What was your first day like at clinical site?

cecile9155, BSN, RN · Jul 14, 2016

Our first day of clinicals the first year was orientation. We learned about the hospital's charting system. We toured the unit and spent a lot of time going over our clinical instructor's expectations and talking about how future clinical days would be structured. We also had the chance to take vitals on some of the patients.

WheatGerm · Jul 14, 2016

I was certainly nervous, as I had never worked in a hospital before so I had no idea what was going on. Luckily, they expect that you know nothing going in so there should be an orientation. Really your first clinical is more being a CNA than a nurse. You will probably take a lot of vitals, bed changes, bed baths, assistance with feeding, that type of thing. (Not that nurses never do this, but typically they are delegated tasks).

bugya90, ASN, BSN, LVN, RN · Jul 14, 2016

Our first "clinical" day we had to sit through the hospital's student orientation to go over HIPAA, appearance/dress code, sign some forms, etc and we got a tour of the main floors we would be rotating on. The second day we were partnered with one of the CNAs and basically followed and helped them for the shift. Vitals, ADLs, toileting, etc. As the semester progressed we slowly got to use hints we were learning. We couldn't do any med pass until after the first pharmacology test, but after that we all did one med pass per clinical day unless you were assigned somewhere special like cath lab or with a wound nurse. You won't get to do a lot of "nurse" stuff until towards the end of first semester, which is good because you need to get the basics down first before moving on to invasive procedures like foleys and IVs.

Trauma Columnist · Jul 14, 2016

Moved to general nursing student