My first clinical

Nursing school consists of lecture and then mostly clinical work, in the hospitals/nursing homes/county health department offices. This week I start my very first clinical rotation in a nursing home. I will finally get to start applying the skills that I have learned over the last six weeks to real people. We practice on mannequins during skills labs for all the of the skills performed in areas where the sun don't shine. Everything else we practice on each other like giving shots (we just inject plain saline), drawing blood, testing glucose, learning to give oxygen, even nasogastric tubes. We haven't actually done this yet, that is part of our fall classes, but we will. I'm a little scared to that. Overall I am really excited to start clinicals. Part of me is nervous that I am going to have the someone's life in my hands this week. Another thing I am scared about that I haven't really had much experience with in my life is death. It is quite possible that I could come to get to know a patient really well and come in the next day and hear, "Betsy died last night." I'm worried about that. But overall I'm excited.