I wanted to post this in the nursing forum because I wanted nurses opinions and advice on the problems I encountered during my clinical last Friday. I am just starting level 2 of an ADN program and we have 12 hour Friday clinicals from 0630-1830 on a busy 60 bed Med/Surg unit. Background on myself, I have been working in the medical field since I was first out of high school in 1997 doing unit clerk/clinical assisting on a busy GYN/Oncology unit until 2003 when I moved to Austin and got a job at an outpatient radiation center and have been there ever since. I also do PRN work on an oncology floor at a hospital also while attending school. I felt the need to say this because I have worked around nurses for years. I know how crazy the job can be. Here's my awful experience in a nutshell :
Friday I get to the floor early so I can see if there were any new orders/meds on the patient I chose the night before. I called and listened to voice report to get the update from the night shift and waited outside my patient room for the primary RN to come by. When she did, I introduced myself and told her what I would be doing that day and the skills I was able to perform. I also wanted to make sure she knew of my experience so she would hopefully have a little faith in me and I would try to stay out of her way but still keep her updated. She cut me off and tells me "Yeah yeah, I don't have time for this, I have three other patients to see." Okay, so I just shrugged it off as maybe bad timing on my part, or she just wasn't a morning person. I then asked her if I could have her cell phone number in case I needed to reach her during the shift. She replies "no, no, I hate that thing, if you need me come find me." Once again, okay, whatever makes your shift easier, I only have one patient and you have four. From reading all the nurses on here talk about students and what a pain they can be it gave me a better understanding of how much extra burden we can be.
The day goes on and my patient is doing great. Going to be discharged some time after 1700. I asked her if I could help her do anything and she kept telling me no. She then proceeds to sit down next to me outside my patient room door and tells me "I don't think you students realize what a tough job we have as nurses". Then tells me all the hospital drama and how bad their nurse manager was and "even though I have been a nurse for 15 years I still get called into the principal's office for things I didn't do." Adding to it how unhappy most of the nurses on the floor were and how many nurses they had lost in the last few years. I just kept nodding and smiling.
The day kept going up and down in moods. One minute she would be in a bad mood and then the next she was inviting me to watch her start an IV. So I asked her what med she was drawing up and she tells me "oh no, you don't see this". Confused, I asked why and she tells me "this is lidocaine and we are supposed to have a doctor's order for it but I'm not doing that, I'm just going to give it because this IV start will hurt the patient because I need a larger needle". So I followed her in the room and watch her stick the site with Lidocaine...no gloves...then swab the site with alcohol still thinking she was going to stop and put on goves...nope, she starts an IV in the mid bicep area which was a gusher. She then yells at me to run and get gauze. Still...no gloves. WOW!!
Later on when our patient was getting close to discharge the doctor wrote an order for Mag Citrate po x 1 then DC to home after BM. (She hadnt had a BM in 4 days even with Milk of Mag and Surfak). I went to chart that we had orders from MD and was going to give Mag Citrate when I see the nurse charted in quotes : 1230 - "I already had a large BM", MD notified. Confused, I went in the room and asked if she had a BM. She said no, so I give her the Mag Citrate and in 15 minutes...SUCCESS!!! The patient was so happy. I still charted what I did and the success it gave.
The RN then asked me later if I could take out her foley. I said I could but I needed my instructor in the room. I found my instructor and she asked me if there was an order to DC foley. I said no, there was an order to DC to home. She said she would not let me DC the foley without a specific order. I dreaded telling the RN but I did anyways. She sighed heavily and flipped to the order sheet and wrote "DC foley" in the space above the MD signature. She sees my face and just tells me to nevermind she would do it.
In post conference I told my instructor everything that happened and shockingly she didn't seem surprised. So after this long rant I ask ya'll....at any time did I ever have a right to question the RN on these things? Do I as a lowly nursing student have the right to question a "veteran" nurse or is that a no no? I have to be on this unit for another 14 weeks and I don't want to be "that student who told on the RN". Are the things that happened everyday occurences that I am just not used to? What should I do if I am ever with her again? Thanks in advance.
