My Clinical Experience

New experiences make for more knowledge and new skills. Having the opportunity to meet clients in the York Care Centre was a great experience that helped me develop my skills as a nursing student. Since I am starting my clinical in the fall at York Care Centre, I felt this was a good introduction to the building, staff, and residents As I built upon a therapeutic nurse-client relationship with my clients, I improved on many skills that I learned in class such as to respect boundaries, clients with different communication needs, empathic responses and listening skills that will help me in my future career. I also had some specific learning situations that I can apply to my future practice. On the first day I visited my clients, I focused on

When listening to them speak, I made sure to have an open posture, nod and acknowledge their points and engage in questions relating to their topic. I also noticed their own verbal and non-verbal cues. There was a time we woke Ms. L. up from a nap by knocking on the door. We apologised and stated we could come back for another time but she insisted we come in. I could tell she was quite tired and not feeling well that day by her facial cues and she was not as engaged in the conversation as usual, so we did not stay for too long as to bother her. The same day, Ms. H. was also tired. I could tell from her non-verbal responses that she was not having a good day. She did not want to physically talk and she seemed very distraught while she was walking away from us. We told her we would come back another day and made up for the time on a good

L. went well. I stated that this was our last visit and we may see her again next semester depending on our clinical placements. For Ms. H., I noticed I would have to go through the four stages of a relationship every day. I would introduce myself, explain why I am there, develop our relationship and then terminate the relationship. This process was easy for my clients, but it was difficult for residents who stopped me in the hall to ask questions. I did not want to be rude as to ignore a resident in the hall, but there were a few situations that were difficult to terminate the relationship. I feel in these situations, I could have been more assertive in saying goodbye. There was one patient whom I said good bye to but she kept carrying on the conversation. I explained that it was nice talking to her, but I needed to leave, but she did not understand. This was difficult for me, because I did not want to be rude as to just walk away, but I felt I could have been more assertive in my responses. Another resident had stopped me to tell me she could not stay at the facility, and began to follow us on our way out. I had the feeling to intervene as a nurse and bring her back to her room, but knew it was not in my place, so we patiently waited for a nurse at the nurse’s station. The nurse knew exactly who she was and what to do, so she distracted her by saying “where’s you walker?” and led her to her room. This just shows that the nurses knew the