What is something from nursing school that has been the most beneficial to you

[almost30]

Just wondering what things or skills that you learned in nursing school have been the most beneficial to you as a working nurse. Is there something that you learned that you still do that way because that is how you learned it in nursing school or have you just built upon what you learned there. Anyhow, tell me what you think, I am interested in hearing what you all have to say.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

I will never forget our first clinical day. After passing bkfst trays (one of my classmates delivered one to a patient who was stone cold dead in the bed!) we assembled in the clean utility room at one point during our tour of the unit. Our instructor picked up a big brown glass jar of sterile applicators (essentially long wooden-handled Q-tips) and said, "Who can tell me how to get one of these out without contaminating the rest?"

We looked at each other nervously. Finally one brave soul said, "Use a pair of sterile forceps to pick one up?"

And our instructor said, "Very good. Who can think of another way?"

And the light just dawned on me. Another way? It's OK to think of another way? She WANTS us to think of another way? There IS another way? Wow!

Ever since then-- and it's been more than forty years, good lord-- I have looked for another, evidence-based way to solve problems. It's a very satisfying way to practice when the immediate answer isn't to hand and you have to figure it out.

The bad side is that I am VERY bad at hearing, "That's just the way we do it here."

[RN276]

In nursing school I got into the habit taking time at the beginning of a shift to get organized. Today, I still take those few minutes to plan (as best I can) and it always pay off.

[TheMoonisMyLantern, LPN, RN]

In nursing school one of my instructors told us once, "The secret to having a good therapeutic relationship with most of your patients is simple, don't be an a*shole."

That piece of advice has carried me a long way.

[Old.Timer]

In my opinion, nursing school does not prepare you to be a nurse--it prepares you to LEARN to be a nurse after you graduate. A new nurse graduate should have the skills s/he needs to learn to be a nurse, and hopefully will start a job where the rest of the staff and their preceptor will be prepared to help complete that education.

That is an excellent way of phrasing it. So very true but often forgotten !

[resumecpr]

"All bleeding eventually stops."

[Jules A, MSN]

i love amarilla's advice to get a second set of eyes if something seems off. that is invaluable because when your gut is signaling you very often there is something wrong.

probably the most important thing i learned was to get a feel for the dynamics of co-workers on the units. being able to fit in and get along with the team is huge and doesn't always happen by accident it takes insight and work. i viewed every clinical experience as a job interview and was able to have a job offer from one of my rotations before i graduated.

[bsyrn, ASN, RN]

If you make a mistake ( and you will...we all have) report it right away. Most things can be fixed if reported in a timely manner.

[Aeterna, BSN, RN]

In my opinion, nursing school does not prepare you to be a nurse--it prepares you to LEARN to be a nurse after you graduate. A new nurse graduate should have the skills s/he needs to learn to be a nurse, and hopefully will start a job where the rest of the staff and their preceptor will be prepared to help complete that education.

I agree wholeheartedly.

As someone else said, no nurse is ever 100% ready straight out of school to take on real world nursing and succeed right away. It takes learning and practice.

I remember confiding in one of my third year instructors that I didn't feel ready for my fourth and final year clinicals because I had so many more skills to learn. I felt totally unprepared and afraid that I'd fail. She told me (I'm paraphrasing from memory here), "Don't worry about the skills. That's not what I'm trying to teach you. You'll learn those when you need to. We teach parents [note: this was in a pediatric setting at the time] to start G-tube feeds for their kids and they pick it up just fine. You will, too. What I want you to learn is how to think critically, to piece together the details and see the big picture. If you can do that, you'll do well."

Also, one of my other third year instructors (in my psychiatric placement) taught us the value of seeing the patient as a person and not as an illness.

"He's a person with schizophrenia, not 'a schizophrenic', just the same as the person with diabetes, not 'the diabetic'."

In fact, one our very first day on the psych floor, she absolutely forbade us to look up our patients' histories and diagnoses. We were simply to go in, introduce ourselves, and talk to them. Of course, these were fairly stable patients, so no one aggressive, but it still helped us to see past "crazy" and talk to them as person-to-person.

[Up2nogood RN, RN]

When in doubt wash your hands. Of course this wouldn't apply to an emergent situation but this strategy has helped me more than once get my head wrapped around a predicament without looking like an idiot just standing there.

[alphabetsoup]

1) "ABCs- you will never be wrong for addressing ABCs first"

2) (After making a mistake)- "You can do one post-mortem on it and then you have to move on."

[TinyHineyRN]

One of my nursing instructors told us once, "Water is stupid. Water follows sodium everywhere it goes."

You know what? Its does! And I ALWAYS think of that when I have a patient with SIADH or cerebral salt wasting!

The same teacher referred to anti-diuretic hormone as "don't pee-hormone" and SIADH was "too much don't pee-hormone"

To this day, when I have a kid with SIADH or diabetes insipidus, I have to repeat that to myself to keep them straight! She also told us a story of a person with DI drinking out of the toilet b/c they were so "thirsty". I can NEVER get that image out of that mind!

[joanna73, BSN, RN]

Handwashing

ABCs

ABG Values and Electrolytes

Documentation: not charted means not done!