What Would You Do? Need Advice!!

Nursing Students General Students

Published

I'm a first semester student and have come across a situation that I need to get some feedback on. There is someone in our class that has already been written up and reported to the department coordinator for her inappropriate comments and behavior during clinical. She just found this out yesterday. Well, Monday she showed up for clinical without a complete careplan because she said that her pt. had just been admitted about an hour and a half before clinical started. We have been told explicitly by our instructor NOT to be on the floor or in pts. rooms until she is in the hospital because her license is on the line. Well, come to find out, this person had been on the floor for a couple of hours helping the nurse do this admit. If something had happened to this pt. while she was helping my instructor would be liable. It infuriates me that she, this other student, would have the nerve to do this. I'm not tattle tale but this is the adult world with real consequences for our actions. Would you report her or would you wait and see if she pulls that again? She knows she was wrong because she asked the other students if they were going to tell on her? What a dilemma. Thanks for your input.

0 Votes
Specializes in Operating Room.

I'm not really sure about the situation, but if the instructor knows she didn't have a careplan b/c her patient was admitted earlier, wouldn't the instructor already know the student was on the floor without permission?

I'm a first semester student and have come across a situation that I need to get some feedback on. There is someone in our class that has already been written up and reported to the department coordinator for her inappropriate comments and behavior during clinical. She just found this out yesterday. Well, Monday she showed up for clinical without a complete careplan because she said that her pt. had just been admitted about an hour and a half before clinical started. We have been told explicitly by our instructor NOT to be on the floor or in pts. rooms until she is in the hospital because her license is on the line. Well, come to find out, this person had been on the floor for a couple of hours helping the nurse do this admit. If something had happened to this pt. while she was helping my instructor would be liable. It infuriates me that she, this other student, would have the nerve to do this. I'm not tattle tale but this is the adult world with real consequences for our actions. Would you report her or would you wait and see if she pulls that again? She knows she was wrong because she asked the other students if they were going to tell on her? What a dilemma. Thanks for your input.
0 Votes
Specializes in Education, FP, LNC, Forensics, ED, OB.
I'm a first semester student and have come across a situation that I need to get some feedback on. There is someone in our class that has already been written up and reported to the department coordinator for her inappropriate comments and behavior during clinical. She just found this out yesterday. Well, Monday she showed up for clinical without a complete careplan because she said that her pt. had just been admitted about an hour and a half before clinical started. We have been told explicitly by our instructor NOT to be on the floor or in pts. rooms until she is in the hospital because her license is on the line. Well, come to find out, this person had been on the floor for a couple of hours helping the nurse do this admit. If something had happened to this pt. while she was helping my instructor would be liable. It infuriates me that she, this other student, would have the nerve to do this. I'm not tattle tale but this is the adult world with real consequences for our actions. Would you report her or would you wait and see if she pulls that again? She knows she was wrong because she asked the other students if they were going to tell on her? What a dilemma. Thanks for your input.

Hello, Anonymous Student,:balloons:

Wouldn't the instructor know she was in clinical early that day? I am sure she will find out.

0 Votes

Not necessarily because we get to the hospital in the a.m. to pick our patient for the day. Clinical starts at 1:00 p.m. When we go up to the floor to pick our pt. we review the chart at the nurse's station and then leave to work on our care plans. This student mentioned that she had gotten there at 9:30 but that her pt. wasn't admitted until 11:30. The rest of us caught on to the fact that she what she was saying really didn't jive. Had she had her care plan completed, no one would have been the wiser. When the pts. are first admitted, not all of their info is available in the chart. You just know that if you can't get a history and so forth, you just have to go on and pick another pt. Well, she didn't because she thought she was familiar enough with the pt. (because she helped get him admitted) that she could pull off a partially completed care plan. Which, by itself can get you sent home for the day. Thus, one of the reasons she was written up. We are under NO circumstances to walk into a pts room to just check where an I.V site is or just say "hello", because, if something happens while you are in there, say the pt. falls out of bed and breaks something, just because you were in the room, you can be held responsible for that incident. We are able to practice nursing care under the instructor's license, if we do something wrong, even by omission, she could lose her ability to practice. Does that make any sense? LOL!!

I'm not really sure about the situation, but if the instructor knows she didn't have a careplan b/c her patient was admitted earlier, wouldn't the instructor already know the student was on the floor without permission?
0 Votes
Specializes in Rural Health.

If you all noticed - I'm sure the powers that be at the school also noticed. Not to mention I'm sure that someone on the floor has already made the school aware, even if they didn't mean to, just by "accidently" making a comment about her being present during an admit.

I wouldn't let it bother you. You know what is right and wrong and you know what the rules are for your school. Abide by those rules and let her hang herself, it sounds like it won't be long.

Good luck!!!

0 Votes
Specializes in Operating Room.

Yes it makes sense. :)

I tend to agree with mom2michael. If it happens again, maybe I'd say something, or ask how one can have permission to go in early such as _____ does. LOL

It's a hard situation. You never know what is the correct thing to do, and I really don't know what I'd do in the situation.

You have to CYA....in school and out of school. You don't know what kind of person this student is...what kind of reaction she will have if she finds out you "snitched". Then again, you don't know if you will get into any trouble for not saying anything.

Hopefully nothing will come of this, and hopefully, she won't do this again. Maybe her thinking was to try to learn about her patient ahead of time because she is feeling overwhelmed. I don't know.

Good luck, though. :)

Does that make any sense? LOL!!
0 Votes

From somebody who always gets herself into trouble for getting involved -Keep right out of it - you know nothing !.

I have learnt that over and over again - the hard way.

Helen

I'm a first semester student and have come across a situation that I need to get some feedback on. There is someone in our class that has already been written up and reported to the department coordinator for her inappropriate comments and behavior during clinical. She just found this out yesterday. Well, Monday she showed up for clinical without a complete careplan because she said that her pt. had just been admitted about an hour and a half before clinical started. We have been told explicitly by our instructor NOT to be on the floor or in pts. rooms until she is in the hospital because her license is on the line. Well, come to find out, this person had been on the floor for a couple of hours helping the nurse do this admit. If something had happened to this pt. while she was helping my instructor would be liable. It infuriates me that she, this other student, would have the nerve to do this. I'm not tattle tale but this is the adult world with real consequences for our actions. Would you report her or would you wait and see if she pulls that again? She knows she was wrong because she asked the other students if they were going to tell on her? What a dilemma. Thanks for your input.
0 Votes

I find it best in these circumstances to let nature take its course. If this student continues her behavior, she is headed for trouble, all on her own. Keep the focus on you. Work to improve your own clinical skills, academic knowledge, care of your patient, etc. This advice follows for the working world as well. Sometimes we get wrapped up in all that is around us because it is easier than looking with in. Just my opinion. Keep working toward your goal, good luck.

0 Votes

The advice below is better than mine - let nature take its course.

Helen

I find it best in these circumstances to let nature take its course. If this student continues her behavior, she is headed for trouble, all on her own. Keep the focus on you. Work to improve your own clinical skills, academic knowledge, care of your patient, etc. This advice follows for the working world as well. Sometimes we get wrapped up in all that is around us because it is easier than looking with in. Just my opinion. Keep working toward your goal, good luck.
0 Votes

Thanks so much for all your input. I agree, I think I need to just hang back and see what happens. If she doesn't turn it around, she will eventually hang herself anyway. I truly hope the best for her. I would hate to see anyone kicked out of school after working so hard to get in. I do have enough on my plate to contend with as it is. No time for drama. :) Thanks again for all the advice.

0 Votes
Specializes in Med-Surg.

If there's one thing I've discovered in the last year+ of nursing school it's that the instructors know every little thing that's going on at the hospital because the staff watch us like hawks (even when u think they're not) and report absolutely everything, especially if they construe it to be bad. If one of our students dares to come to clinical prep in jeans or forgets their white jacket in the car, they are all but falling over themselves to get to that phone and be the first to crucify us. Had one of our students helped with an admit during a non-clinical hour? Holy moly. And as bad as the staff is... your fellow students are worse. During the time you've spent wondering if you should report her, 7 other students already have.

This is the way I make my decisions: Am I the direct witness to compromised ethics in action? No? Then it's none of my business.

0 Votes
+ Add a Comment