First Patient

So I saw my first patient today, and it was…ackward.  Not with the physical nursing tasks; my nursing skills aren’t the question.  But the communication was, well, ackward.  I don’t know how to ask questions off of a form without seeming like I’m reading a form.  My preceptor can work it all into a conversation, but I don’t really have that yet.  It will come, I’m sure.

One problem was that I didn’t really get a good chance to prepare: I had time for a brief look-through just before we went in, but that’s it.  Luckily, I know the names of my patients for tomorrow (one is a person we saw today, one is new) so I can look them up.  I also am having problems–well, not problems, I’m just slow–with the computer program, the electronic charting, so I practiced that some more tonight.  Knowing what J, my preceptor, wants me to chart on helps.  In classroom orientation, we were doing the entire 25 page assessment–apparently it’s a little redundant and the forms we actually fill out(electronically) are much shorter.  So that helps.

I’m scheduled to see one patient tomorrow, but I’ll probably ask to do two, since I’ve got the advance info on them both.  Hopefully it goes a little smoother tomorrow.