What to expect...

RNsRWe, ASN, RN · Jul 30, 2012

I'll offer some thoughts from the perspective of a seasoned nurse who has seen many a student clinical rotation come through.

The students nurses like to see MOST are interested, eager to learn (but not in-your-face), open to constructive criticism and LISTEN to what they are told. In other words, ask questions, but please don't ask the exact same question the person standing next to you did four minutes ago--and received an answer to.

Tell us you're willing to help with tasks, and then DO that. Check with your instructor always on what you're allowed to do and not allowed to do, so that the nurse you're following doesn't think you're able to take on more than you should. We want you to succeed, too :)

Come to rotation prepared. Know the course material that you're going to be expected to know while on that unit; NO ONE expects you to know more than the basics so please, don't try to impress with what you know--it won't work If you know something, please say it, so we know not to teach you something repetitively. But if you don't, please PLEASE let us know that too...we want you to learn. And DON'T want you to get caught up in a problem because we thought you DID know....you get the idea.

Good students have all their equipment at the ready. Don't tell me your stethoscope is in the car. :rolleyes:

And mostly, we like cookies! LOL :)

jk1989 · Jul 30, 2012

Thank you thank you RNsRWe. :-) great advice.

BloomNurseRN, ASN, BSN, RN · Jul 30, 2012

I'm still a student but I love what RNsRWe had to say. I know that I got a LOT more experiences last year just by talking to the nurses and aids and letting them know I was happy to do ANYTHING. There were a lot of students that just stood around and waited for something to come along. I let them know how much I would love to even just observe things and they were happy to let me know when things were happening.

Oh and at the end of the semester we made a TON of goodies and brought them for the floor. Figured it was always nice to leave a good taste in their mouths for the next group!! :)

RNsRWe, ASN, RN · Jul 31, 2012

Bloomgirl: you're the kind of student I would take on my "field trips" to see unusual dressing changes, help with transfusions, whatever. The student who looked like she wanted to be there, and soak up whatever was at hand, was the one who I'd tell to ask her instructor if she could come with me to "see something cool"--and the instructor would always say yes :)

Can't tell you how much I preferred that student to the one who looked bored, or overly put-upon. If someone looks bored because they just "know" so much more than everyone else, well....I'm not interested in boring you further

traumanurse2b? · Jul 31, 2012

RNsRWe, thanks for that bit of advice! I'm a new student also and I'm just trying to figure out what to expect. 5 yrs ago when I was an EMT student at 18 I was so shy and I didn't ask anything! I feel like I missed out on so much. But now as I'm preparing for my program I love seeing advice like yours. I really want to be that eager student because I really want to learn everything I can. Thanks! And good luck OP!

MrPopeye · Jul 31, 2012

This is such a great thread! Thank you guys!You know, I don't start my clinicals until October, but I'm excited to do so. I am ex-military, so I don't understand why people would enter into a career like this and not be up to the tasks. I'm sure some stuff will gross me out, but that's a part of it! Imagine how the patient feels!I hope that everyone else in my class is as excited as I am. If not, well, ya snooze ya lose!

SaraMC · Jul 31, 2012

I'll offer some thoughts from the perspective of a seasoned nurse who has seen many a student clinical rotation come through.
The students nurses like to see MOST are interested, eager to learn (but not in-your-face), open to constructive criticism and LISTEN to what they are told. In other words, ask questions, but please don't ask the exact same question the person standing next to you did four minutes ago--and received an answer to.
Tell us you're willing to help with tasks, and then DO that. Check with your instructor always on what you're allowed to do and not allowed to do, so that the nurse you're following doesn't think you're able to take on more than you should. We want you to succeed, too :)
Come to rotation prepared. Know the course material that you're going to be expected to know while on that unit; NO ONE expects you to know more than the basics so please, don't try to impress with what you know--it won't work If you know something, please say it, so we know not to teach you something repetitively. But if you don't, please PLEASE let us know that too...we want you to learn. And DON'T want you to get caught up in a problem because we thought you DID know....you get the idea.
Good students have all their equipment at the ready. Don't tell me your stethoscope is in the car.
And mostly, we like cookies! LOL :)

This was such a helpful post to read and thread over all was very insightful! I'm just doing my pre Reqs for the nursing program right now but now I know what to expect later on, and I'm so excited to learn!

gelibean · Jul 31, 2012

Thank you very much for your insight!! I appreciate people like you that are willing to help students that are willing to learn but don't know what to expect.

sjtrk · Jul 31, 2012

I agree, thank you for the great info! I'm also just doing pre-req's but I can't help but get exited reading this thread. I've known I wanted to be a nurse since I was 12 and I'll be 33 next month so I have 21 years of eagerness built up! LOL I can't say enough how thankful I am to have found this message board! To help keep my sanity until I can get into my nursing program and to have all the advice when I do get there. : )

RNsRWe, ASN, RN · Aug 1, 2012

You're all very welcome :)

Something else to think about, once you get a few clinical days under your belts: it's pretty common for some students in each group to get together to complain about how "bad" the nurses (or maybe just this nurse or that nurse) are in their assigned unit. By "bad", they mean the nurse didn't do everything exactly as your instructor explained, therefore they must be doing it wrong.

Your instructors will be teaching you the best, most accurate, most cautious methods for doing any one thing; the nurse you are watching may very well be doing it differently but STILL be doing it accurately and effectively. Please don't get caught in the trap that so many students do, gossiping about the "bad" nurse who had the audacity to not only do the task "wrong" but didn't even appreciate the students taking the time to CORRECT the nurse's poor technique! Trust me, the nurses do find out about it and don't tend to be terribly interested in helping that student again.

The instructors vary on how they handle this. Some instructors seem to encourage the back-biting during the "debriefing" time at the end of the clinical day--letting students go on and on about how the student "saved" the nurse from making a huge mistake, etc. Some know to nip it in the bud, but some don't. Some do it to allow the students to hang themselves, helps the weeding out process. Don't let yourselves be caught up in that!

If you think a nurse is doing something wrong because your instructor said the steps were 1-2-3-4 and your nurse is doing it 1-3-4-2, ASK her WHY she's doing it that way....make it clear you are seeing that there must be more than one way to do something and ask her what makes her way work better for her...etc etc. That nurse will be happy to tell you why she does it that way, and you just might learn something new your teacher wouldn't have taught. Doesn't mean you should defy your instructor, of course (that's suicide!) but it just might help you learn 'real' nursing from a new angle, not just Magic Student Land :)

Oh, and as I like to collect "Likes" please feel free to hit the button PRN LOL....

sjtrk · Aug 1, 2012

Thank you RNsRWe! I appreciate all the advice more than you know! I would "like" every post of yours but I'm on my iPhone app and it doesn't allow me to but please know I do like them! LOL