Getting to go on clinical at the end of second semester is such a privilege. Working so hard all semester long, passing all your classes and finally being able to use skills learned in lab, in real life is such an accomplishment. My cohort is officially halfway done school now and I don’t think we can be more excited. My clinical group was at Peace Arch hospital. It was me and 5 other students and our instructor who we met on the first day there. This clinical was so much different than first semesters. Being in a hospital versus being in a residential care home is so different. Every day at the hospital there are all different multidisciplinary teams who you see working collaboratively all day.
The first day there was orientation day. We got to shadow an LPN for the day and see everything they do. We got to sit in on shift report every morning, and it really surprised me how long that took. It would take at least 30 minutes every morning for each nurse to talk about their patients for the day. The unit at peace arch was very small so having 7 extra people on the floor was very over crowding. By the end of the first week we got one patient for us to look after. We had to provide all their care to them, got to give them their medication, including injections, and we learned how to properly chart, what to chart and when to chart. By the end of the week I felt one patient wasn’t enough to keep me busy so by the start of the second week we got to have two patients.
The second week we had two patients and then helped around with the other staff members. By the second week I felt more comfortable as to where all the supplies are in the closet and got comfortable with the staff there as well. One of my patients was on contact precautions and having to gown and glove up every time I went in there was very tedious. I got to change my first wound as per wound flow care sheet and got to use sterile technique. A few of the other students had the opportunity to remove staples from their patients leg as a result of them falling.
On our last week of clinical things were in full swing. We had 3 patients to take care of now. Staff on that ward have 7 patients on day shift and night shift they have double. Having to get use to having 7 patients would be very difficult because you have to manage your time very well. The week went slow as we were working 12 hour shifts. We didn’t get to do any night shifts because that happens in 4th semester. This practicum was so great because it gave us an insight of what an LPN does in the hospital versus residential. We were on the PATH unit and these people are pretty independent as they are transferring to home, but Im excited to see what other clinicals have for opportunities on different floors of the hospital.
Check out this video of our Practical Nursing Program.
