Some Helpful Hints for Clinicals

Being punctual reflects your professionalism and indicates you take your education and nursing student role seriously. Carry the essentials, which include: the latest pocket drug and disease reference guide (a 1999 drug guide is already out-dated.); stethoscope; penlight; hemo-stats;
scissors; and calculator.

SET GOALS
Maximize your learning by setting daily personal learning goals, based on your clinical preparation and the profiles of your patients. Maybe you will review your patient's 12 lead EKG's in more detail and consult the primary care RN or your nursing faculty about your observations. You may decide to practice more empathy or make extra efforts to converse with families. You are really the one in charge of your learning, and the more responsibility you personally take for your learning, the more pride you will take in your accomplishments.

JOT DOWN "LEARNING GEMS"
Keep a special clinical learning note-book that you can use as a resource throughout your nursing education, in addition to your preclinical preparation notebook. Jot down "learning gems" that highlight key experiences which you can refer to and apply to future situ-ations. Keep a page of steps to recall when performing tracheostomy care, or record the amount of O 2 delivered by various oxygen delivery systems. List therapeutic drug levels or list criteria for clinical depression. This is your PERSONAL reference book -- the best kind!

COMMUNICATE EFFECTIVELY
You must possess good communication skills to succeed in any work envi-ronment, particularly clinicals. Establish a good rapport with your clinical faculty and assigned nurses. Always introduce yourself to everyone on your patient's health care team and work collabora-tively
with them. Make sure you ask questions of your clinical faculty, and keep them informed of your whereabouts and your patient's condition. If you have made an error, inform your supervisor immediately.

KEEP A DAILY SCHEDULE AND TAKE BREAKS
Keep a detailed schedule to be sure you stay on track. Disorganization only leads to stress and increases your chances of making mistakes. Establish priorities and stick to them. For example,
always assess the least critically ill patient first and then spend more time with the more critically ill patient. General and meal time breaks are important for your mental health. Before you go on break report your patients' condition to a colleague, and always notify your
primary RN and clinical faculty, and work your breaks around the schedule of your primary RN.
TAKE ON A CHALLENGE The best way to maximize learning and gain confidence is to ask for challenging clinical assignments and go beyond your comfort zone. Taking care of the sickest patient on the floor can be scary, but intellectually and personally gratifying. Don't be afraid to test yourself -- you have the support of your colleagues and instructors.