Am I overreacting?

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Hey All,

I could use some opinions on a situation with a nursing student today. To give some background I've been a peds nurse for about 5 years. I'm very pro-teaching and really like having students with me. I've never had any negative experiences teaching until today. So today I asked one of the nursing students if they'd like to insert an NG tube. She stated that they hadn't learned that and I said I'd be happy to teach her if she felt comfortable. We go over the procedure a couple times and it all seems good. She goes to enter the room and starts getting freaked out that the patient is on airborne precautions for TB. I told her that we have the appropriate masks but if it was a big issue than I'd ask someone else. I happened to know that the students get fit tested prior to clinical but didn't want to make a big issue out of it.

She indicated that she wasn't comfortable doing the NG tube so I decided I'd see if someone else might like to do it. Another student wanted a chance so we went over the procedure. Both come in to the room with me and the second student starts to insert the NG. I had the child's head and asked the first student to hold his arms. She didn't even want to touch that patient due to her fear of TB. At this point I decided to take over but still try to explain the process. When we all came out of the room I told the first student that there were many areas in nursing where she'd be exposed to potentially communicable diseases so it might be a good idea to get a little more comfortable with them. I let the instructor know that I had some concerns about the student's refusal to even touch a patient with TB (she was fully masked, gowned, and gloved BTW). The instructor's response was that "I had chased 2 people away from peds today" (referring to both students I guess). I couldn't believe that she said that to me given the fact I felt like I had really tried with these two students to at least give them some clinical exposure.

Do you think I was too harsh? If I had pulled that in clinicals my instructors would have kicked my butt!

Thanks for any feedback--Anna

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No you were not harsh at all. I'm a nursing student and it amazes me at how some of my classmates act when someone has a communable infection/disease. You are there for care! Protect yourself and get it down! Shame on them, but that just goes to show how they are so GPA heavy and not true "nursing" heaving when letting some of these idiots into these programs. It's sad but its true. I would run to a nurse like you in my clinicals, wanting to teach me something new and let me do it! You did a great job, please contiune to be pro-active in your teaching the students that come there. The genuine students with a true understand of "nursing" will appreciate it.

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I can't believe those students got away with that behavior, and then YOU got blamed. That's BS! I would say those two students are in a field that maybe is not for them at all. Nurses take care of sick people, what profession do they think they are going into??

I also wonder how the patients felt being on the receiving end of being treated like sewage by the student "nurses". You better believe if I were the patient or the mom of one of the patients, I would be complaining about those students so fast their air-heads would spin!!

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In my experience many nursing instructors manage to make themselves scarce during clinicals, leaving it all up to the floor. You did these students a favor IMHO. Next time maybe that instructor would like her own teaching opportunity, maybe she should be available to do some skills.

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Specializes in Army Medic.

I don't understand how some one can get into the medical field and not expect to encounter things like this?

It's also pretty rude on the instructor's side to make such a statement. It's not like you were telling horror stories of nurses getting stuck by psychotic patients with AIDs. You were trying to be helpful, but realistic with them - isn't that your job as a mentor?

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No, you weren't harsh at all. I loved nurses in clinicals who were so willing to teach and educate and let me be physically involved. It's the best way to learn. What's sad is so many students would have appreciated the opportunity and you got a couple of lemons today. Don't let them take away from your passion for teaching. These students are going to have a real hard time making it in bedside nursing if they can't get beyond their fears. I wish the instructor used this as a learning tool but it seems she was just quick to assign blame to you instead. Their loss.

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Why did the instructor think that BOTH students were upset?

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Specializes in geriatrics/long term care.

Hell no you were not out of line. Thank god it was a pediatric patient and couldnt understand what they said or take offense at thier reluctance to interact with him/her. What level of nursing students were they? I ask because i could see that type of ignorance in a beginning nursing student. I have no excuse for the instructor.

Correct me if i'm wrong, but isn't nursing all about caring for the sick? Well, guess why they're sick. Most of the time, it's because of germs, infection, communicable conditions, etc. A large part of the art(yes, i said art) of being a good nurse is learning to care for them while dealing with those issues. That would be why we have universal precautions.

Any good nursing instructor would have had them write a 50 page paper on universal precautions including a rationale of why we have them to help cure them of the idea that they could ever care for the sick without being exposed to germs, and to help them understand that the germs you don't know about are the ones you really need to be worried about. :eek:

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Specializes in LTC, Home Health.

We would have been in a whole lot of trouble if we had in any way turned down the chance to learn a new clinical procedure or disrespected nursing staff in any way when we were in school. Wow!

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Not at all. I am an SPN about to graduate and I am SOOOOOOOO thankful, thankful for the nurses that have helped me in clinicals. Especially the ones like you who like to teach. The scary thing is when those girls graduate??? What will they do then, decline to take care of a patient?????:confused:

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Specializes in LTC.

You were not harsh. I would have loved and would love to have a nurse like you guide me in peds.

I have had classmates just as you described. One classmate barely touched a newborn in clinical due to the mother of the baby having hiv. those students better get over this quick! And the instructor should be ashamedQ

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Thanks all! I felt bad because I've always really liked teaching and have always gotten good feedback. I remember being a nursing student and having nurses not want to teach. I promised myself I'd never be like that even if I was really busy. How else are we all supposed to learn? I'm not sure why the second student was upset other than she couldn't insert the tube because she got pretty stressed. I took over when I saw that happening. 90% of the students I have had are happy to see as much as possible so I guess I just got two bad apples. I'll still keep on teaching! Thanks for letting me know it wasn't me--I never want to be one of those mean nurses. Anna

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