My First Clinical Experience

My first clinical ever was in a local nursing home.  My nursing professor/instructor was an older lady who fussed at pretty much everything.  It just changed as to what she was going to fuss about that day.  It was quite a nerve racking experience.  The thing I remember most was first, the smell of the nursing home.  The other thing was that when I went to take my patient’s blood pressure, which I was sooo proud I had done correctly, in walks my nursing instructor.  DON’T DARE PLACE THE BLOOD PRESSURE CUFF ON ANYTHING WITHOUT A BARRIER!!  –she screamed at me.  What she meant was:  when you place any of your personal items (which happened to be the blood pressure cuff I’d recently purchased as part of my essential nursing kit), make sure to place a paper towel or such down and then lay your item down so it doesn’t collect the germs from that patient and then you take it home with you or transport it to the next patient you visit.  Okay, so that made sense.  But why didn’t she say it the way I explained???  This was simply a taste of what was to come in nursing school.  Great.