Hound dog
Nana's are Beautiful
First day of 3rd quarter clinicals was today. I lucked out this quarter and they had decided our class was still to large for one instructor to watch everyone do medications so they broke us up into 2 groups at 2 different hospitals. The 2nd hospital is the one here in town. (the one I won't go to as a patient lol) I chose it because gas to cincy gets mighty expensive and getting up before 4 am is just not my style.
New clinical instructor is a nice nurse. Actually have "known" her for many years as she's cared for many family members both when she ran the OB dept and when she worked ER. She was one who cared for me when I got hit by the truck and careflighted to dayton. I remember seeing her working on me and thinking "at least they gave me the nurse with a brain" lol (odd the things that go thru your mind)
Anyway............time for the freakout. Our reg nursing instructor/clinical instructor goes SLOW. Last quarter we focused on assessments, bed baths, bed making, basic patient care and charting. That could seem overwhelming enough at times. This quarter her group will have 1 day in outpatient dept to practice putting in IV's. One day to observe surgery. They'll be passing insulin. Period. Plus what they did last quarter.
We were given our schedules in advance (other lady doesn't do that). There are 3 days when you do nothing but IVs.....when you go to surgery, ER, and endoscopy. We go to each of these depts twice during the quarter. (6 days of doing nothing but IVs instead of just 2 and the random patient who needs one) We won't be doing baths and bed making unless our aides need help. We'll be passing all medications we'll be allowed to pass once we pass our state boards and doing all procedures we'd be allowed to do as nurses. And we'll be doing patient care on 2 patients instead of just one.
Those of us who will be doing IVs all day tomorrow nearly went into panic attacks. We've seen the procedure ONCE. We've practiced it ONCE. (some badly) We're not even close to being checked off on it. Lucky me happens to be going to surgery tomorrow. So I'm one of them. So I spoke up and told the instructor we've basically had no experience and haven't much a clue as to what we're doing........and didn't even get to practice on a real person. Those dummies are so easy to do I could do it blindfolded for pete's sake, nothing like a real person.
So I volunteered to be the "patient" and let her put an IV in so we could see it done on a person up close and personal. Me being patient mean I got to really see it up close. lol She showed us tricks other instructor left out ( a lot of them). So I do feel a bit better about it now. Guess I should feel good I'm getting the really scary thing out of the way first. Except I'm scheduled for it again the last day of clinical. lol Actually I'm more worried about doing intramuscular injections than putting a needle into a vein. Phlebotomy wasn't for nothing.
She swears she has never flunked a clinical student in 10 yrs. I told her I'm holding her to it.
I may have done well on the final for pharm last quarter, but I still don't feel like I know it at all. And with all the new stuff to remember......and 2 patients, 4 when someone goes to break or lunch, whew. We'll basically be doing exactly what we'll be doing as nurses....just with less patients and her there to make sure we don't hurt someone.
Just a wee bit intimidating when you're only half way through. Other group won't be at this point until next quarter. Some of those students are going to be mighty ticked off because they chose the cincy hospital thinking they'd get to do more there. lol Oh, well.
So now we're getting down to the nitty gritty. Not complaining, got to learn it sometime. But whew.....going to have to watch my panic levels and make myself remember once I get the hang of it I'll be fine.
Thanks for letting me wig out and ramble a bit.
New clinical instructor is a nice nurse. Actually have "known" her for many years as she's cared for many family members both when she ran the OB dept and when she worked ER. She was one who cared for me when I got hit by the truck and careflighted to dayton. I remember seeing her working on me and thinking "at least they gave me the nurse with a brain" lol (odd the things that go thru your mind)
Anyway............time for the freakout. Our reg nursing instructor/clinical instructor goes SLOW. Last quarter we focused on assessments, bed baths, bed making, basic patient care and charting. That could seem overwhelming enough at times. This quarter her group will have 1 day in outpatient dept to practice putting in IV's. One day to observe surgery. They'll be passing insulin. Period. Plus what they did last quarter.
We were given our schedules in advance (other lady doesn't do that). There are 3 days when you do nothing but IVs.....when you go to surgery, ER, and endoscopy. We go to each of these depts twice during the quarter. (6 days of doing nothing but IVs instead of just 2 and the random patient who needs one) We won't be doing baths and bed making unless our aides need help. We'll be passing all medications we'll be allowed to pass once we pass our state boards and doing all procedures we'd be allowed to do as nurses. And we'll be doing patient care on 2 patients instead of just one.
Those of us who will be doing IVs all day tomorrow nearly went into panic attacks. We've seen the procedure ONCE. We've practiced it ONCE. (some badly) We're not even close to being checked off on it. Lucky me happens to be going to surgery tomorrow. So I'm one of them. So I spoke up and told the instructor we've basically had no experience and haven't much a clue as to what we're doing........and didn't even get to practice on a real person. Those dummies are so easy to do I could do it blindfolded for pete's sake, nothing like a real person.
So I volunteered to be the "patient" and let her put an IV in so we could see it done on a person up close and personal. Me being patient mean I got to really see it up close. lol She showed us tricks other instructor left out ( a lot of them). So I do feel a bit better about it now. Guess I should feel good I'm getting the really scary thing out of the way first. Except I'm scheduled for it again the last day of clinical. lol Actually I'm more worried about doing intramuscular injections than putting a needle into a vein. Phlebotomy wasn't for nothing.
She swears she has never flunked a clinical student in 10 yrs. I told her I'm holding her to it.
I may have done well on the final for pharm last quarter, but I still don't feel like I know it at all. And with all the new stuff to remember......and 2 patients, 4 when someone goes to break or lunch, whew. We'll basically be doing exactly what we'll be doing as nurses....just with less patients and her there to make sure we don't hurt someone.
Just a wee bit intimidating when you're only half way through. Other group won't be at this point until next quarter. Some of those students are going to be mighty ticked off because they chose the cincy hospital thinking they'd get to do more there. lol Oh, well.
So now we're getting down to the nitty gritty. Not complaining, got to learn it sometime. But whew.....going to have to watch my panic levels and make myself remember once I get the hang of it I'll be fine.
Thanks for letting me wig out and ramble a bit.
