| Needless to say, learning doesn't stop when you've | | | | aware about the process of ordering controlled |
| earned your nursing degree. You will find that once | | | | substances. |
| you enter the real world of nursing, it will seem that | | | | Time management and organizational skills are two of |
| everything you learned in school is just a fraction of | | | | the most valuable skills that nurses have to learn yet |
| what you have to face out there in the emergency | | | | these skills are rarely honed in nursing school. Because |
| room and the high-intensity environment of the | | | | students' hand-on experience with patient care is only |
| hospital wearing your discount landau scrubs. Rather | | | | for a short duration and only one or two patients at |
| than school being the end of learning, it is just the | | | | a time, there is little time to develop their time |
| beginning. Once you have passed the NCLEX and | | | | management, organizational, and multi-tasking skills in |
| earned your nursing license, your education is just | | | | nursing school. Nurses have to struggle with |
| about to unfold. | | | | prioritizing and organizing their schedules on a daily |
| Hands-on clinical training that student nurses go | | | | basis. Experienced nurses are always juggling |
| through is a mere caricature of what nursing is really | | | | different tasks and fitting hundreds of tasks in a |
| all about. In clinical training, student nurses only have | | | | single shift. When new nurses come in, it becomes a |
| to care for a patient or two and only for a part of a | | | | problem when they are unable to organize their |
| shift. They are also monitored and given relatively | | | | schedules and become a burden to the regular staff. |
| easier tasks so that they do not cause a problem or | | | | Because these things are not taught in nursing school, |
| get into trouble especially since instructors have to | | | | it is best for students to take it to themselves to |
| oversee several students at a given time. As a result, | | | | study and observe the activities of nurses during |
| student nurses have little experience in the daily | | | | different shifts when they can. If possible, students |
| activities and functions on a nursing shift and on a | | | | can also ask a nurse if they can follow the nurse |
| nursing staff unit. | | | | around for a whole shift so that they can gain better |
| Some of the things that student nurses rarely | | | | insights in how a usual shift really works and how |
| experience in their clinical training include admitting and | | | | they can plan their shift in the future. Students can |
| discharging patients and doing the associated | | | | also spend time with other hospital staff such as the |
| paperwork (which can be overwhelming) and making | | | | unit clerk or secretary to ask how the process of |
| a complete order of medicines and supplies. While it is | | | | ordering medicine and a CAT scan goes and what |
| possible to encounter this during training, the process | | | | the restrictions are. As a new nurse, your experience |
| will likely be shortened by the instructor of a staff | | | | not be any less intense or less stressful but at least |
| member. Also, signing orders for narcotics may not | | | | you have a blueprint of how to go about your shift |
| be allowed for students even if the instructor | | | | and survive your first day well. |
| co-signs the order. In effect, students may not be | | | | |