american student nurses and irish student nurses-differences?

Nursing Students General Students

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In Ireland, as part of our BSN we do clinical placement and then we do a clinical internship for 9 months. Initially in first year we do a lot of observing and chatting to patients but after that a lot is expected of us on placement, particularly in third year and fourth year. We are expected to work and work hard alongside the nurses. We carry out patient hygiene care, take vitals regularly, BM's, document (and get that co-signed), follow up through contacting physio, OT, doctors (at first we are prompted to do this but then you just get into a habit of mentioning it to your nurse and then making contact). Like we do get to ask questions and if we don't feel comfortable or feel something is out of our scope of practice we can and do say it. However(mostly under supervision), we get to give injections, insert NG tubes, give NG feeds, wound dressings, female catheterisation, remove IVcannulas (we just aren't allowed to give fluids etc).

Anyway long story short, the students appear to be needed on the wards, particularly 3rd and 4th years. And although most are 21/22 at this stage, we are expected to be professional. We work 12 hour shifts and work hard! Theres generally something to do, if its not making a bed in our spare time, its updating fluid balance documenting!

So my question, is it the same in the US?? :) :)

Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

Sadly no.......it seems you have much more clinical practice available to you.

Specializes in Oncology.

Nope. Sounds awesome though.

Specializes in Hospice + Palliative.

your clinical responsibilities seem much like what my program's have been this semester (ADN in a large city with lots of teaching hospitals) Along with the things you've listed, we do get to pass meds/hang IVs (though we do not do IV insertions; there's teams for that), both gender catheterizations, trach suctioning, several of us have had the opportunity to do arterial blood draws (from already established a-lines), and we do BGs and administer insulin. (obviously, all of this is under the supervision of our clinical instructor, but she's very encouraging of us doing it all and she will only step in if we're doing something wrong/putting pt in danger) We do charting and flowsheet documentation (though we are not yet able to write Nurses' Notes in the pt charts). One big difference between our program and yours is that we do 6 hour clinical days, not 12; and so far the facilities I've been in haven't been real keen on students phoning physicians. pharmacy, yes (usually to clarify a med order or to request they send up a med that should be on the floor but isn't yet) but not the docs!

I would agree with 4boysmama: that sounds a lot like my ASN program. We do what you do, minus the phoning physicians. I've never done an arterial blood draw, but I have started an IV. And we have 8 hour days. Some students in my program have 12 hour days.

I'm my program we pretty much do the nurses entire job. The only thing we can not do is take phone orders. We assess, do all charting, give meds (po, injections, and ivp) call doctors and pharmacy, transcribe orders, place iv's, foleys, ng tubes, ect. Now that we are almost graduating we are allowed to delegate vital signs and I&O which is helpful because we take the entire pt load from one nurse. I am also in a large city with many teaching hospitals. Thankfully we only have 2 8 hour days.

I think it just varies greatly by program. I have a friend in a different nursing program less than 20 miles from mine and they share pts. It's one pt per 2 students and all they are allowed to do is give po meds. They are about to graduate too.

Specializes in Hospice + Palliative.

I think it just varies greatly by program. I have a friend in a different nursing program less than 20 miles from mine and they share pts. It's one pt per 2 students and all they are allowed to do is give po meds. They are about to graduate too.

What do they do all day?! I'd hate that - sitting around at the station makes me want to scream, lol. We started with 1 pt per student, but this semester we quickly transitioned to 2 pts per student, and in the next semester we keep bumping that # up.

Specializes in Emergency Nursing.

It sounds like your internship is the equivalent of a nurse residency program, or a nurse tech position as we have it at the hospital I work at. Unfortunately, these are only available for those very few students who are lucky enough to get hired before they graduate.

The difference may be that without unified, federal nurse practice standards and without a true nationalized health system, our formation is just necessarily different.

That said, nursing formation in Ireland sounds awesome. I wish we could do something like that.

What do they do all day?! I'd hate that - sitting around at the station makes me want to scream, lol. We started with 1 pt per student, but this semester we quickly transitioned to 2 pts per student, and in the next semester we keep bumping that # up.

They spend most of the day studying in the break room. It's good for their grades, but they are going are going to have a hell of a time adjusting once they get a job and have to care for 4-5 pts by themselves. I feel bad for them.

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