Anyone else experienced this??

[luvmy2angels]

During our clinical we are usually paired up with another person. We work independentely at the hospital but some of our clinical requires us to go to other places outside the hospital. This is when we are with our partner. I am pretty good friends with the partner I have now. She is employed by the hospital that we do our clinical at. She is very proud to let everyone know that she works there (as she tells us just about every day, as if we are stupid and can't remember she just told us the day before!) Anyways...we were recently scheduled to spend the day in the OR. When we get to our site she immediatly recognizes one of her friends and they start talking. NOT A BIG DEAL, I would do the same. But then the nurse in charge comes over and pairs us up with an OR nurse that we will be with for the day. I get paired up with my partners friend and she with someone else that she doesn't know. OKAY... me and my nurse go out and get our first pt, he was scheduled to have a shoulder replacement done (pretty neat surgery to see, for me at least). I get all the pre-op vitals and info and everything and then we wait for the surgeon to come in. While we were waiting for the surgeon my nurse grabs my partner and tells her that there is a really cool case she can get in on, it is a shoulder replacement surgery. I said, "HEY, that is my case!" and the nurse said, "well, I am doing a little switcheroo and SHE is going to get that case!" and then she grabbed my partner and off they went, leaving me standing there like an idiot! I started to follow them and went to go into the room when another nurse came up and grabbed my arm and told me that I wasn't allowed to go in there. I ended up getting paired off with another nurse that didn't want to be with a student. She wasn't mean to me or anything, she basically told me that she didn't want me to follow her while she was prepping her pts. So I stood around for about 2 and a half hours until i was able to go and see a surgery. It was about 15 minutes long! I saw a women get a med port put in for chemo. The whole day I felt totally ignored and in my opinion my partner got special treatment. I understand that there is a certain "commradery" (don't know if I spelled that right) with people that work together but I think the way they treated me was very unprofessional and just down right rude!! I was there for SCHOOL and a LEARNING EXPERIENCE just like she was.

I have been running this through my head all weekend as to wether or not I should bring this up to my instructor. There isn't anything that she can do about it now, but there are a lot of students that work at this hospital and go to my school so I am wondering if I am the first person to experience this type of favortism. I am paying the same amount of $$$$ as she is, I don't think I should get short-changed in my experience just because she is employed there.

A quick little note....the surgery she was scheduled to see got cancelled, and I must say that there was a little part of me inside going !!

[Catys_With_Me]

What a bunch of jerks. Seriously.

You could say something to your instructor, but would it change anything? I know it wouldn't where I'm at. I basically just take it and bide my time until graduation and a job elsewhere.

[prmenrs, RN]

I would go back to my instructor, or whoever decided the surgical assignment in the 1st place. I might have checked w/the charge nurse right away to see if she had another 'pair-up', rather than waste the morning.

[KatieBell]

My school would not allow me to do clinical at the hosptial I worked at- for this particular reason. We had several different clinical sites, so it was not a big deal. I sort of figured, I already knew what went on at the hospital I worked at.

It seems that such a policy might be a good idea for your program, if they have clinical opportunities at other hospitals, that is.

[ortess1971]

I also do clinicals(maternity rotation) at the hospital where I work and it is hard sometimes because it's hard to ignore people you know and sometimes clinical instructors will cop a little attitude with you(they tend not to like people who work). It's unfortunate that she got preferential treatment because O.R. nurses are in short supply, and I would hate to have you turned off by the o.r. because it is a very neat place. I would still mention it to the instructor-maybe next time she'll make an effort not to pair you with this girl.

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

Wow! What a terrible experience. First of all, I would recommend that you discuss what happened with one of your instructors at school and also with your clinical instructor. Make sure you also mention that your partner is an employee of this hospital. Then, the next time something like this happens, get to a phone and page your clinical instructor. She can't know what is happening unless you tell her right at that moment. She might have been able to intercede for you. Hope this doesn't happen again. I might also suggest that if you know any of the doctors, or if you see an interesting surgery on the schedule that you introduce yourself to the doctor (page him if you need to) and ask the doctor ahead of time if he would mind if you observe him. Many doctors love to take a student under their wing and are very protective and nurturing about it. This might be the way you'll get to see a chest or brain surgery.