Set that Clock!
	Arrive on time—at least 15 minutes early, preferably more. It is never a good idea to stay up until 2am playing video games then night before clinicals. Get plenty of sleep and don’t skip breakfast.

Follow the Rules
	Follow the hospital’s rules. This means that you should park where you are supposed to park. Many facilities require staff and students to park in a garage and take a shuttle over to your work area. You must allow extra time for this.

Review the Data
	If you collected information on your patient the day before clinicals, this data is now 24 hours old. Check labs and medications again in the morning when you arrive. If you receive your patient assignment the morning of clinicals, review all of you patient’s history medications, lab and radiology results.

Dress Professionally

Make sure your uniform is clean and pressed. This includes your shoes, too. If you walk in looking like you slept in your uniform, neither your patient nor your clinical instructor will have much faith in you. Always wear your school/facility name badge as this is an integral part of your uniform. It should go without saying, but hygiene is important. You will be working in very close proximity to your patients, so prepare accordingly. Keep your stethoscope with you at all times and wear a watch with a second hand.

Introduce Yourself
	Introduce yourself to your nurse and get report before providing any patient care. However, please don’t interrupt your nurse while she or he is getting report.

Show Respect

Knock before entering a patient’s room. Always maintain your patient’s dignity. Pull the curtain and close the door. Remember that this person for who you are caring has feelings. Please don’t refer to adult incontinence products as “diapers.” Call them “briefs” and allow the patient to maintain some sense of self-respect. Don’t become so focused on completing “tasks” that you forget the person for whom you are caring.

Assess Your Patient
	Assessment is at the heart of everything we do. Click on the link for a review of how to perform a head to toe assessment. Head to Toe Assessment

Politeness Counts
	Always remember you are visitors to the facility. Manners count. It should go without saying that if you bump someone accidentally, say “excuse me.” Please don’t eat staff or patient food.

Home Sweet Home
	Remember, if you are in a long term care facility or an assisted living facility, you are in your patient’s home.

Protect Yourself and Your Patients
	Wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands!!!! Don’t forget about the foam disinfectant.Be aware of any isolation precautions your patient may be on. Wear the appropriate personal protective equipment. If you are injured (yes, this includes needlesticks, PLEASE tell someone.

Organization and Prioritization
	Be organized. Find a system that works for you. I used to get report with one color pen and write updates/things to do during the day with another color. Prioritize the care that you provide your patients. This is a huge component of the NCLEX. You need to be able to recognize what is most important.

Explore the Floor
	Be familiar with where everything is on the floor—clean and dirty utility rooms, kitchen, fire extinguishers, and exits. The Joint Commission may just come in and ask you a question. Really. This has happened to my clinical students before.

Find the Answer
	If you don’t know the answer to something, find out the answer. Don’t make it up. Your clinical instructor will know.

Always Ask
	Please do not perform a skill without your clinical instructor. If you complete the perfect dressing change, but your instructor was not there to see it, how can he or she evaluate you? There may come a time when your instructor allows you to perform a skill on your own, but always check first.

CNAs and Secretaries are Your Friends
	Be nice to the techs/CNAa and the secretaries—they can help you a lot. Please don’t sit in the secretary’s chair. This makes them very unhappy and you really don’t want the secretary to be unhappy with you.

Be Available

Please do not spend you entire clinical day sitting in the conference room or the break room. Be out on the floor and available to you patient. When you have completed care on your patient(s), there may be other opportunities to perform skill for other patients on the floor. You will never know if you are working on paperwork in the conference room. Don't hide. Your clinical instructor go looking for you and WILL find you. I guarantee.

Communication is Key
	Communicate—with your nurse, tech, and clinical instructor.

Document
	It may sound clichéd, but if you didn’t document it, it was not done.

Floor Staff
	Understand that the nurses on the floor are extremely busy. Some nurses may be more student-friendly than others. If you happen to get a nurse who is having a bad day, don’t take it personally. If you do have concerns about the floor staff, bring them to your clinical instructor.

Report
	When you leave the floor to go home for the day, report off to your nurse.

Practice Makes Perfect
	Practice your skills in the lab. You may have passed a check-off, but practice makes perfect. Remember, too, that not every skill is performed regularly.

It's Up to You
	You will get as much out of your clinical experience as you put into it. If your school has you pick your own patients, find challenging cases that will allow you to develop your skills Nightingale Pledge