Essay On Clinical Preceptorship

The morning of the first day of my clinical preceptorship I had such a mix of emotions. I had been lying in bed awake for hours because I felt too much excitement to sleep. My alarm went off and the nerves set in sending one question after another swirling through my head. Would my preceptor be nice? Would I disappoint her? Would I remember my lab values? Would I remember my skills? What if someone crashes will I know what to do? If everything is okay will I know what to do? A year of nursing school was coming to an end and suddenly I felt like I had forgotten everything. I arrived at the hospital much earlier then I needed to and tried to relax. I took a deep breath and headed in to the ICU trying to pretend that I wasn’t terrified. I obviously
“So how is he?” Now I am even more nervous I did not expect to be doing this under the watchful eye of a family member that surely would not be happy with any mistakes I might make practicing to be a nurse. How do I respond to his simple question? Then I remember I’m not doing this alone as Jocelyn begins to speak with him. I complete my head to toe assessment and we begin evaluating all the drips and looking up our morning meds. All while answering questions and listening to the concerns of the young man who identifies himself with tears in his eyes as our patient’s oldest son. He squeezes my hand and asks me to do everything I can he just want to talk to his dad again. I think to myself “what can I do I’m just a student nurse?” I remember reading that the sense of hearing is the last to go, so I smile at him and tell him his dad can still hear him and he can talk to him now. He shakes his head yes squeezing my hand one more time and then sits in the chair near the bed. We tried to make the environment and all the tubes and drains less scary after finding out our patient had a 13year old daughter coming in that day to visit him. Throughout the day, while providing care for our patient,