problems with nurses at my clinical site

[Honeybun1206]

im currently in my med/surg roation. there are 9 of us at the hospital, and we are all split on different floors. on my floor, there are 3 of us (me and my clinical classmates) for the day. my instructor isnt always there to help because she's busy jumping from floor to floor to see how all 9 of us are doing.

we're expected to follow a nurse around (the nurse who is taking care of the patient we had picked to care for for the day). my first day, the nurse didn't let me do anything. she only let me go in the patients room to observe her giving medication, and that was pretty much it. i asked if it's okay if i could follow her around to the other patients rooms just to observe, but she said i should just stick to my patient's care. but there was hardly anything for me to do! just give my patient's tray, talk to him, take VS, and thats it?? :angryfire

im worried the other nurses i have the rest of this semester will act the same, and i really want to learn SOMETHING. i dont want to stand around looking dumb, doing nothing at all.

my instructor didnt really say anything helpful for this kind of situation. do any of you have any suggestions for me if i encounter a nurse like this? please help!!

[saintlouis]

I realize it's the primary nurses responsability in the end, as they are an employee of the hospital, but in my clinicals it is stressed from day 1 that if you signed it, you own it. It's my initials in the chart, and if I'm ever called on it it's MY butt (along with my INSTRUCTOR'S butt) on the line. If I do something wrong and don't ask, I'm accountable. Along with my blessed instructor, who is accountable for giving me the task in the first place....

I think a lot of the frustration stems from RN's asking students to do something, only to be told "I can't" or (worse) "I don't know how." If it's within my scope of practice, and I don't feel confident, it's MY job to track down my instructor for guidance. The Primary's job isn't to teach, and for them I think it's often easier and quicker to do it themselves.

My only bad experience was a couple of weeks ago, and she was cranky, mean, and generally annoyed I was there. After I chatted with her later in the morning (after the AM rush), I found out she was a floater, a recent

Do your best, and remember you will have other nurses. And remember your first job is not to make more work for your primary. Then try to learn something. Help your fellow students, and smile a lot.

In the end, MOST of them are grateful you are there to lighten their load....

[mye614]

Even if I had that awful experience with the RN I was supposed to help, I still try to justify as to why she was frustrated and snotty with me. Maybe she was having a bad day that night, and then there I was being "dumb". But I would've appreciated it more if she was more upfront to me instead of being snotty and going to one of the other students. She made me feel really stupid and unappreciated.

See the problem with me is being so scared and nervous. I feel llike whenever I touch a a patient (like placing them on a bed pan or turning and positioning them) I feel like I would cause them more pain. I always take it upon myself to make them as comfortable as possible without them lifting a finger or something.

That night when she got frustrated with me, I was helping her clean the patient up ( 83 year old confused male with fractured knee and contractured arm both left side). This patient has been laying on his poop and pee for God knows how long ( The PCA must've known student nurses are coming so they decide to wait til we get there to clean the patient up). To make the story short, I didn't know exactly know where and how to do the task without being unorganized (it was a big mess). Finally I got done cleaning the patient up and I called the RN to help me transfer this patient to the recliner so I can change the sheets on his bed. So she came and noticed that the patient's depends (diaper) wasn't put in perfectly ( the patient is dead weight and I tried the best I could to put the depends on), then second frustration was when we were transfering the patient she noticed that I didn't know the proper way of transferring the patient (the patient didn't get hurt). then from then on she started giving me a snotty and sarcastic attitude. I know my instructor will probably say "Go and practice your patient care skills (turning/positioning/transferring) in the lab...with the manequins...". But my point is yeah I can go and practice but it's alot different when you're actually in a hospital setting dealing with real people not manequins..Manequins are stiff and just lay there and say nothing....Sigh...sigh..sigh..I'm so frustrated wiht myself after that last clinical I had...Do you think I should take a CNA class to brush up my skills?

[Aneroo, LPN]

This patient has been laying on his poop and pee for God knows how long ( The PCA must've known student nurses are coming so they decide to wait til we get there to clean the patient up).

I've encountered the same problems with care partners (CNA 2"S) on some of the floors at my hospital. This happened to be a floor where one semester we have first level freshman there, the next semester we have almost ready to gradaute students there. So, there is a lot of role confusion. I asked a CP "We're getting ready to go off the floor. One of my patients had a fever overnight, was really sweaty, was wondering if you could give her a bath while I'm gone." This CP is wonderful, love her to death. She told me she couldn't, that they were swamped. She said the night shift left all the baths not done because they knew "the students were coming". In this semester, we were supposed to be in a nurses role, not the cp's. She suggested that maybe we could do it together whenever I got back...How awesome is she!!! I ended up doing it with a classmate after we got back (I realized how busy she was), and it ended up being one of the best things that I could have done for this patient (she was so grateful she was getting a bath!).

then second frustration was when we were transfering the patient she noticed that I didn't know the proper way of transferring the patient (the patient didn't get hurt). ..I'm so frustrated wiht myself after that last clinical I had...Do you think I should take a CNA class to brush up my skills?

The patient didn't get hurt, but YOU, the nurse you were working with, or the patient certainly could have been. Short cuts may seem cool, but they're not....the end up hurting someone somewhere down the road. :angryfire I would have been frustrated with you too, esp with the "no one got hurt" attitude. To me it's similar to a "no one needs to know" type of thing. It might seem insignificant to you, but you DON'T want a back injury? Want to live pain free and be able to work again? Then use proper body mechanics and lift like you were taught!

As far as the CNA class goes... That's what your labs were for. Your instructor hit it on the head. Get back in the labs and practice. Our labs/clinical counted as CNA experience, and if we chose to do so, we could get our CNA one or two.

-JMO, Andrea

[Catch]

I have had some darn awful nurses in the clincal setting!!! They can be so rude sometimes. Then there are always the good ones who want to help you out! The worst is when the nurse your working with treats you like your not important. One I had last week took her dear old sweet time having lots of personal conversations while I was sitting beside her waiting for report. Is my time not as valuable as yours?

Well anyways I know this maybe contraindicating what I just said but

does anyone else get a major case of BORDOM at certain clinical sites?? It's like were there for 7 hours two times a week and for 5 of those seven hours were all struggling to look like were busy when we really have nothing to do.

Yes. Its like Chinese water torture.