What do you do in clinicals?

Learn through your textbooks about your patients diagnosis.

Look up all the meds they are being given so you know what they are for - give the meds if you are allowed.

Perform an assessment of the patient, documenting normals/abnormals.

Plan your treatment for the patient based on your assessment.

Assist patient to bathe, eat, get out of bed (even if they don't want to), reposition the patient in bed if they can't do it themselves. Assist to go to bathroom, change diapers,etc.

Start IVs, put in urinary catheters, NG tubes (tubes up nose that go down to stomach), do dressing changes

Assess patient's level of pain, perform interventions to relieve pain (walking, repositioning, distraction, warm/cold compresses, medication)

Do any other treatment/job that your instructor and nurse allow you to do.

Educate your patients on their diagnosis, tests, treatments, meds, activity, diet, anything else they need education on.

Keep your patients alive.

It is as if you are caring for a child but more involved. Your patient doesn't usually know about all the treatments, meds, when it's time to eat, why they can't lay in bed for 3 days, etc. You assess their needs and plan out the schedule for that shift - with their input but sometimes without. And hopefully you will have a wonderful floor nurse to assist you in learning how all the tasks you perform fit into the big picture of the patient's care.

We try to hide from our instructors as much as possible. :)

Not only did we hide from the instructors, we try to look very busy when we are in their sight. Hopefully you'll get a stroked out patient thats real low GCS and unresponsive so you can hang out in their room and watch tv...

LMAOOO!! we would hide too! but not from our instructors...they helped us hide so the nurses wouldn't make us do all their dirty work, and NOT show us an important procedure when it was done. Our instructors always kept their eyes open so as soon as somebody was performing a procedure we hadn't seen before, we'd get the chance to watch/do it.

hmmm hiding from instructors, pretending your busy, hoping to get a stroked out pt so you can sit and watch tv....sounds like nursing might not be for you! Please re-evaluate why you want to be a nurse and realize that you will NOT be able to hide when you are THE NURSE! Best wishes....not trying to be rude but i was rather surprised by some of the replies

Alright, I just performed a self evaluation and decided that maintaining a sense of humor was necessary during clinical rotation. :)

Hmmm. One thing I recall is that you should be prepared to be spot quizzed about certain subjects by your clinical instructor. For example, you may be observing a nurse changing a dressing. The clinical instructor may approach you and quiz you on the subject.

They might ask you what type of dressing the nurse is using. What type of wound is it? What stage is this wound? Why do you think this and describe your observations? What are the risks associated with this type of wound? What other factors are involved besides pt's age, previous medical history? etc..etc..etc.

In short, be prepared for these verbal quizzes at any time.

The more information you absorb, the more advanced your skills will become.

Become a sponge, but that doesn't mean you should forget to ask questions either! Show your instructor you are actually interested in the subject matter.

Don't watch too much TV with stroke pt's because the TV quizzes seen on "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader," won't be on any of the upcoming nursing exams.

Hope that helps. :)

Hi - I'm thinking about being an RN and I'm a little uneasy about the clinicals even though I have no idea what I would be doing there. What exactly do you do in clinicals?

everything nurses do (in time) and TONS of paperwork to hand in the next week.

I haven't done clinicals yet (start in 2 weeks) but I do have an idea for any students still in clinicals! I've put my notes (in word format) onto my palm t/x, so that during 'slow' times at clinicals I can pull out my palm and read my notes! That plus having davis drug guide and taber's on it makes it a very useful tool during clinicals.

kmcnelly, which palm do you have and where did you get the references (tabers, etc) Thanks..for sharing

Assess, help people to the bathroom, change briefs and beds, help them eat if they need help, take vitals and blood sugars, help pass the nutrition cart,change dressings, pass a med or two, and when it's all over, we go to post conference where we have to tell everyone what we did all night and then take a quiz. One night I sat with a dementia patient at the nurse's request.

Not only do we hide from the instructors, we try to look very busy when we are in their sight. Hopefully you'll get a stroked out patient thats real low GCS and unresponsive so you can hang out in their room and watch tv...

LOL

27 years ago in Recovery Room rotation. Taking frequent v/s. Instuctor walks up behind me and I find myself trying to take a blood pressure with the second hand of my wrist watch.

Questioned my ability to deal with stress that day.

kmcnelly, which palm do you have and where did you get the references (tabers, etc) Thanks..for sharing

Palm T/X. I got it at staples for 314. You can get it off ebay for about 180, but I didn't want to wait. I got the Nursing Constellation and Tabers off of Skyscape.com for 130 dollars. Nursing constellation has the davis drug guide in it. The palm comes with a cd that has the programs you need to edit word documents. I put my notes on there and study when I have the palm but don't have my bookbag. Good luck! Let me know what you decide.