My experience in the hospital for my first clinical was very exciting. It brought back the memories I had of when I used to work in the emergency department in high school. Although the unit that I was on is not as fast pace as it was when I worked in the emergency department, I did enjoy the environment.
The first time I walked into my patient’s room to care for them, I was a little worried that my patient would deny me to be there nurse and ask for someone who was not a student or someone with more experience. I thought that they would say something to extent of them not wanting a student to be taking care of them. But to my surprise she was very happy to have a student nurse.
When I performed an injection for the first time, I was extremely nervous. All I kept thinking was “I can’t mess this up… if I mess this up I’m screwed”. But it turned out to not be as bad as I thought it would be. My instructor walked me through what I was supposed to do prior to giving the injection and she also reassured me, which really helped me to remain, calm. The only difficultly I had was using the safety part on the needle. I couldn’t figure how to use it. But my instructor showed me to pull the top of the needle all the way up. My patient told me that I had did a great job and that she didn’t even feel a thing. Just hearing that comment made me feel more confident about giving another patient an injection.
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In addition to that, I didn’t feel very confident with completing my care plan correctly. I had to consult with other people on how to exactly do some parts on the care plan. It was also a little overwhelming to have to understand my patients’ diagnoses and why they were diagnosed with what they were diagnosed
I was then introduced to a patient who was in isolation. Her legs were immovable and were crossed in a very uncomfortable position. I wish I could’ve done something so that her legs could be in a more comfortable position, but all I could do was observe and get her a cup of ice cold water to drink. During this clinical observation, I didn’t get to see much but overall, it was a good experience. It made me realize what it was like to be in a hospital setting and what it meant to be a nurse. Seeing how the patients were still able to smile through all the pain they went through, it made me want to become a nurse even more because I would also like to make my patients happy. If I could do one thing differently during this clinical observation, I wish I didn’t ask my senior nurse about what externships she took and instead, I wished I asked her more questions about the patients in order to gain more information about
As a medical / surgical RN, I provided care for the elderly, the infirm, the mentally challenged, the young, and the psychologically disturbed. The wide variety of patients exposed me to the effects of life style choices, health care choices, and the resulting impacts to the patient as well as to the family of the patient. This experience has fully matured my view of the awesome responsibility that we, as health care professionals, have been charged with, and it has furthered my desire to obtain the skills necessary to provide more advanced care for my patients. In addition to exposure, maturity and experience, my career as a medical / surgical RN has also sharpened my critical thinking abilities and provided insight on observing signs and symptoms that a patient may be unware of. Furthermore, as a charge nurse I learned the importance of collaborating with other health care professionals in order to provide the highest level of care available. In summary, my career as an RN has provided valuable experience, maturity, exposure to impact and outcome, enhanced my critical thinking abilities, and improved my collaboration
When I started my first job as a nurse in the Surgical Care Unit I was a novice nurse, I did not have experience, I lacked of the confidence to demonstrate safe practice and I required continual verbal and physical cues in from my preceptor. I was developing my nursing judgement and the graduated nurse residency program offered lectures and clinical experience that helped me to
Look back: During my third week clinical experience, I did both computer charting and paper charting (for maternal assessment) with nursing care plan. Besides charting, I reported my significant findings of the mother verbally to the primary nurse.
Overall, I retain three goals for this clinical day: Safely and efficently administer medication, enhance my nursing/CNA skills, and determine how to implement infection control into a health care setting. This week reflects my assigned time to administer medication in a health care setting for the first time, with a resident who retains nearly twenty medications. I except this experience will be a great learning experience, but it will also subsist slightly stressful. With the assistance of my FOR, my goal is to administer all of my resident 's medications without complications. To ensure that medication safety, I will perform the six medication rights and three checks prior to administration. Along with medication administration, a goal
The next time I walked into a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit was as a fourth year medical student. This time not as a spectator, but as a medical professional expec...
This experience will definitely influence my future practice; my action plan would be using those teaching strategies in preparing students to face the clinical environment, to ensure optimal patients’ health outcomes and it helps to build a competent and independent clinician.
harm is. When a nurse gives an injection she is causing the patient pain but
Although students were not allowed in the recovery unit, I was able to talk to one of the recovery nurses. I learned that a nurse’s duty of care includes monitoring the patient’s vital signs and level of consciousness, and maintaining airway patency. Assessing pain and the effectiveness of pain management is also necessary. Once patients are transferred to the surgical ward, the goal is to assist in the recovery process, as well as providing referral details and education on care required when the patient returns home (Hamlin, 2010).
I believe placing student nurses in the clinical setting is vital in becoming competent nurses. Every experience the student experiences during their placement has an educative nature therefore, it is important for the students to take some time to reflect on these experiences. A specific situation that stood out to me from my clinical experience was that; I didn’t realize I had ignored the patient’s pain until I was later asked by the nurse if the patient was in any pain.
Working as a nurse is far from clear-cut. With fresh faces and new tragedies pilling one by one, every patient’s story is another black hole dragging me into the depths of something much bigger than I am. However, I wouldn’t have it any other way. The warm, fuzzy feeling that circles your heart, knowing that you made a difference in the world. The adrenaline spikes that pierce your soul when you're in the heat of the moment, praying that this patient won’t fall into the hands of death.
Luckily, I am very comfortable with patients, which made providing care very easy. I was not afraid to go into other patient’s rooms if they rang for help. I would try my best to help the patients; however, if I needed help I was not afraid to ask a fellow student or nurse on the staff. It is very important to be able to talk to patients and work as a team with fellow coworkers as it made the job easier. On the other hand, I need to go over mother and baby assessments to become more familiar with both. I was able to complete the assessments; I now need to do so in a timelier manner while ensuring I do not forget any key areas. Lastly, it is vital that I continue to go over patient teaching prior to clinical. Being comfortable with the patients made the teaching easier, though I need to become more familiar with all the material that needs to be taught.
I was both excited and scared on my first day. I was curious about everything that I could see, smell and hear. I was excited because everything was new to me. The office was very quiet, all the physicians were concentrate on their work. Everything in the office was organized very well. The equipments were gleaming as they attracted me to touch. The smell of the ink was still dimly in the air. I got a little scared when I stepped into the hallway. It was really crowded, people seem very busy no matter if they were patients or physicians. People were everywhere. It was really easy to pump into someone. Rapid footsteps made flap sounds on the marble floor. The smell of the hospital special antiseptic solutions was very pungent. The call bells in the wards were very sharp, and they were coupled with the red lights in front of the wards and white walls. I had never felt more nervous before. I felt dazed because I had no idea what I could do, but this was piqued my fighting will more. Overall, I like this place. The department where I worked in was called the comprehensive internal medicine ward, and it also included a rheumatology clinic. Though I had volunteered in hospital for a very long time in school, I’ve never got a chance to get in the real business as a volunteer. So I was eager to learn everything. My instructor was a really person. He was near my father’s age, so he took care of me like his daughter....
There was a lot of terminology and abbreviations being used that I don't yet know. But then it was also rewarding to hear information about patients that I did recognize and be able to say I know about that and I understand what that diagnosis is. I really liked how my nurse explained to me how she chooses to pick which patient to work with first because I feel like that can be a hard task at times when every patient is needing something. It made sense to me that you would first go to the pediatric patients as long as nobody was in a tight time restraint.
As soon as I got to the floor one of the nurses pulled into a room to see an SVT. She said the ambulance would be bringing the patient in and this would be a good thing for me to see. At that moment I felt some my anxiety lessen. I was happy to see that the nurses wanted me to learn and see whatever I could. I loved it in the ER. I got to see a variety of cases that were new to me. The nurse I shadowed would explain everything to me when we left the room and if an emergency came in she would ask the other nurses if I could observe. I loved the way the staff worked together. A patient would come in and the primary nurse would be in the room and another nurse would be on the other side of the patient helping. Nursing is by far a career that takes teamwork and in the ER you could really see it. I like that in the ER you see all different cases and this helps keep your skills