A little less hand holding?!?!
That’s right. A little less hand holding.
This was a great last couple of weeks for clinicals.
Last week, I had an adorable client who reminded me of my great-grandmother. I really start to feel like a full-fledged nurse for the first time because I got to advocate for my patient. I set up consults to address stressors outside of the hospital and really built up a rapport over the two days. It was awesome to hear that she was disappointed I wouldn’t be back for a third day. I really accomplished a lot!
This week, the leash was loosened a bit. My instructor really likes for you to take the opportunity to spread your wings if you fell ready because Ortho is a floor where you can do that. You see a lot of the same things (oh, if I see another hip….) which may be boring to some people. I thought it would be boring at first. But then, I realized what an advantage it is to get used to a particular clientele. You really get to test yourself and work faster and add on responsibilities.
For this week, I got a patient on Day 1, did his care, and discharged him home on Day 2. It was awesome! I got to do so many skills by myself- very exciting. My instructor said I was at the level I’m supposed to be at and that I could go in on my own. We would talk it over first…for example the dressing change. She would make sure I was competent and then let me go do it. It was fine since I had already performed all of these skills before.
So, this week I took out a foley catheter, took out an IV, did a dressing change, and administered meds- all on my own! My coassigned nurse peeked her head in while I was doing the dressing change so that she could note it for her own assessment and told me that my dressing change was awesome.
My patient and his spouse both told me I did a great job and how I must have been a straight A student (I wish).
I talked with my instructor about adding on to my assignment- possibly having two patients?? Next week, I’m team lead which is like being Charge Nurse…so I won’t be able to do it then. But the week after is my last week of clinical and she said that would be fine.
She also said how she liked that I was really maximizing my clinical experience because some people in the group were not. And then there were some people in the group not ready to handle that patient load. But she thought that I was more than ready to handle it.
HOO-RAH!
I’m floating on Cloud 9.
Nursing Student Chronicles 