I am in a dilemma, as to what to do. I am attending a school to become and LVN. I am a 1st Term student who is half way through the rotation for clinicals in this term. We are normally at our SNF the last 2 days of the week. However, our regular instructor has had his hours cut and he is only there Fridays now. Our Thursday shift has been taken up by an LVN with very questionable skills. I am seriously afraid of this nurse, and this is not because I liked our first instructor better. It is because of 2 things that happened while this new instructor had "taken the reigns" during clinicals.
First - she halted our clinical time on the floor of the SNF, while we were in the midst of doing our ADLs, Vitals, and Feeding. And why? Because she wanted us the "Feel what it was like to be poked during a blood glucose test." She said, "I want you to know what the pain feels like, so that when your patients ask you this, you will know first hand." Exact words, I wrote them down. Ok, she had us actually poking ourselves using the facilities machines and strips while the Treatment Nurses were doing their rounds right at that time. They were ****** that their blood glucose meters went missing. You think it would have stopped there, but it didn't. This "instructor" then told us that she didn't want to see us leaving sharps out, and that not all rooms have sharps containers - so use the glove and put it in our pockets for safe keeping. This includes syringes. I have never heard of this "technique" in all my years as a CNA. Quite frankly, even a place as remote as Guam and Palau - in their facilities - they have SHARPS containers. We are in California, I think most places have SHARPS containers here - either in the rooms, restrooms, med carts, or in the utility rooms.
The Second thing that makes me question the competence of this nurse, is that she was presented with a patient who was presenting with SOB and went into Cardiac Arrest. However, that patient was not the patient that we were working with - the room was share between Patient A and Patient B. Patient B was having their vitals taken just as a matter of routine, when patient A who was bed ridden and unable to speak or talk began presenting with labored breathing/SOB with light seizures. We tried to get her to pay attention to the patient, but she told us, "do not to deal with that patient because they are not your patient." We were the only "nurses" in that area at the time, and it wasn't until one of my classmates in the hall hit the "Code" button.
We are all scared of what is going to happen if we bring this to our Administrator's attention, because we are just students. But what scares me even more is having this person teaching us.
What can we do? What should we do?
Nursing News