It is hard to believe that in only 1 month I will be in a REAL hospital practicing all the skills and techniques I have learned in these short 3 months on REAL patients. The concept of transferring a patient from the bed to their wheelchair seems so simple when practicing on friends in the lab but now I will be transferring patients that actually have a broken ankle or right sided paralysis. The same goes with feeding a patient, providing oral hygiene to a patient, making a patient’s bed and bathing a patient. All these skills seem so simple but I know once I brush my patient’s teeth for the first time I will be so nervous I’m bound to mess such a simple activity up!
However, I do know that once I begin to feel comfortable within the hospital setting the tasks at which a first year nursing student must perform will become easier and easier every day. After a while I know I will be able to focus less on the actual activity and more on the care of my patient. Showing the patient that you are there for them and connecting to the patient on that spirit to spirit level (a theory from Jean Watson) allows the patient to feel as though they are truly being cared for and are more than just a disease or illness.
At last I leave with a quote from Robert Collier,
“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.”
