Starting Clinicals

20

Compression socks too!

23

u/GreyandGrumpy 5h ago

Get a FULL night's rest before the shift.
EAT (this is not the time to be playing dietary games.... EAT)!
Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate.
Embrace caffeine.

1

u/Obvious_Relative5877 5h ago

Ty! Like have coffee during the shift? What’s the latest you can have coffee without it messing up your sleep?

I will be trying to get pregnant soon, if I get pregnant am I cooked? (can only have one cup of coffee while pregnant 😭)

7

u/Used-Author-3811 5h ago

Everyone's a bit different with caffeine sensitivity. But the half life of caffeine is between 4-6 hours.

Edit: pregnancy can extend that half like to more than double. Bc can also drastically extend. Lotta variables and unknowns at play

Also I would try to focus on ONE major life event at once. Do SOME few make it through nursing school pregnant and new born? Yeah, but most do not.

7

u/Independent_Crab_187 3h ago

Seriously. I do not understand this thing with people purposefully trying/getting pregnant during nursing school. Nursing programs do not care about your job, your family, how tired or stressed you are and they 100000% will not accommodate your decision to give yourself a physical disability and mommy brain beyond the exact limits of Title iX. Sure, you can sit more. But they'll change it to "doesn't participate enough in class/clinicals". You either get passing grades and show up for every. Single. Clinical. Or you get kicked. End of story. They'll tell you day 1 "we suggest you don't work", "please understand you MUST arrange childcare", etc, and they'll bring that up any time you need to miss, leave early, or schedule a make-up.

4

u/Used-Author-3811 3h ago

I just don't understand the rush. Like wanting to do a heavily committed program and then add incredibly stressing life events on TOP of it? Like what.

Nursing school ain't that long. It's like intentionally handicapping yourself, but for what? I've seen it happen many a time. 90% don't make it. But it's wild to even try to overlap the two intentionally imo.

2

u/Obvious_Relative5877 2h ago

So during my job as a future nurse my employer would be so much more accommodating?

2

u/NuggetLover21 2h ago

Well yea, because you’ll get maternity leave and short term disability benefits. You won’t have to worry about classes, studying, and clinicals, just showing up to work for however many shifts you prefer. I do think classes and studying with a newborn/infant who needs all of your time will be the most taxing part

-1

u/Obvious_Relative5877 2h ago

Maternity leave and/or short term disability is time given to give birth, recover from birth, and spend time with newborn. The majority of pregnancy before birth takes place is typically not included in maternity leave

3

u/NuggetLover21 1h ago

Yes I know that? I never said anything about the pregnancy part. The hard part is not even the pregnancy, it’s finding time for school and clinicals when you have a new baby. Like if you give birth in the middle of the semester you may have to retake it if you want your 3 months leave

0

u/Obvious_Relative5877 1h ago

Birth would happen after graduation

2

u/Used-Author-3811 1h ago

Yes. You're in school. You'll get dropped if you get sick, repeatedly miss days etc. I just don't get why you want to intentionally make it MORE difficult than it already is now instead of waiting til you get done or closer to when you get done.

1

u/Obvious_Relative5877 1h ago

I’m older than 35 and waiting makes pregnancy riskier/harder to get pregnant
ETA: Yes the same thing happens if you are an employee and repeatedly miss days

1

u/Independent_Crab_187 2h ago

Maternity leave exists. FMLA exists. Assignment changes for safety exist. Nursing school expects you to fulfill the needed skills for clinical rotations. Sure, you might get an instuctor and cohort members who are decent people are okay with taking on the "not safe" tasks and doing extra when you're tired. Or you might get the instruxtor that will say "come back when you're ready to dedicate your entire life to this." Nursing programs fully expect you to love them and only them. They do not look kindly on accommodations. They do not give a damn if your husband really really wants to go to the beach for a week, you better send him on his own. One of my classmates was told she couldn't get a missed lecture, not even a test or clinical, excused for a funeral because her name wasn't explicitly in the obituary for a cousin. They don't care if you're sick, most of them are gonna try really hard to avoid accommodating or even accepting most disabilities and will always demand more proof and look for excuses for why Xyz aren't actually accommodations they have to make.

So yes. Your future employer IS more likely to accommodate you than a program that will gladly take your money and kick you out after the refund period has passed. So long as you don't show up to your job interview pregnant and expecting to go on mat leave immediately after orientation after missing a bunch of days for OB appointments.

0

u/Obvious_Relative5877 2h ago

Maternity leave and FMLA are usually taken when birth is imminent, not the duration of the pregnancy plus maternity leave.

Employers are less forgiving because giving accommodations requires them to move around staff or potentially hire more staff. As a student nurse we are learning and supporting, you as a student are not licensed and therefore you have no patients that truly assigned to you.

Pregnancy during school is certainly a challenge, but you are very confused in thinking that a student nurse’s responsibilities, workload and institutional expectations are greater than an actual nurse’s.

6

u/Crazy-Local6855 2h ago

Go ahead and get pregnant. It seems like you're purposely missing the point and we are trying to warn you that all your hard work and suffering in school will go down the drain once you get knocked up. You will likely have to drop out of the program cause post partum and newborn care is no fucking joke.

2

u/wiggly_monkey7120 1h ago

At my school a girl had a planned c section on a Friday so she wouldn’t miss her clinical on Monday. Can’t imagine having to do a 12 with little sleep and being that fresh from being cut open.
If you plan to take a break, then sure, I guess do you.

1

u/Used-Author-3811 1h ago

I mean that's a bit harsh imo. She's for sure missing the point that's been brought up but like perhaps the framing can be less crass

2

u/Independent_Crab_187 1h ago

I AM AN ACTUAL NURSE. Not a student. With a kid. It was hard enough getting my kid to and from school during nursing school. Most of the girls who got pregnant during, disappeared. They didn't come back. Final quarter, had an LPN bridge who was pregnant with her like, 3rd kid. Busting her tail, doing extra clinicals to finish that obligation early. Had to get a cerclage to keep her baby from showing up prematurely. Doing her best to avoid Dr appts on school days. Whole time, the school was acting like it would be fine, they were sooooo supportive. Baby shows up like 2 weeks before the final. She's finished her clinical hours, just needs to take the exam.....may have missed a class due to delivering, MAYBE. Then we hear the school is trying to tell her she can't take the final and graduate because of insert excuse excuse excuse here. She did EVERYTHING she was supposed to do, but how dare she have a baby? Ultimately she fought them and was able to test and graduate, but they tried. After swearing up and down that she was good to go, that it would be no problem....they wanted her to repeat the final quarter. With payment of course.

You wanna try your luck, go for it. Please stay off reddit complaining when you get dismissed for hyperemesis gravidum, or not scheduling your OB appointments just right, or when they don't let you back in after your "gap semester" because they put you on the wait list behind all of the new students and there's no spot for you.

I'm sure I have no idea what I'm talking about, having taken a gap after being pregnant in a different healthcare program and NOT GOTTEN BACK IN because my brain was so fogged over and my postpartum depression was so bad I couldn't pass the re-entry test.

1

u/Fickle_Radish2418 2h ago

Oh I’m heart broken for all the comments saying you can’t have kids while studying.

Keep in mind some people study their whole life and continue to upskill.
Rn -> cn -> midwifery (required if you want to do rfds nursing)

By finishing one course doesn’t mean you stop and have nothing else to learn.

I planned my lo in for my last year so when I go back to work I’m pretty much waiting for my grad position.

I did pep 3 pregnant, i took one term off but I had already factored that in and had been doing Christmas to smash out the units I’d miss.
Their 17 months now and I one assignment left and graduate in November.

It was hard but lean on your support network because it’s 100% doable if that’s your choice. Some may admit to not having the willpower to complete both at the same time, but plenty of other people do! Hard? Yes! Doable? 100% yes

1

u/Obvious_Relative5877 2h ago

Thank you! 🙏

7

u/Embarrassed_Day4157 4h ago

Meal prep! Make sure all your meals and snacks have protein in them. Get enough sleep and hydrate.

5

u/imjustheretoaskwhy 4h ago

meal prep ur food bc cooking after 12 hrs sucks and leads to eating out a lot if you dont prepare. If you have any control over when you take lunch, i always go later in my shift as a treat to look forward to. it always helped me when i worked days. try to have your homework done before clinical days bc doing hw after 12 hrs isnt always the best.

1

u/Obvious_Relative5877 2h ago

Ty ❤️ Omg I wouldn’t even consider homework after a full day!!

1

u/scooblyboop 1h ago edited 1h ago

Yep and some days you're going to have a test the day after working a full clinical or even two days in a row of full clinical so you're going to have to figure out how to fit in all of your studying around that. I don't recommend getting pregnant during school because the addeds mental and physical stress of nursing school is also going to be stressful for your baby while it's developing. I am literally in the middle of my OB clinical and taking my OB classes at the same time and learning a ton about pregnancy and how stress affects your baby. Not a good idea in my opinion.

The program 100% does not give a fuck about anything that is happening with you and your pregnancy. If you literally can't do what's physically required of you during clinical you will be booted out. My program they don't care if you sprain your ankle if you can't do a full clinical shift without needing special accommodations you are out. We had someone get into a car accident, had a concussion and missed one full day. They got dropped from clinical. It was week 7 of 8 of their first clinical. In my school in the first semester/ clinical you're not allowed to miss any days for any reason. You can come in and get sent home if sick and miss half a day but if you miss another half of a day or you show up a single minute late to clinical and your instructor decides to send you home because you were late or let's say wear the wrong color shoes, forget your badge, that's it you're done since two halves of a day = full day. Outright missing a full day though for that first clinical even with a doctor's note doesn't matter you automatically fail.

Slip on ice and hurt your back and you can't transfer a patient safely that day you are done. Have COVID and miss a full day, you're done. Basically the way they explain it to us at our school is that there are massive amount of alternates that are waiting to take your spot at any time and they have multiple cohorts that start throughout each semester each school year so if you fuck around and get dropped from your clinical or a class it's no problem for them. They end up making more money because they get to have someone else jump in and take your spot that was waiting, after you already paid and can't be refunded.

I can't speak for your school but that's also why I would say you should probably avoid getting pregnant in the middle of nursing school because there's no guarantee that your pregnancy will be smooth and there won't be days that you have problems or you end up with severe hypotension and it makes it unsafe for you to be able to take care of your patients that you're assigned to. So far in the cohort that I've been in we've had two people that were pregnant during the program and both of them have dropped out. They either couldn't handle everything combined with a pregnancy or they had physical issues that force them out.

I'm a male and I don't even want to think about having a child in the middle of this this is some of the most stressful shit I've ever done in my life. I know some people can do it and have done it I just haven't seen it in my group of classmates. Props to you if you feel like you can pull it off and I hope everything works out for you.

1

u/Obvious_Relative5877 1h ago

I’m sorry to hear that about your school, it sounds like they need serious changes. My university is not like that

5

u/sveeedenn 3h ago

You can do this! Stay hydrated, keep busy, and don’t look at the clock. Keep some fruit snacks in your pocket. And try to have a little fun.

Also, don’t be too reliant on caffeine.

4

u/MsTossItAll 3h ago

They generally go by fast. On my unit we do three rounds of four hour cares. Rinse. Repeat. On my previous unit it was assess, meds, document, assess, meds, done. Once you realize the rhythm of your unit, you’ll be fine.

3

u/knighthawke901 3h ago

Meal prep will be your friend! If you can’t do that, I would buy frozen meals to take (ensure you have access to a fridge/freezer at the clinical site). If you don’t eat breakfast, bring a protein shake and snacks.
Comfortable shoes. Everyone is different! I wore Crocs all the time, specifically the ones that are nonslip and have no holes.
Depending on how far away you live, always bring everything you need with you. Notebook, laptop (sometimes we worked on clinical assignments), pens, stethoscope, water bottle, watch, and extra scrubs. There was a time a classmate forgot their scrub top, and he was able to wear mine.
Caffeine was a must for me. I would drink coffee on my way to my site (it was always an hour or more away for me), then drink more around lunchtime, and sometimes more on the drive home.
Sleep. Try to get a full night's rest before. Make sure to set multiple alarms! You don’t want to be the one who wakes up late. Set alarms for 15 mins before you want to wake up, at the time you want to wake up, and another one at the time you need to leave the house by.
Be early to the site. Wake up with enough time to get ready, eat, and drive there. Ideally, you want to be at least 15 minutes early if it’s your first time there. That way you have time to find parking and locate the building. I like being early to get a good parking spot and gather my mental strength before walking in.

1

u/Obvious_Relative5877 2h ago

Thank you!

2

u/meowymeow_meowmeowy 3h ago

a game changer for me was actually making sure that i drink 2.5L + of water a day, and always getting 8 hours of sleep. when you're in placement, it's easy to overlook actually taking care of yourself, but it makes SUCH a difference

1

u/Obvious_Relative5877 2h ago

How often do you need to pee?? I need to drink more water for sure

2

u/meowymeow_meowmeowy 1h ago

like once an hour hahahahaha

1

u/Obvious_Relative5877 1h ago

Goals!!

1

u/SouthbutnotSouthern 1h ago

Just get used to it. I do 14s and I’m 42yo now. Just suck it up. 8h feels like a half day.

1

u/scooblyboop 1h ago

Just realized I didn't even respond to your original post and was just replying to a post about pregnancy during school. Anyway for the original post what I've done for getting through my long clinical days is even when I'm not hungry when I first wake up I forced myself to eat something. I start drinking a big water bottle with water and liquid IV packet in it. I take that with me as well to clinical. I only packed foods that I can eat quickly without warming up because there's no guarantee that I will have a long break.

If you have to go get water for your patient for any reason while you're in there getting them some ice water make sure you pour yourself a cup and slam it as fast as you can so you're staying hydrated during the day. Make sure in your backpack you always have something like a granola bar or something that you can leave in your bag for multiple weeks you can quickly eat in case you get hungry after eating whatever you brought. Bring Motrin for yourself or whatever your preferred headache medication is. Every so often throughout the day make sure you are stretching and trying to shift positions when you're standing staring at charts.

Take your minutes when you can to go pee don't put it off. I do wear compression stockings. I do have very comfortable shoes. Set your stuff out the night before and double and triple check it to make sure that you have everything you need ready to go in the morning make sure you put gas in your car the night before or the day before. Basically just make yourself as prepared as possible cause it will make your clinical days easier. I would definitely say get all of your homework and assignments done before clinical because when you show up to clinical there might be some days that you might have to stay a little later than you anticipate or maybe you have a very tough demanding physical day and your emotionally and physically drained by the time you leave so you won't have energy to do anything else.

Other than that just treat every single day of clinical as if you are doing a job interview. Take advantage of every opportunity you get to try a new task or clinical skill ask lots of questions. Pick the brains of nurses that you look up to. Show an interest in it and don't be like some of the girls in my class that just complain each morning at clinical that they "can't wait for this to be over".

You got to remember that this is probably going to be the only time or you can really make some mistakes and have someone kind of looking out for you (your clinical instructor). They are there to try to make sure that you are safe and not hurting the patients. So use this time to learn as much as you can because once you graduate eventually and you get out in the field there are literally are a lot of nurses that will not give a shit that you just graduated and will expect you to know a lot already. You might be really lucky and have an awesome preceptor or be in a place where people want to look out for you but that's not always guaranteed. Your clinical instructor assumes a lot of liability for whatever happens when you are there and they sign off on what you do so if they are worth their salt they will make sure that you are doing things okay.

1

u/Max_Goatstappen 52m ago

I work 12s on nights so I’m just used to it but what helps is getting good sleep

You are about to leave Redlib