Inpatient clinical

I think I mentioned before that I'll also be teaching 2 sections of clinical in a children's hospital. I had one last semester and thoroughly enjoyed myself. And I learned a tremendous amount being in the clinical setting.

Orientation to the unit and hospital is a bit overwhelming for students. They need to become familiar with

• Using the electronic medical record
• Medication administration (and many other) policies
• Fire and safety routines
• Confidentiality rules and regulations
• Growth and development and how they're affected by hospitalization
• Physical assessment approaches to be used with children
• Calculation of medication doses
• Use of IV (and several other) infusion pumps
• Use of cardiorespiratory monitors
• Ways to work with paraprofessional staff
• Where the dining room and restrooms are
• How to chart on the paper flowsheet
• How to monitor IVs and document their infusion
• How to alphanumerically page staff
• Location of the Code cart
• Written requirements for the clinical
• How they'll be evaluated
• Working collaboratively with families

And that's just a partial list of what we'll do the first day after getting our ID badges!

One of the hardest and most frustrating tasks for students is figuring out what I, as their instructor, expect of them. They're seniors so they've experienced subacute, adult, and mental health clinical. While they're doing pediatric nursing, they'll also be doing maternity nursing. So they've had to learn to "go with the flow" and I'm sure they'll do fine.

Despite the lengthy "to do" list for that first day, I'm REALLY looking forward to it. I can't say I'm looking forward to being on the unit at 0630, but there it is.... That's life, right?

Art