The Eve of a Fateful Day

T. Bennette, SN
Tonight we sit in silent (ok, not really) expectation of tomorrows coming. Attempting to avoid recognition of its arrival we went touring/shopping/coffee shop hopping/people watching (hawthorn and belmont district--says it all!) this afternoon---SO worth it! ;-) yes, if you hadn't guessed...clinicals begin tomorrow and we are feeling completely freaked out and insecure. To some of you, it may seem like no big deal, but for the past two weeks we have been hearing horror stories of people dying and stuff because of medical staff making mistakes... this doesn't instill much confidence in our first day of working in the hospital! Personally, I am very seriously considering hiding in the bathroom the whole day (8 hrs)! --JK! :-)
Oh, on another line of thought...our instructors are test crazy...we seriously have at least one test everyday! For example, today we had two exams, one right after the other...I think they are trying to see how much they can ask of their students before we say enough (not that we ever would). My theory is that they are thinking, "these students are so stupid, we can require anything of them and take their whole life away and they will completely let us--and pay us tens of thousands of dollars at the same time!"

S. Berning, SN
Denial is an excellent state to be in and denial pretty much sums up where I am concerning the prospect of clinicals! ...I actually don't think it's going to be that bad...I mean, really! Zillions of people have survived and so I think that this will be a wonderful educational opportunity in which I will experience personal and professional growth and meet wonderful supportive people who will help me learn in positive ways blah blah blah blah......SO NOT TRUE! Actually, I'm really not sure what to expect and I don't know how I feel about the prospect of acting as a student nurse. I know that technically I've been a SN for a couple weeks now but I think tomorrow is going to be when it really hits home....aaaack!
Now, for the more serious part of this post...my scrubs are just not working for me at all!!!!..and this is probably causing more stress than the actual idea of clinicals!!! Unflattering scrubs are just not good for my confidence levels and I'm sorry if this isn't a logical, rational or mature approach to nursing but hey! some things really are important. So, in the hope that miracles do happen and my scrubs will somehow magically resize over night I'm ending my commentary!!!