Shadowing

Shadowing....the word to describe the action of following an RN around like you are glued to them. You become the observer, the questioner, the learner, and yes on occasion....the annoyance. I'm always afraid to start clinicals up every term because the first day is always a shadowing day. Before I get in the hospital, "God please please please may I have a good nurse." I go to my floor and the charge nurse orients the new shift nurses and says; "Alright, Tracey, Kristin, and Kathryn get student nurses today. I instantly see it on their faces. It makes me laugh!! I'm prepared for the worst...

Of course you introduce yourself, tell them it's your first day, tell them you are shadowing, on and on. Then the craziness begins. First of all, there are three kinds of nurses. One where you watch everything, and I mean everything; One where you get to help out and learn some; and one where you will DO all sorts of things with a ton of education (you would be lucky to get this one). Now this doesn't mean that any of these nurses have great attitudes or poor attitudes. It's the luck of the draw.

So I get paired up with TC. She is great! She's a little on the "I wish I didn't have a student" mind set, but I don't blame her. I'm just extra weight to carry. So I follow, observe, research, and that's about it. What a long day of that!!

Day 2 comes along with JB. What an incredible blessing she was!!! She let me do so much and yet she was there if I needed her!

One thing I learned, is how the RN you shadow soon becomes your shadow. Instead of you following them around, they tend to follow you around making sure you are doing everything right. I'm going on day 3 next week and I will have a patient all to myself. I'm so thankful I have my RN watching my every move. I'm still afraid I will miss something. I guess this is the learning experience.....you shadow them, they follow you....slowly slowly letting you on your own until you take your big exam.....then BAM your a nurse!

Thank God for those incredible RNs that are willing to take a student. I know when I'm a nurse I'm going to say, "bring on the students! They can shadow me all they want!"

Ohhh I can't wait to get there!!!!.......Until next week....