo want to become a nurse them by goly go enroll now and listen to yourself not the rantings of others and how nursing school is so hard! or clinicals are so hard! or this teacher will fail you because she is so mean! you have the power to make it what ever it needs to be for you so think positive and dive in head first.

sorry there were 2 posts done will i slowly typed this one. i was not infering the ones above me were ranting. my point was to say just do it and don't worry.

[watchthis22]

"Then, one time I actually had a nurse ditch me! She told me to wait outside the med room and then I kid you not-I could see around the curved corridor that she went out the opposite door all the way to the end and even looked guilty doing it."

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

I am sooooo sorry, but I cracked up when I read this!!!! I have tears from laughing trying to imagine what you must have been thinking! LOL What a B****H she must have been!!! But funny nonetheless! I hope you can look back on this now and laugh.

[RosesrReder, BSN, MSN, RN]

hello bridget and welcome to the site. hope you enjoy your stay. :) i too will be starting clinicals soon, so maybe we can keep in touch. there are a couple of threads going for the fall and winter starters that you might want to stroll by and say hello. they are in the prenursing forum.

[jkmillnurse]

Hello, my name is Bridget and after almost 10 years I have decided to go back to school to become an RN. When I first graduated from high school I went to college in hopes of becoming a nurse. Well, there was a change in plans and I became a single mom and abandoned school. I have a job in customer service that pays 23 dollars and hour, but I want to complete what I started 10 years ago. I have a JOB not a career or shall I say a trained profession. I have all of my basics classes complete, but I will have to retake my A&P due to time limitations. I had like 3 classes to complete before I left a BSN program all together. I was ready for clinical, but life consumed me so to speak. My plan was to buy a house since I will have my car paid off in about a year. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks that now that I won't have a car payment, I could afford to scale back on working and go back to school. I plan to take a 6 month educational leave from my current job once I take the A&P classes again to experience clinical. Can someone please tell me what the hell clinical is like??? What does a typical day consist of? I just don't want to quit my job if this is something I can't handle. I have seen soo many different views posted at this point I really don't know what to think??!!

This last spring semester I had clinicals in the ER, med-surg floor, and special care. The second week into special care clinicals I started to question whether or not I really wanted to do this nursing thing; besides my instructor was a "*****". But I got through and only have this next semester--OB/peds--to go. I am not really looking forward to it because I didn't much care for birthing my own babies and am pretty sure I am not going to like birthing anyone else. Just hang in there it will be worth it.

[nursinggirl05]

I never liked clinicals. I finished today the last clinical and am about to graduate as an RN. You have get up early, don't sleep the whole night before because you are nervous and in the hospital you are invisible to the staff. Most of the nurses are too busy to explain you anything even if they would like to. I don't like hospital atmosphere at all, it's chaotic.

[Bridget73]

Thanks for the insight!! What I have realized when reading the replies is that Nursing will be like any other job. What I mean by that is that every job has it's challanges. We all have to pay our dues when it comes to reaching a goal. Heck, if it came so easy then I would be concerned about the health care profession if all nurses said it was a breeze!! I just can't explain how sooo right my the whole idea of going back to finish my dream feel inside. I guess the fear comes from that I have an 8 year old who depends on me. Abandoning my current job is a really big step. I have faith that this will work itself out. Everytime I go into a hospital and I see the nurses doing their job I get this sad feeling inside. The only thing that will help is for me to go back and get my dream!!!!

Hi Bridget,

Clinicals will vary depending on the class and the school. For instance, during a med/surg clinical in the hospital my class had 12-hour days- 7a-7p. We had to come in the day before to pick our patient out on the unit we were assigned. The rest of the evening was spent writing up the paperwork on the patient. This paperwork was turned in upon arrival to the hospital at 6:30am. We usually met w/our instructor for a few minutes before going to the unit. On the unit the charge nurse told us what nurse was assigned to the patient we chose. We would take report w/the nurse and work out w/the nurse how we would care for that patient. Some nurses were nice and helpful, others were not. I usually tried to help the nurse w/her/his other patients to learn more. If there was a certain skill I felt comfortable practicing I would search out the opportunity- IVs, arterial sticks, foleys, meds. We were to assess our patient and write this up to turn in. Sometimes the nurse assigned to the patient would let us chart our assessment, other times not. At the end of the day or somewhere in the middle we would have our clinical meeting. This lasted 1-11/2 hours. We would discuss our patients. At the clinical meeting we would usually get our preclincal write-ups back. We were expected to make the changes and add stuff to it for the official writeup due usually a few days later. These were between 5-25 pages depending on the teacher and the form used.

I found clinicals to be quite stressful. I'm sort of a perfectionist and try to always be prepared, but the nature of clinicals puts a student in a situation with many variables- the clinical instructor, hospital, unit, nurse, other nurses, patients, etc.

For some classes we were assigned to the same nurse for every clinical. This was a better situation b/c you were on the same unit w/the same people so less variability and less stress.

I hope this helps you.

[Bridget73]

I have been told that I can't rest if there is not some sort of drama going on!! :chuckle I don't like to be still for too long, chaos with a little structure seems to work for me.. Good luck!!! I hope you find a great job!!

I never liked clinicals. I finished today the last clinical and am about to graduate as an RN. You have get up early, don't sleep the whole night before because you are nervous and in the hospital you are invisible to the staff. Most of the nurses are too busy to explain you anything even if they would like to. I don't like hospital atmosphere at all, it's chaotic.

[Bridget73]

I really apprecaite your inspiration!!! I have made up my mind to do this!!!

I like yourself abandoned my dream of becoming a nurse, allthough for different reasons. I went back to school about four years ago and have been a nurse for about a year now. I found that clinicals were fine. The pre-clinical paperwork is a bite of a pain in the butt but it is all doable if it is what you want. Single parents do this all the time, I did. Don't listen to those that say it tough or too stressfull. Of course it is all that, school, tests, clinicals, paperwork, care plans, they are all hard and often felt pointless. But in the end I wouldn't change it for anything. If you want to be a nurse, do it. Don't let anything you hear distract you from your goals or dreams. Yes people fail clinicals or class but many more of them make it. You can still work and go to school, you can still be a parent that works and goes to school. I know I rambled about a lot of diff things but I used all those excuses to not go to nursing school earlier. If yo want to become a nurse them by goly go enroll now and listen to yourself not the rantings of others and how nursing school is so hard! Or clinicals are so hard! Or this teacher will fail you because she is so mean! You have the power to make it what ever it needs to be for you so think positive and dive in head first.