Oh where to begin...the time is just flying by. We have just wrapped up our eighth week of classes and fourth week of clinicals. This semester our clinical situation is similar to last semester. We have a total of 9 weeks of clinicals and 3 of those weeks we have to spend on campus in a clinical simulation. So lucky me...my on-campus time is right in the middle of my clinicals...meaning I spent three weeks at my clinical location (healthsouth) and I'm now on campus for 2 more weeks and then I'll go back to healthsouth for 3 more weeks! :)
I've really tried to go into the campus-clinicals with a positive attitude but this past week was torture! We do a lot of acting out situations and it's really hard to take the scenario serious when others are laughing and joking about the situation. I think the instructors get overwhelmed sometimes or run out of activities for us to do and try and use up as much time by asking questions like, "so how did this situation make you feel?" or "tell me what you think we were trying to get you to realize..." Hahaha...for all you nurses/nursing students out there...our instructors do a great job at coming up with open-ended questions (aka therapeutic communication).
Well that's enough complaining about campus clinicals because no matter how much I want to fight it or talk about how much I don't like it...it is what it is and there's not any chance for us to get out of it..so I suppose I'll suck it up and be as great an actress as possible ;)
Actual clinicals are great! I love the place that I'm at and I've had the opportunity to work with some interesting patients and some really great nurses. I think one of the most accurate and funny things I've heard is a nurse share with me what she felt it was to be a nurse. She told me, "I'm a jack of all trades and master of none!" Initially, I just laughed and thought nothing of it; however, as the day continued on I'd to little tasks that I'm good at, but not great at...and I heard in the back of my mind, "jack of all trades and master of none." In a strange way that bothered me, for those of you who may not know I tend to struggle with perfectionism. Nursing is the type of career that you never perfect...you always learn, change and grow. This is something I'm finding to be truer with each passing day and something that I'm working on accepting.
I had a patient that was labeled a difficult, rude, unpleasant patient. I was worried about going in to meet this patient because of the comments that had been made from the other staff. I reminded myself though that that was their own assessment/opinion and I needed to enter her room with an open mind...as far as I knew she had a clean slate. At first she did seem a little standoffish but the more time I spent with her and the more I showed her that I really cared about her and wanted to offer (as little as it may be) as much help to her as I could, she started to open up. I think what she wanted was for someone to take a little time and actually talk to her and hear her out. I like to take people that have been stereotyped and labeled as a rude patient and prove it wrong. I think the biggest thing is realizing that this person has more to their life than whatever illness has brought them to the hospital. I don't know exactly where this woman has been or how she has been treated..and regardless of what she may, or may not tell me, you never know how much of it is the truth. So the next time someone tells you to avoid "so-and-so" because they're in one of "those" moods...try and remember that maybe their situation isn't what we may think it is...we haven't walked in their shoes...
Now that I'm done preaching I just wanted to share one last quote that I heard this past week...and I don't remember exactly where I heard it so I can't give the person who said it credit but it was this, "Hard work beats talent and talent doesn't work as hard!" So I'm going to work harder at having a better attitude with my campus clinicals. I'm going to work hard at becoming the best jack-of-all-trades that I can be. And I'm going to work hard at going into each patients room with an open mind and allowing them to show me who they really are...or who they aren't!
I've had the experience you had regarding that patient many times. Rarely, you will encounter a patient who is genuinely not a nice person, who will be pleased with nothing that is done for them (this often seems to be connected to patients who report vague inexplicable pain and give repeated demands for narcotics, but that's besides the point). But most of them time, I've found that these patients who've been given a "difficult" label are people who are in a tough or anxiety-producing situation and are having difficulty coping, or even simply have a personality type that didn't mesh well with the previous nurse. And learning to go into those patients' rooms with an open mind, despite what you've heard, you will find opens the doors to really meeting them where they are and connecting with them in a meaningful way. They may not remember your name later, but they will remember that someone took the time to interact with them as a whole person, not just a medical case.
ReplyDeletePerfectionism isn't a bad thing to have as a nurse, so long as you take the approach that you are always learning and working towards perfection. No one person can possibly know everything, and even mastery in your field takes years. Like every other nurse, I've made mistakes (that thankfully were not serious), but sometimes it's those little mistakes that teach you far more caution and care than a whole heaping pile of successes.
Work to constantly develop the outlook on caring for patients that you have right now, and you will be a great nurse. I love reading your entries on nursing school, because sometimes, in the real world, those reminders of "oh yeah, that's what nursing is supposed to be about" become truly necessary when work gets bogged down by budget cuts, getting called in, and mountains of charting.
Rebecca
Thanks Becca! That's some really awesome advise!! What kind of unit are you on right now?
ReplyDeleteI am still doing OB. The hospital here is has an LDRP unit, so I do labor, postpartum, and well-baby care. I'm kinda worried that my high risk skills and already puny medical skills are going down the drain, but otherwise, it's pretty nice. They staff really well here, which helps a lot.
ReplyDeleteSo exciting!!! Next semester we do OB and I'm looking forward to it! I'm sure that if you needed to pull out those skills that you'd be able to remember them! I'm pretty sure that OB is what I want to do, but I'm thinking, and hearing that it's a good idea to start on a med-surg floor first just so that you can get your skills in and really work on everything that you've learned and then go into whatever you want to specialize in. We'll see though..I think I'll just be happy to take whatever job I can get when I graduate!
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