My first day in Clinicals

After 9 weeks of daily lectures, reading and testing, they have decided that we are ready to start practicing what we learned- with real patients. Mind you 4 classmates have already been dis-enrolled from class because they failed too many tests. There are 8 more classmates that have 1 week to retake a final- if they pass they stay and if they fail-they go too. The amount of reading and testing seems unreal because it is paced so swiftly.
We are now approaching trimester #2. From here on out we go to class, attend lectures, and we will be assigned patient care in the clinical setting. For our first day, we were assigned to one patient and we were to spend the day talking with them about their past and current lives. Then we were to assist with any needs that they had; toileting, eating, etc. My patient was an older gentleman who could not talk nor read and write. He had a feeding tube so he could not eat. And he was independant so I did not need to assist him with anything. Talk about an awkward day. I tried to talk to him and have him answer yes or no with hand gestures....but that seemed to frustrate him after a while. I then spent a good deal of time reading his chart at the nurses station. I hope that on the next day of clinicals I will have more to do.