Who actually ENJOYS clinical?

[foreverLaur]

i see so many threads on here about people dreading clinical, complaining about clinical, etc etc... what about those of us that love it?

i am a third quarter adn student. this quarter is my first "real" clinical. first quarter we just did head to toe assessments. second quarter we were supposed to be doing po meds and injections (ob clinical) but the census was low and i never got to do any of that. prior to today, the most i had ever done on a patient was a head to toe assessment. this quarter i am on a cardiac intermediate unit. today was my first day i was assigned a patient. my clinical instructor / nurse pretty much let me do my thing and only stepped in to remind me or something that needed done. great lesson in patient management. i admire the nurses that handle 6-7 patients.

my patient today was admitted with dyspnea. he has pitting edema and vascular browning on his shins/feet from peripheral artery disease. he also has chf, right coronary artery disease, and lad stenosis. however, his ejection fraction was great! he's scheduled for open heart surgery on tuesday.

i took his morning blood sugar and it was wnl. i did, however, have to give him 8 po meds for a garden variety of problems. he also got lovenox subq. the doctor also put him on ancef iv (just in case his legs were infected). he had a picc line, but nothing was hooked up so i had to do that for the first time! one of his lumens was clotted off (wouldn't aspirate or flush) so we had to use the other one. when it was done, i had to d/c it and flush the picc again. his lunchtime blood sugar was higher so i had to use the sliding scale and administer insulin. later, the doctor wanted his foley taken out and a ua c&s done to check for a uti so i had to learn how to draw urine out of the tubing of the foley and then took it out. then he had lasix iv due and i gave that iv push. later that afternoon, they were taking out his picc line and starting a peripheral iv and that was really neat to watch. i also got to remove a peripheral iv that was infiltrated of another patient and attempted (and failed) to start an iv.

i loved clinical today and i thought i did and learned a ton! this was only day #1 - i can't imagine what next week holds! :)

just thought i'd share a happy story about a new and eager nursing student!

[CT Pixie, BSN, RN]

For me, I think once I was allowed to spread my wings and fly solo (of course with a net just in case) to perform all I had read about, been tested on and practiced, I enjoyed clinicals. But it got old quick..I wanted more. I wanted new procedures to learn and perform, I wanted a more sick patient etc..never happy heehee.

[MissJulie]

I'm glad you had such a great day at clinical! I love clinical myself, just not my instructor But, we're changing instructors next week, and I'm going from LTC to acute on a med/surg floor. Even though I'm just a first semester, we're already doing assessments and meds (po, topical, subcut, intradermal, and IM), I've loved all of my patients, but I'm looking forward to some different diagnoses, I've learned a lot from the patients that I've had, but 3/4 had dementia as the primary diagnosis, and the other was COPD.

[Vershonda]

The biggest hurdle for me in clinicals was paperwork and doing it right. The actually experience.wad wonderful..... I'm glad you got to perform a lot of skills.... My advice to you is when you go to clinicals and have caught up on caring for your patient, let the instructor and staff know you are eager to do more skills, they love that and will remember you work ethic.... Good luck

[AgentBeast, MSN, RN]

I love it. I've been doing and seeing all kinds of cool stuff. Although I'll admit I don't mind the "down day" every now and then where you don't do much other than take vitals and change a bed because your patient(s) are going off the floor.

[Despareux]

Love clinicals. Hate most charting systems; they take up too much time--precious time that could be spent with a patient.

[whichone'spink, BSN, RN]

Love clinicals, more than class.

[QuarterLife88, MSN, RN, NP]

I've only had LTC clinical so far as I'm just a first semester, first year, but I love it! Today was great. Yeah, I'm only allowed head to toe assessments/ADLs/ambulating/vitals/bed making so far, but it's great working with real people instead of lab with a partner who has nothing wrong with them and is acting and/or an instructor checking you off. I felt confident even if everything I did wasn't "perfect," I still found my own style to do the same activities (within safe limits of course). My instructor pretty much let us do our thing as well, thus I felt more useful and like "yeah I can do this!"

[lillymom]

I love clinicals but we are a little different. We do a head to toe on a patient and then we follow the nurse around and assist them directly, instead of being assigned a patient. We get to see and do a lot more that way and I love it, especially since our skills are limited in the first semester.

[foreverLaur]

I am in third quarter, so the only nursing skills we haven't gotten to yet are blood and chest tube dressing change (next week). The past two quarters we also shadowed a nurse and assisted as well. It is nice to be "set free" this quarter, but (like another poster mentioned) still have that safety net. I can't wait to see how I progress this quarter and the next 4 quarters into learning more and more and becoming more comfortable. But WOW, I was shocked how tired I was! I was there for 10 hours and I was a lot more tired than I was after a 12 hour shift as a PSA!

[RN_2012, BSN, RN]

I am a third level ADN student and love clinical.

[Pneumothorax, BSN, RN]

i love clinical, it allows me to put what im learning in the book and apply it to an actual patient instead of "imagining" or "simulating" in the lab.

i enjoy the interaction with the primary RN', Docs (the nice ones lol), techs, and allowing my instructor (who is sometimes the one giving lectures) see that i am absorbing the content that they drone on and on about for 3 hrs in class.

i cant imagine why anyone would dread clinical.

im shy by nature, but i just love my patients.. :)