My clinical instructor used this phrase the other day, and I really think it is a great description of student nursing. I have just learned the skills of a certified nurse aide (the certified part will come after I sit for the test Sept 22), and I’m trying to learn how to think like a registered nurse.
Part of the stress of clinicals for me was thinking that I needed to walk onto the unit with a BSN. Not so at all. I am a student, I remain well-supervised and I only do the things that I and my clinical instructor both know that I can do. I do spend a lot of my time thinking outside of that scope of practice – constructing complicated plans and imagining what sorts of consults I’d call in for this patient and when I’d call the pharmacy about which lab result. But really, right now I am only independently responsible for a nurse aide’s scope of practice. I can and do practice the skills of a registered nurse (practical skills like med administration and sterile dressing changes and patient education and cognitive skills like care plans and critical thinking about evidence based practice). Realizing exactly what I needed to bring with me to clinical, skill-wise, was like a huge weight was lifted from my shoulders.
It’s difficult at times, to write these care plans full of interventions that would take days or weeks to implement and follow through on, when I know that I’ll only care for this patient in actuality for a few hours and likely only be able to act on the simplest of care plans. But it’s all about the practice of thinking like a BSN prepared RN – I am writing as if I was the nurse I hope to be in a couple years.
