Clinical is a time to learn and practice as much as possible, gain confidence in your abilities, and believe that you can face and overcome the challenges of being a nurse. Despite your jitters, fears, and anxiety, your clinical rotation is where all the hard work you’ve already put into your studies and labs will start to pay off. So jump in with both feet and follow these tips.

1. Clinical Newbies
The Best Advice for Nursing
Students Starting Clinical
Clinical is a time to learn and practice as much as
possible and gain confidence in your nursing abilities.

2. Nursing is a career where a lot of your
first experiences will come from the
“learn by doing” model, a.k.a clinical.

3. Introduction
Clinical is a time to learn and practice
as much as possible, gain confidence
in your abilities, and believe that you
can face and overcome the challenges
of being a nurse. Despite your jitters,
fears, and anxiety, your clinical
rotation is where all the hard work
you’ve already put into your studies
and labs will start to pay off. So jump
in with both feet and follow these tips.

4. Ask questions
You know the feeling — you have a
question in class but don’t want to ask
it because you fear it’s too elementary
or you should already know the
answer. You ask it anyway. Three
people immediately lean over and
thank you for asking it because they
didn’t know the answer either.
If you don’t know something, just ask,
then commit the answer to memory!

5. In class, as in your clinical rotation, there
is no such thing as a stupid question.

6. Be humble
Nurses are lifelong learners. You won’t
start clinical knowing everything, and
you won’t retire knowing everything,
either. That’s the beauty of the
profession — there’s always so much
to learn! Books and lectures, as much
as they might try, can’t convey the
nuances of communication and patient
care that start to form when you’re
actually in the trenches.

7. Being humble and gracious to the nurses
who are teaching you, and knowing that
your knowledge base hasn’t even
scratched the surface when you enter
clinical, will take you far.

8. Be an active
learner
Take control of your experience. The
nurses and other healthcare
professionals are there to guide and
mentor you, but they’re not there to do
the learning for you. Don’t wait for
someone to tell you everything you’re
there to learn — seek out what you
want to learn during your course.

9. Remember, the
little things count
While most of your time will be spent
learning about patient care and how a
hospital or clinic operates, the little
things you do to prepare for clinical will
show your instructor and classmates
that you take your role, and their time,
seriously. Here’s a helpful list of things
to remember:

10. Be on time. Treat this clinical rotation like you would any other
job.
Be professional. Even though you’re a student, this is a work
environment, and basic workplace etiquette still applies to
you.Know the dress code. And stick to it!
Stay positive. We all need to vent from time to time, but do it
away from the hospital and on your own time.
Be prepared. Study your patients’ charts so you’re prepared if
you’re called on by your preceptor to answer questions about
one of them.
Don’t fake. If you don’t know an answer to a question, admit it.
Stay alert. You never know when an opportunity to learn
something new will strike.

11. And Finally...
Always remember to be kind and
empathetic. A little bit of kindness
goes a long way.

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