Working as a Nurse Tech on a Woman's Health floor...any advice

[RNandlovingit]

I work as a Nurse Tech on a woman's health floor, and I need some advice.

As a nurse tech I can do more than a PCT because I am in nursing school, however whenever I ask one of my charge nurses if I can watch her do something I have never seen before, she tells me no because I am only a tech and not there to learn, I am there to work. She basically has me doing PCT work. I have no problem doing the PCT work because it is my responsibility to get vitals, do adls, I/O's etc. I do however take offense to being told I am not there to learn. If that is the case why even have Nurse Techs on your floor just hire PCT's it would be cheaper for the hospital anyway. This one certain nurse is a bit cranky at times to put it mildly and i really dont know how to handle her in general Any advice anyone?

[Bekahlynn]

brain fart

[Bekahlynn]

What is the problem with you watching her do something, especially if you have nothing else to do? I am assuming that the nurse tech position is specifically for nursing students. Why have the position at all if the students do not learn from it? If it is just for students, aren't those positions generally some sort of recruitment technique, to keep you aboard as a nurse upon graduation? If so, why on earth would she, a charge nurse, not want you to learn something from it. I just don't get it.

[RainDreamer, BSN, RN]

Is it like an intern/extern type position? If so, then learning would be a part of the job.

We never had nurse tech positions. We could work as PCTs after our first year of nursing school. Most of the floors on the hospital were great and had great nurses that knew we were students, therefore they would show us stuff that would help us learn.

It's good to have a good nurse that's willing to teach, otherwise if the position isn't an externship/internship type thing, then it's really up to the nurses. You're there to work. Even when we worked as CNAs, some of the nurses were great about pulling us in and showing/teaching us something new, because they knew we were students. They didn't have to do it. It sounds like you have a nurse that just doesn't want to teach. Just try and find nurses that like to.

[wonderbee, BSN, RN]

I think it's a strategy to recruit new grads. I'm also a nurse intern and function as a PCA. It seems to be a strategy that works for the hospitals pretty well. Most of the new grads I know are working where they worked as interns.

There are true summer extern programs where students function as nurses. Wish there were some in my area. I would have applied in a heart beat.