First UNI nursing students experience clinicals in real-world hospitals
First UNI nursing students experience clinicals in real-world hospitals
The first University of Northern Iowa nursing students are tackling the next step on their journey to obtaining their Bachelor of Science in Nursing: clinicals. These experiences take students off campus to local hospitals where they work with real patients alongside health care professionals.
“One of the biggest reasons I chose nursing was all the patient interaction,” said Lillian Morris, a junior. “I'm very much a people person. I love to talk to people, so finally being able to talk to patients and not just seeing their charts was really exciting. It has me so much more excited for what I'll be doing in the future.”
During clinicals, students get the opportunity to observe two different health care settings at MercyOne Waterloo Medical Center or UnityPoint Allen Hospital — such as a mental health or medical-surgical unit — for eight hours a day over five weeks. Some students primarily shadow a patient throughout the day, while students in other units get to work with a variety of patients to gain a broad skillset.
“We were able to pass meds, do assessments, stuff like that, almost all on our own,” said BSN junior Audrey Simmons. “It was a really great experience to be able to see what it looks like in the real world. And I think that having a clinical instructor that really cares about you and your learning experience, knowing that one day we're going to be on the floor just like she is, really helped a lot.”
Kathryn Reyna, also a junior, was assigned the mental health unit during her first placement, which allowed her to see patients progress through treatment.
“A few patients we had for at least three to four weeks consecutively, and it was just nice to see them be able to be discharged,” she said. “I feel like I was a compassionate person before, but this has made me even more compassionate.”
Everything in the nursing program at UNI, from the faculty members and guest speakers talking about their experiences in the field to the cutting-edge technology that has shaped their class times, has prepared the students for this moment.
“I've noticed that being able to do simulations and practice things before actually being thrown into clinicals has made me more confident in my abilities,” explained Reyna.
Reyna is referring to the state-of-the-art, highest fidelity medical simulators UNI’s nursing students have access to in the Innovative Teaching & Technology Center. These medical simulators can blink, sweat, talk and mimic human patients in a number of key ways.
“It's so high-tech that what we see in our classes with our mannikins and our simulations are very similar to what we see in the field, which is really cool,” said Morris. “I didn't expect it to be so realistic. We can get current vitals and current stats and administer IVs into the manikins.”
Something else Morris has learned from the medical manikins is how to identify changes in heartbeat and lungs to account for dysrhythmia and abnormalities.
For Simmons, the foundation she gained through her BSN education has been one of the greatest assets helping her succeed in clinicals.
“When we get our patients at the beginning of the day and we get to read through their medication list, I start to see names of medications I recognize and know what they do,” she said. “That helps a lot as far as being able to explain it to your patient.”
At every step of the clinical process, the students are guided by UNI’s instructors as well as the hospital staff.
“Nursing clinicals bring the best aspects of the classroom and real-life nursing situations together,” said Nicole Jolley, assistant adjunct professor of nursing. “The students are able to bridge their classroom learning with hands-on practice while being guided under supervision. This truly allows them to envision what skills will be needed as well as providing real-life nursing situations that will be needed in their nursing professions after they graduate.”
For many of the students, getting one step closer to becoming a nurse has made them excited for their future careers.
“A lot of people that come into the hospital — they might not always have somebody, and so being somebody for somebody is very important,” said Simmons. “For the patients in the hospital, that's probably one of the scariest experiences they'll ever have to go through, or one of the loneliest experiences they'll have to go through. Being a nurse that's genuinely empathetic and there for your patients and worried about the care for your patients is really important.”
