 Hi, and thank you for watching Nursing School Explained. This video is designed to help you prepare for your clinical rotation, whether or not this might be your first or any subsequent clinical rotations. So let's start to look at this. Clinical first things first. Before you go to clinical, most likely you're going to start your shift very early in the morning. The shift a lot of time starts around seven, so maybe your medial instructor at 6.30 or 6.15 in the morning. So please make sure you get plenty of sleep the night before so that you can be awake and alert times four when the time comes. Eat a breakfast. Nursing gets very busy and very tasky. Sometimes students get caught up in doing certain activities and they forgot to eat in the morning and then they get really hungry and they can't really absorb the information well. So get in a breakfast, whatever that means for you. Make sure that it's something on the healthy side that you can digest preferably something with some fiber that will last you for the morning. Wear a uniform and depending on if you're running hot or cold bring a cover up or make sure that you're dressed in layers. Again whatever layers your program approves is recommended because sometimes you have to put on isolation gear and you get really hot and sometimes hospitals run on the cold side and so then you would want to have a cover there with you. Wear comfortable shoes. I cannot address how important this is. It's not about the design and if the shoes are cute or not, they are, it's all about functionality. If your shoes are not comfortable, you're going to be suffering at the end of the day. So make sure that you are adhering to your uniform policy but wear the comfiest shoes possible. Along with that I highly recommend compression stockings. Compression stockings can be a lifesaver. You most likely spend a lot of time on your feet and compression stockings help with that Venus return, help to support the muscles of those lower leg muscle leg of the lower legs so that you can not experience the leg fatigue. Although you will be tired from compression stockings will make a huge difference. It brings lunch because sometimes you get half an hour for lunch and you get to the cafeteria and there's a line that will take you 15 minutes to get through. Then you have 15 minutes to eat and go back up to let's say the seventh floor that does not leave you enough time for lunch. So pack your own lunch and store it wherever is appropriate according to the unit that you're on. Also bring several snacks, something that you can very easily eat, a granola bar, a piece of fruit, something that you can easily accessible that you can just eat on the run really quickly that doesn't require a whole lot of mixing or sit-down because you will be busy. And then certainly bring water, a water bottle, make sure that you comply with the hospital or the agency's regulations on where you can keep that water bottle but make sure you have it with you because again you will be very busy moving around all day so you need to stay hydrated as well as feed your brain by eating breakfast, bringing lunch and several snacks to get through the clinical day. Now for your tools make sure you have all your tools with you that would be your name badge whether it's your school or hospital ID. A stethoscope is essential for a nurse as well as a watch with a second hand, pen or any kind of color-coded pen that you think would be beneficial for you. A clipboard if this is something that you'd like to use, whatever computer access if you have received that from your facility so that way you can access the patient's record, look up all those things that you need to write your care plans as well as start your assessment findings and any of these other things that you'll be providing for your patients. And then the nurses brain. A nurses brain if you haven't heard about is basically a piece of paper that nurses use for note-taking or report-taking that has a lot of details on there regarding patient care. Now I've experienced students who make their own nursing brains that kind of follow however their brain works and there are a lot of different formats that you can look online or maybe check with your nursing instructor as well as maybe any nursing students who are a semester or two ahead of you that can help you with figuring out different nursing brains. On your orientation they make sure that you know where to park and where to meet and get there early depending again on the time of day and the parking might be in a different structure different part of the hospital or the facility that's going to require you to walk across campus or maybe even take a shuttle so get there early and know where to park and where to meet your clinical group and then get yourself familiar with the hospital unit that you'll be on so know where the clean room is the dirty room where are the supplies kept where is the kitchen where can I put my own lunch where can I get food and water for patients where is the bathroom right you're going to need to know these very basic things so that you can function for eight or twelve hours shift depending on how long you're there. Now when it comes to reviewing the chart and research the patient there are certain things that are going to be very beneficial for you if you are early in your nursing school career then you might need to go there for what's called a preclinical sometimes which means that you go there to the facility that they before and you look up certain data of your patient. Now most likely you've in orientation you've had some sort of an orientation to the computer system but get used to how to navigate through the computer system so that you can find the data that you need and that includes the history and physical is usually a very good place to start is also referred to as the H&P or the admission note so that will tell you why the patient's there it'll go into their past medical history allergy social history and a lot of the details that you will need then look up the patient's admission diagnosis there might be one or multiple look up the labs that they've had now if they've been there for three weeks there's no way you're going to be able to write down all the labs that they've had over all three weeks so maybe look at the admission labs and then the most current ones and then any trends in between medications that the patient is currently on and check with your clinical instructor regarding PRN medications that are only given as needed because you may or may not be required to look those up for your patients and then past medical and past surgical history and that is only pertinent information to their admission diagnosis so don't look up everything that the patient ever had done surgically when it really doesn't apply to why they're there right now allergies are going to be important as well as code status so in case something happens and the code blue is called on your patient do you know what the patient's wishes are in case that happens because we certainly want to make sure that we honor the patient's wishes social history might be something important to look up and then diagnostic tests so diagnostic tests are usually radiology reports such as x-rays, cat skins, MRI, whatever other tests you can think of and they can sometimes be very confusing because there'll be one or two or three pages long and there'll be a lot of terms that you might not be familiar with so here's a hint clinical look at the impression so a lot of times the radiology that's all they do right the radiologist reads x-ray and radiology reports and they are very very detailed about their findings which is what they need to be but at the very end of the report there will be a section saying impression which is basically a summary of their findings so you will it's the abbreviated version of their report so look at that so you don't get confused looking through all these medical terms that you might not be familiar with now when it comes to patient care and the first thing here is be assertive so introduce yourself to the patient and tell them that you are student nurse and what your goals are for the day hi my name is susan i am your student nurse today i will be helping you with your personal care with your breakfast i will be performing a head to toe assessment and not be administering your medications at noon so set these expectations with your patients so that they know what you're there for and don't be timid a lot of times i find students who have not had much experience in patient care they start by saying is it okay if i do my assessment is it okay if i do this or that but what do you do if the patient says no then your clinical day is completely thrown off right so set these expectations be assertive say hi my name is susan i am here to do your physical assessment today i am a student nurse so it might take me a little bit longer than the other nurses but please bear with me this is a good learning opportunity for me and you will see how receptive most patients are to students and they'll be very patient and they'll be very willing to help you so be assertive and then build a good relationship with the primary nurse and set expectations and what you will or will not be doing so you might have one or two patients in clinical but the nurse sometimes has four or five so it's a very busy shift for them and some nurses see you as helpers which is a good opportunity for you to jump in and do some of the things within the scope and within what you've been already been authorized to do by your program and your clinical instructor of course but you will be a great help to the nurse but set expectations don't have them assume that you're going to be administering the id medications when this is something that you haven't learned how to do yet so tell them what it is i'm going to do my assessment i'm going to base the patient and i'm going to give p o medications at nine o'clock so just set these expectations so that they know what to be looking for and then the other thing here is don't miss report nursing hang-up is one of the most important and critical elements of your day because you will get the report from the previous nurse where they will share all the details with you that you might not have gathered from the chart or maybe things have changed now in the last 12 hours or eight hours that they've been on shape so this will be the most important part of your day is that report if you miss it and that nurse that was before you give a report is gone the nurse that now has received report and takes care of four or five other patients they will not be very interested in giving you this report that they've just received because you were late or something else happened and you missed the report so do not miss the report in general clinical is a very valuable learning experience for you where you can get the hands-on experience that you really need to be proficient in interacting with your patient and caring for them but by sticking to these very basic principles you will have a great and successful day so i hope you enjoyed this video please subscribe leave me comments below also check on instagram where i have helpful clinical hints coming up here and i will see you soon here on nursing school explained