Working on ortho unit advice please

[iliket0fuu]

Hi everyone! So I'm a student precepting in an ortho unit and so far I just got through my 4th day. My preceptor is nice, but yesterday she sat me down after our shift and told me I was unfocused and disorganized and to work on it for next time. She said I shouldn't be asking her about how to work the IV pump (when hanging piggybacks) or EPIC system already since it's my 4th day. I actually knew how to work them both, but I looked to her because I thought she wanted to confirm I was doing everything right... plus, students aren't allowed to do anything with IVs on our own.

She's given me one patient to start off with, but she won't let met have total care of the patient. She'll talk to the patient and tell me what to do in terms of caring the patient, but I kind of want to practice talking to my patient too since patient communication is something I suck at...

Anyways, this is a long post but I wanted to ask advice on many things. What's the best way to hang IV fluids (without getting the cords all jumbled up)? When to clear the IV pump to document I&Os? How to approach your patient during start of shift? Also, for those who use EPIC, how do you look at active orders? There's orders that overlap sometimes and it gets confusing.