Have a Stellar Clinical Experience
October 12, 2009 · Category: ANA/C
Author: Nicole R. Marcy, BPH, BSN, RN, ANA\C Secretary, 2009-20011 nicole@anacalifornia.org
1) Take Initiative:
If you want to get more out of your clinical experience, chuck fear and turn it into respect. Once your perspective switches, you are able to go with an eager inquisitiveness. Don’t try to blend into the wall and claim you didn’t know what to do or how to do it or where to put it. Introduce yourself and ask questions.
2) Be Accountable:You know what you’re supposed to do…so do it. Actively seek situations to enhance your education. The RNs were once students, so they know that you should tend to hygiene, urinals, I &O, beds, dirty linen, vital signs, turn patients, walk patients, feed patients, assist with bedpans, blood sugars, medications, verify medication effectiveness, talk with patients, direct hospital guests and so on. How is it that so often the nursing students end up standing around?
3) Communicate:Introduce yourself. Find out who the RN is that is responsible for the patient. The RN takes full responsibility for all that happens with their patients, not the LVN, nor the Patient Care Tech, nor the Certified Nursing Assistant, nor anyone else. In school you learn what is normal and abnormal, and you know that if something is abnormal then you have to tell the RN as soon as possible. Inform the RN within five minutes. Don’t forget.
4) Be Realistic:
“I didn’t take the vital signs because they were sleeping.” If the vital signs aren’t taken, the show cannot go on. Patients are at the hospital receiving medical services for a serious medical condition which was warranted life threatening enough to be hospitalized, and you have tons of work to do in a short period of time to ensure timely and safe treatment to all. This is not easy. Are you going to put everything on hold and go room to room to room trying to catch the patients when it’s convenient for them? You are the one in charge.
RNs are there to save lives. RNs have the medical and technical aspect; however, RNs care for the whole patient. The patient is hospitalized for close monitoring and because they are sick enough to the point where they cannot take care of themselves, or they wouldn’t be there.
Some are more able than others, yet no matter where you are, there are the core nursing skills — beds, toileting, hygiene, feeding, vitals signs, physical activity, medications and so forth. Always be on the lookout for signs of life-threatening changes in all patients while working about the area.
Try where you can to accommodate and provide choices. We are taught that in nursing school, but you’ll have to devise other ways of accommodating which do not delay your obligation of quality and safe medical services.
5) Ignore Nurse Ratched:
Understand that, for better or worse, not all RNs that you interact with are equipped to work with students. Don’t have unrealistic expectations. It’s not personal and they are not a bad person or a bad nurse. Some nurses love teaching but aren’t good teachers. Some nurses hate teaching but are forced into the role once their facility decides to take students. Some RNs love it and are good at it. Everyone is different.
RNs have a lot of responsibility and are extremely busy. The student has a lot of questions that have to be answered carefully while not breaking the RN’s concentration or speed; multitasking at its finest. I know the students think, “But I’m helping the RN.” Students more often than not do slow the RN. Sometimes, in order to fulfill their obligation to the patients, to themselves and to the employer, teaching may get bumped. By doing everything that you can to help, you, the RN, the patient, the medical organization, your school and everyone comes out better off.
When you do run into the infamous Nurse Ratched so aptly attacking her young – ignore them! You go about your wonderful business and do not let them get to you. You hold your chin up and be the best nurse that you are. Be the role model of professional behavior. You too will likely be working with students one day. It’s the timeless age-old saying, “Everything which goes around comes around.” That Nurse Ratched will fade into disappearance eventually; no longer will Nurse Ratched be tolerated. Who knows why they’re that way? It’s not up to us to solve. Everyone is responsible for themselves and working hard to create a pleasant environment, which all nurses, patients, hospital staff and visitors benefit from. You are the change that you seek.
RNs are happy to see students for a variety of reasons. Here’s a misperception which people like to joke about: The RN is not trying to maliciously dump grunt work onto the poor, helpless, innocent, slave student. Snap out of it! A vast majority of students come to clinical having zero hands-on patient care or having been in a medical environment in their entire lives. The environment is foreign. This is why the simplest of activities can be the gems of your experience, whether you realize it now or years later in retrospect. Just being there is key. You are absorbing every detail, both consciously and subconsciously.
RNs are happy to see the students, because we are all so painfully aware of the nursing shortage and are thrilled to see you, because it is reassurance that the pipeline isn’t empty. There are willing, able people to come work alongside us. Everyone is lifted up.
Take initiative, be positive, be accountable, communicate, seek learning opportunities, overcome fears, feel respect, prove that you care and stay realistic and empathetic.
You will soon be an RN!
