What exactly do you learn/do during clinicals?

sandanrnstudent · May 10, 2012

While every school is different, I can offer you what my school covered. (I've only gotten thru one semester thus far so that is all I know.)

-- You learn CNA skills (toileting, changing diapers, using a bedpan, bed baths, making beds, nail care, denture care, mouth care, transferring patients to and from wheelchairs, etc.)

-- doing a physical assessment (you do these everyday you have clinical)

-- Taking vital signs (temp., pulse, respirations, blood pressure, pain scale)

-- We learned how to insert foleys and give injections, but won't get to implement that into clinical until 2nd semester. I know in 2nd semester we start giving meds and shots.

Hope this helps, and I hope others will post too!

sandanRNstudent

Katie71275 · May 10, 2012

All of what the above patient stated. We learned IV's and blood draws this quarter, IV push, IVPB, and we can do all of that. We did Foley's last quarter.

Next quarter is trach care.

We give meds, PO, Injection, IV, whatever method we have learned. For example, when first starting we could only do PO, then the next quarter Injections, and this quarter, IVs, etc.

It builds up. I know not every programs allows you to do certain things though.

Merlyn · May 10, 2012

All the questions that you have will be answered in school. I know you are nervous. Nursing school may be hard or not. My advise to you is learn because once you are out of school the grades that you received doesn't matter. What you learned does. Just take it easy until fall. then if you have a problem come on this board and we will confusde you with hundreds of different answers. Just kidding. We can and will help you because all of usw have at one time in our lives have been where you are. Just remember it's only human life. It's not Hockey. Best of luck

TnMtnRose · May 10, 2012

I just finished my 1st semester and we did all the CNA skills in clinical plus we gave PO, PR, IVPB, IVP, IM and SUBQ meds. We also trained to do foleys, wound care, tube insertion & feeding and suctioning but noone actually got to perform those skills in clinical rotation. Next semester we begin venipuncture.

windowrn · May 10, 2012

I graduate in 2 weeks. Our clinicals have built from term to term.

I am now in my capstone course in a preceptorship. I have slowly built up and am now doing total nursing care for 4 patients. I have one more week left and may get up to a full load of 5 patients on an intermediate care telemetry neuro floor.

I receive report from the day nurse. Do my initial complete assessment. Pass oral, sub-q, im, push, piggyback meds. Chart on my patient. Prepare the nursing careplan form. Suction, cath, etc. - a variety of nursing skills. Delegate to PCAs. And, so on. My preceptor has to be there for blood administration and any procedure that she is not comfortable with me doing on my own.

They build slowly to this stage. While I do not feel ready to take care of my own assignment, I definitely feel like I am getting close.

mbazan17 · May 11, 2012

what are you allowed to do/not do?

--you will be an expert:specs: at giving bed baths! i was nervous first time since i never saw another person's bare body

what kinds of assignments did you have?

--almost everything mentioned in the other comments besides iv push and starting iv lines.

do you learn how to start and iv? do you learn to take blood?

--in my nursing school we were not taught to start iv lines or take blood.

what would cause someone to fail a clinical?

--failed clinical by breaking rules (varies upon how school handles situations). for example, client falls since you left side rails down after giving bed bath. some schools will fail you (clinical instructor told us that it occurred in a school she knows of), other schools might give a warning = it varies.

do you have access to meds?

--clinical instructor has access to all meds. give meds with instructor.

can you pass meds?

--i was allowed to give meds excepts iv push.

ImThatGuy, BSN, RN · May 11, 2012

Cleaning bodies, cleaning beds, moving bodies, moving beds, taking vital signs, taking health histories, doing physical exams, shots, IV's and IV stuff, tubes in urethras, tubes in stomachs, enemas, feeding through tubes, other things involving tubes, and doing things to ugly parts of the body.

The most peculiar thing to me was a video we had to watch over making beds. I learned you can change bedding with someone laying in bed although I still think it's odd. I'd rather pick them up, lay them on the floor, change the bed, and put them back, but hey nurses get outraged over that idea, lol. Oh, well, I graduated nonetheless...with honors too if you can imagine. Mostly the clinical rotations are about doing things, on the rare occasion the opportunities present themselves, the way school teaches you to do it and passing. Then you can graduate, work, and actually learn how to do stuff.

Darkstar1485, BSN, CNA, LPN, RN · May 11, 2012

Thanks for all your awesome answers! I'm a CNA and took the 120 hour course so i guess fundamentals of nursing will be a nice lil review for me. everything else will be brand new.

anonymousstudent · May 11, 2012

Baths...baths...baths...hm...baths...

Oh! Toileting! Yes!

You will get to do skills, but it takes a loooooooooooooong time, and it depends on the floor you're on and your CI. I'm in my last term and I'm doing everything my patients need (from placing IV's, hanging fluids, pushing meds, passing PO meds, changing dressings, all assessments, etc). But there were some clinicals early on where I was bored out of my brain because I swear all I did was give baths.

It's pretty rare for somebody to fail clinical. You have to do something that could cause harm to a patient. For example, one person drew up 40 units of insulin instead of 4. Yeah, that was a fail.

RADIATION_RN · May 11, 2012

Like everyone said before, it depends on your school. Our RN program threw us into a telemetry/pulmonary unit the first semester. We started out with only one patient and we did all the tech work and were only allowed to give injections, po meds, NGT insertion, etc. We were NOT allowed to mess with anything IV until 2nd semester. By the second half of the first semester at our instructor's discretion, we would be increased to assuming care of 2 patients.

We had one guy fail clinical towards the end of first semester after a few warnings. He would be late with meds with no excuse then lie about it. It wasn't just one instance, he had received warnings before they failed him. So it is definitely possible to fail clinical.

RLtinker, LPN · May 12, 2012

It depends on your instructor, really. My clinical 1 instructor had us do everything a regular nurse dose except nursing plans. Basically if you learned a skill in lab she would expect us to perform the skill at the hospital. Usually, if it was invasive or involved drugs she would have to be present for us to perform the procedure. As for failing clinicals, it depends on your school. For us missing more than two clinical days or passing meds without the instructor present would cause you to fail or even get kicked out of the program.