Problem with a classmate's mouth (somewhat long)

[Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN]

Yes that subject seems rude, but let me tell you:

A nurse i work with is known for being strict in work habits and not the kind to laugh and kid around with her co-workers, but she's not rude to them either. She is there to work and take care of her patients. She is one of THE best nurses i've seen.

She was having a particularly hard night when my class happened to get assigned to this same floor i work on. This nurse had 4 pt, but 3 were receiving blood, one was having a reaction, another's asthma wasn't going away and her o2 stat was around 83. Since this was our first clinical night on that floor there wasn't a whole lot we could do for this nurse because we were so restricted that night. So when the nurse found out she had 3 students in her group, she said "i cannot do this tonight, there are a lot of things they aren't going to be allowed to do and we're going to trip over each other all night, can we please find them another assignment instead?"

Two of the students didn't take this bad, they saw her rationalization for it, and said "well if you see anything we can help you with, let us know" and the nurses said "i sure will, thank you for understanding". The other one student on the other hand has made snide comments about this nurse ever since (btw this happened a MONTH ago). If someone mentions "Gigi's" name, the student starts on her rant "oh i don't like that b*tch and you can tell her i said so i really don't care". After the 4th time she said this i finally looked at her extremely fed up and said "well if you insist, i can relay that message to either her or the clinical instructor, which one do you prefer". So i've also earned the B word in reference to me

I'm sick of every single time that my co-worker's name is brought up that this student takes a flying leap and bound to put this nurse down. Everyone IS entitled to their opinion but i feel extremely uncomfortable hearing this woman being talked about in this manner and 1) knowing she is nothing like this student describes her to be and 2) knowing that i remarked about the comments and she still insists on talking about her like a dog.

We're assigned student partners on the floor, also. It's not an option to switch, because, as the instructor put it, 'are you going to be able to pick and choose your co-workers when you graduate??'.

The instructor knows about this, i finally asked for a moment to talk to her and told her how i felt. She is supposed to address everyone on the 'confidentialty' issue and remark that this includes not talking about the staff. Hopefully this will work, but:

(FINALLY HERE"S MY POINT )

In case it doesn't, is there any other better way to handle this, i have another 8 months to work with this girl

[S.N. Visit, BSN, RN]

How awfull for you! If i were in your position, i'd say to her, "we got off on the wrong foot, let's try this again?" If she is some-one that is just "Nasty"and doesn't want to get along, I'd go to school, do my work, and hope the next 8 months will be fast.

[Mandylpn]

Tell her to grow up and get over it already.

[PJMommy]

Tell her that, as a nurse, she's going to have to work with A LOT of people she doesn't like -- and if she can't hack that, she better get the heck out now. I sure don't want to end up working with someone as negative as that.

[Reesa23]

Now, if it was her 3 patients going bad, would she want to be dealing with students? This lady was just trying to be responsible for her job. It's people like that ..that make nursing bad. I'm on my last semester of pre-recs and another soon to be nursing student announced in front of the class that she won't be taking people to the bathroom. I said "what do you think you will be doing" She goes, "Not taking peope to the bathroom, so I guess I'm just gonna be a bad nurse" I see why nursing is tanking. Can't argue with 500,000 non-practicing nurses.