Why do students get asked to do everything?

Students General Students

Published

  • Specializes in CCU, Geriatrics, Critical Care, Tele.

Don't you just hate it when you are asked to do everything? Yes, you are the new person. Yes, you are just a student.

What was the worse thing that anyone asked you to do at a learning environment?

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Specializes in Dialysis.

No. I don't hate it. I love the opportunity to practice stuff.

VioletKaliLPN, LPN

1 Article; 450 Posts

I was never asked to do anything out of the ordinary for a Nursing student, or anything I felt was degrading, demeaning, or gross. Someone with broken arms did ask me to scratch an itch on the top of their foot. This person tried with the other foot, but let's just say coordination was not exactly his strong point. I hate foot itches, so I made sure his foot would stop. Hopefully someone will do that for me if I fall off a roof doing construction and break my arms.

sugarmagnoliaRN

543 Posts

Specializes in Cardiac Critical Care.

I have heard some terrible stories from nurses about things they were asked to do as a student, but I don't feel that I've ever been asked to do anything unreasonable. I love the opportunity to practice, and usually tell nurses and techs up front that I'm there to learn and to help - anything I can do to lighten their loads, they can throw my way (as long as its within the scope of my practice as a student, of course). I spent a day in the ER, and I will say their approach to students is slightly different - they don't ask you to do things, they tell you! (And you better do it quick, fast & in a hurry! :))

sugarmagnoliaRN

543 Posts

Specializes in Cardiac Critical Care.

Side note - not really something I was asked to do by a nurse, but I was helping a fellow student do a bath & bed change on a total care patient once... this woman had a lot of skin breakdown, which of course was all over the bed, especially after we bathed her. The tech came in & helped us (the patient was very contracted & had a large stage III on her coccyx) with changing the bed. The tech and I were standing on opposite sides of the bed and she fluffed up the old sheet (filled with skin flakes and leakage from the patient's rectal tube) so that a waft of nastiness went right into my face. Ahhhh, the perks of being a student...

RNFiona

211 Posts

Specializes in ER.

You should want to do as much as possible

RNFiona

211 Posts

Specializes in ER.

You think only students get afforded the luxury of wafts of nastiness in their faces? Think again.

Specializes in Critical Care at Level 1 trauma center.

When I am in clinical I do as much as I can... Trying to get a job next year in the ER!!

SleeepyRN

1,076 Posts

I didnt feel the OP was complaining about learning opportunities. When I was in nursing school, I also worked as a tech in a hospital. I remember when I was working, I would hear other techs say "good, nursing students are here, they can do this" meaning scut work and pretty much being taken advantage of. As a student, I was all for helping out the techs, but we definitely were taken advantage of, and did less "nursing" because of it. One clinical day, the hospital was down a tech, so my instructor had me do all the tech work and didnt assign me a patient that day for nursing. We only had 6 days on that unit, and my education was compromised because my tech experience was taken advantage of. Still, I did it with a smile on my face and never complained about it once til now, where I can do it anonymously

Wrench Party

823 Posts

Specializes in Cardiology, Cardiothoracic Surgical.

Heck yeah I like doing stuff! The federal government and I are both paying for me to be there and learn, so I better

take advantage of all the opportunities. If I can, I like to turn a bed bath or whatever into an opportunity to

do an assessment, talk to the patient, etc. It makes the day go by faster.

Now I could have lived without the C diff stool patient...but you can't win them all...

Specializes in Transitional Care, Home Care.

That is such a bummer considering you were paying for that experience. You should have gotten a refund for that day :uhoh3:

Specializes in NICU, telemetry.

I'm sure there are some nurses out there who probably do "abuse the privilege" of having students around, but I have never seen this by a nurse, and I never experienced it myself. Sure, I have had nurses ask the clinical instructors, "I have such and such for a patient, do yall want to do it?", and I have even asked them that myself. But that's a learning experience. Even if it's something you have done 10 times before, another chance at doing it is always for the better! Just because you've gotten to do it that many times this semester, doesn't mean you're going to do it any more during your program. You may get to cath 3 people in your 2nd semester, then never have the opportunity to cath again until you're graduated. Plus, every patient scenario is different. Any opportunity to practice ANYTHING can be a learning experience for a student or a nurse.

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