Being a nursing student

^This reminded me of when I was assisting a nurse with a male cath insertion and there was a student nurse observing the procedure.
The patient was an elderly man with a delightful sense of humor, but this was the student's first encounter with him. She stood watching as the RN and I prepped him and then as the nurse was inserting the cath, the student looked amazed and suddenly blurted out, "How much further does that tubing go in?!" Before the nurse could answer, the man laughed and said, "About 100 feet."
Then I said, (because he had been a patient with us for a week and I was familiar with his sense of humor) "Just like a man....the other day I came in here to do vitals and he came out of the bathroom claiming the commode water was really cold."
The patient, the nurse and I laughed, but it took a few minutes for the student to get it.

That is open. LOL.

The other day we were discussing diabetes in class, and a classmate asked as seriously as you can imagine if it would be appropriate to give fruit juice through an IV line with a patient has extreme hypoglycemia, because that might be faster than a bolus of D50. i couldn't do anything but pick my jaw up off the floor when she asked the question.

We tend to have one woman who asks the most awful questions. Per a previous post, this is a repeat, but for those who didnt get the joy of reading them earlier, here are two questions she actually raised her hand and asked in front of the ENTIRE nursing program:

"Can your pt come back to life after being embalmed?"

AND

"Can you give the dying pt's family anti anxiety meds?"

Don't ask me how some of us got into the program....

O wow .. it's not just my class that has the class idiot. I actually have a list of people who are never allowed to care for me should I end up in the hospital, and half of my classmates are named on it. One of my friends joked about how she thought it was so incredible that she got accepted into the nursing program, till she met most of our classmates, and realized it wasn't so special afterall.

This same one who made the dumb comment about diabetes and juice bolus asked during psych nursing if when someone were to have a loss of self-esteem following an intense period of grief, would it ever be possible for them to get that self-esteem back? Or was it lost forever from their "self-loving" bank.

Years ago, as a student, on our 2nd clinical rotation one student was asked to place a foley. The other students were told to watch. All six of us circled the female pt's bed, a confused, but pleasent lady. She was placed in the "frog leg position" and the student started to set up the foley. The lady then grabed she knees and started rocking and hollered out "Yeah Ha Ride em Cowboy" We all exited the room quickly and laughed so hard we could hardly stand.

[quote=tomato1106;3268349]O wow .. it's not just my class that has the class idiot. I actually have a list of people who are never allowed to care for me should I end up in the hospital, and half of my classmates are named on it. One of my friends joked about how she thought it was so incredible that she got accepted into the nursing program, till she met most of our classmates, and realized it wasn't so special afterall.
quote]

I'm glad to know it's not just me who's figured this out!! A part of me wants to be sooo proud that I was accepted into the nursing program! I mean, seriously, I worked hard! But when I went to orientation - I was absolutely dumbfounded at some others who were also accepted. I guess it's not such a privilege after all! If they can't even stay focused and listen during orientation (and yes, there is such a thing as a stupid question!)...how on earth are they going to make it through this program!? And then another thought hit me - when I was getting worried about how hard it was going to be... I just reminded myself of some of the nurses I've seen - and I just tell myself that if they can do it, it can't be that bad!

Actually, that's not a bad question, because a lot of places have protocols in place for that.

We are on our second set of clinicals...one semester to go...doing an assignment on the care of the elderly post CVA. A question comes up about what interventions you could do to be sure your patient doesn't pocket his food? A fellow classmate, God Bless her, asks us cruiously...."Wouldn't you just look inside his pant pockets?" We're still laughing. Funny thing is she's really smart...I think this question just blind sided her.

all the posts keep saying something about getting into the nursing program and the students being dumb. what about when you get to the end and you dont think they should have ever graduated?? that is my problem when i grad'ed!
-H-RN