Are Student Nurses Prepared for "Real Life?'

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Many of the student nurses I have encountered lately appear to be ill-prepared for the real world.What is going on? What are these students being taught and prepared for? Ex: Student drawing up 5 cc of insulin thinking it's 5 units. What are they doing????

Specializes in EMS, ER, GI, PCU/Telemetry.
Woah!!! Was the professor notified?

yeah, she was there during the whole situation. she said the reason we are all precepting with newer nurses is that they have had such a bad experience with the seasoned nurses attitudes towards students.

i know not all experienced nurses are like that, but there are a few who dont give students the time of day and dont really want you trailing along with them. one of the nurses a friend of mine was assigned to refused to let her do any treatments, meds, assessments, etc and told her to just watch and not bother her.

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i too, had floor nurses who showed nothing but disdain for the student nurses.

when i think about it, i'm not sure that these nurses even have an obligation to mentor us as students.

obviously the school of nsg has a contractual relationship w/the hospital, but that's as far as it goes.

the burden of clinical experience, falls on the instructor and no one else.

so while i certainly appreciated the nurse who provided me w/opportunities, it's something i never expected.

does that make any sense?

leslie

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Specializes in Telemetry/Med Surg.
i too, had floor nurses who showed nothing but disdain for the student nurses.

when i think about it, i'm not sure that these nurses even have an obligation to mentor us as students.

obviously the school of nsg has a contractual relationship w/the hospital, but that's as far as it goes.

the burden of clinical experience, falls on the instructor and no one else.

so while i certainly appreciated the nurse who provided me w/opportunities, it's something i never expected.

does that make any sense?

leslie

Absolutely Leslie. When I was in school and we were on clinicals, we were the responsibility of our clinical instructor...not the floor nurses.

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Specializes in Med- surg, Amb. Surgery, Recovery Room.

i find some of the posts on this topic very interesting to say the least. i also see that there is an underlying tone of anger towards nurses that have more experience. i can understand this, but believe me, not all "older, experienced" nurses have forgotten what it is like to be new. that's why many of us, myself included precept and volunteer to work with new grads to help the transition.

my question comes not from their lack of organizational skills or the ability to handle more than 1 or 2 patients, but from lack of basic nursing skills. after 2 or 4 years, this is based on the program graduated from, many of these new grads still do not know how to use a manual bp machine, baths are things they try to avoid. bed making? forget it...the sheets are sideways and the patients are left up in the air with the siderails down. syringes are left on top of carts and the 5 rights are something used by police before an arrest.

this is basic stuff folks!!!

oh,by the way... the new grad that was drawing up 5cc of regular insulin was an honor student with an attitude. i had given her the job of checking the patient's fingerstick ( which, by the way she had no clue as to how to do), and drawing up, but not giving; thank goodness the insulin appropriate for coverage. i would be checking it and then going with her to give to the patient. she had nicely drawn up 5 cc of regular. she also had to use mutiple vials to do it. i hope they teach that this alone should be a red flag. after seeing this, i asked her why she drew up so much and she insisted she was correct. i had to review units vs cc with her. *****scary stuff!****

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Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.
i find some of the posts on this topic very interesting to say the least. i also see that there is an underlying tone of anger towards nurses that have more experience. i can understand this, but believe me, not all "older, experienced" nurses have forgotten what it is like to be new. that's why many of us, myself included precept and volunteer to work with new grads to help the transition.

my question comes not from their lack of organizational skills or the ability to handle more than 1 or 2 patients, but from lack of basic nursing skills. after 2 or 4 years, this is based on the program graduated from, many of these new grads still do not know how to use a manual bp machine, baths are things they try to avoid. bed making? forget it...the sheets are sideways and the patients are left up in the air with the siderails down. syringes are left on top of carts and the 5 rights are something used by police before an arrest.

this is basic stuff folks!!!

oh,by the way... the new grad that was drawing up 5cc of regular insulin was an honor student with an attitude. i had given her the job of checking the patient's fingerstick ( which, by the way she had no clue as to how to do), and drawing up, but not giving; thank goodness the insulin appropriate for coverage. i would be checking it and then going with her to give to the patient. she had nicely drawn up 5 cc of regular. she also had to use mutiple vials to do it. i hope they teach that this alone should be a red flag. after seeing this, i asked her why she drew up so much and she insisted she was correct. i had to review units vs cc with her. *****scary stuff!****

that is very frightening. i can't believe she thought she was correct. she could have killed the patient had she given it. did she realize that she was wrong after you reviewed units/cc with her? to me there is a difference between being book smart and having clinical smarts. some people have both. some have one or the other. usually students learn about drawing up medications in syringes in nursing school in a lab.

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Specializes in pediatric transplant.

When I was in nursing school (just graduated), I actually had nurses say, "Oh no, don't give me a student!" Some of my classmates were pretty hurt by this; I tried not to let it bother me. Usually, once they saw that we were eager, somewhat helpful, and interested, their attitudes changed.

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I just finished nursing school and I found that a lot of the nurses I worked with said I am not a teacher, I will do it myself. I find that ridiculous because as a nurse you must always teach.

Come on nurses help your students out. We are there to learn!!!!

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No school can completely prepare you for the outside world. Thats why you need to work and get experience. They are called student nurse for a reason because they are learning.

Good you caught the mistake in time ,and it is the responsibility of the supervisor to see if the students nurses are doing things correctly.

Student nurses need to ask questions if they are in-doubt, and need not care what others will think. Overall we all are there for the patient.:nono:

Sometimes experienced nurses think they are superior and do not want to take the time to teach. I think if they do not want to have a student nurse they should not take on that responsibility.

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Specializes in Developmentally Disabled, LTC, Clinic, Hospital.

I can tell you straight up that No, nursing school has NOT prepared me for the real world! I graduated from a practical nursing program in May, took and passed boards in June, started my first nursing job this month. I am working third shift in a nursing home with 34 patients to myself and two aides. I am absolutely terrified by the things that go on there! I know basics, like I know 5mls of insulin is not 5 units, but we were not taught IV's, or how to draw blood, etc. Our clinical rotations were basically following a nurse, no real hands on and with only one patient. Passing meds did not include narcotics, weren't allowed to touch those. I am now "thrown to the wolves" and given 34 patients. I am overwhelmed and scared to death. I was very honest and open in my interview, I told them I was a brand new nurse with no experience and my only goal was to not kill anyone! They hired me. I guess in defense of students I would say we can't learn what we aren't taught, and that alot of experienced nurses won't take time to help. Having said that, I understand the time constraints that ALL nurses are under and that there isn't time for experienced nurses to babysit someone who has a license and has been deemed "worthy" of the title.

I hope that nursing schools wake up soon and place their concern more on educating good nurses instead of being able to brag about a high pass rate. Just because you can pass your boards doesn't mean you are qualified to work on your own as a nurse.

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This is how my nursing program prepared me for the "real world":

During the last class which was called "Role Transition" I got pared with a nurse in L&D (a unit not accustomed to having nursing students and I was the only one placed there) who had never before precepted anyone and has been an RN for just 3 years. She handed in my "midpoint evaluation" with 2 weeks of the class left, making falsified statements with regard to my performance. Although we were told that our instructors (who never actually showed up to the clinical site), and not the hospital preceptor, would determine our successfully passing the course and although I came through the program with no previous problems, no statements of concern, and was slated to graduate as my class' valedictorian, and although the dean told a group of us students that the only way to fail this particular class was to do something unsafe (which the falsified evaluation did not even accuse me of)...despite all these things, the decision was made by the dean to not let me pass the class and it was recommended to me to retake it and graduate 6 months later without ever having asked me about the circumstances surrounding the evaluation which she admitted to never even reading prior to making her decision. I went to the ombudsperson stating the injustice of this decision and was basically told by her and the rest of the administration, "Welcome to the real world".

I fought that decision and the school (after hearing from me what really happened on that unit and how I did not receive due process) then decided to create a class just for me this summer in order for me to complete and graduate. They obviously knew they were wrong in their actions and that I had a case against them since I had already been hired for an RN position and would lose a lot of wages through their "recommendation". Had they at all been justified in their actions they would never have gone through the trouble of creating a special class just for me.

It just amazes me that someone who would mistake 5 cc's of insulin for 5 units gets right out there into the 'real world' while someone at the top of their class gets held back. yep, that's the real world alright.

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I just finished LPN school in May taking my boards next week, and I strongly agree with the fact that we are not prepared for the "Real World of Nursing". I know I am not an RN but I know that clinical thinking was shoved down our throats by some instructors whereas, with others it was straight facts. My OB instructor was awesome, I say that now but in school I was terrified of her, she made us explain everything we did, what could happen if done wrong. We had certain things that we had to do before we could even pass the clinical in her eyes. I was scared to death of her asking the questions but now I will remember everything she asked b/c you thought it out with her.

As students we were CNA's the first semester, 2nd semester we did get more hands on but the instructors did alot of it for us, it was faster b/c there was 9 other students. The nurses did not want us doing much b/c we had to wait for the instructor to get time to come observe us.

There is some great long term nurses out there that were more than willing to let you do it with them observing and talking you through parts that you were unsure of. I want to thank all of those nurses that I personally got to work with.

I just hope the place of employment for me is understanding about being a newbie.

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I am a nursing student. I would like to comment on this thread. Were any of us prepared for "real life?" When we moved away from home, were we adequately prepared to accept responsibility for ourselves? Did any of you feel "ready" to get married? Or choose your college major? No amount of reading books or articles, or advice from friends and family adequately prepared me for being a parent. The point is, nobody knows how they will react to real life situations until they are placed in one. Life has a way of educating us as we go. The best way to learn is to dive in head first, do our best with what skills we have, learn from our mistakes, and keep going. Granted, there are those people out there who don't have many skills to start with, or those who have thick heads and may never learn from their mistakes, but they are not isolated to the field of nursing.

Students are merely learners. They should be held accountable for what they have learned so far. One cannot control the medical crises suffered by the clients to accommodate learning (i.e. arranging one heart attack per day, or a diabetic coma, or a tracheotomy), therefore it should not be expected for a student to be an "expert" on situations they have not been exposed to. Thank you to all of you more experienced nurses who are willing to take students like me under your wing and patiently help us to become proficient professionals. I, for one, look forward to benifitting from those who have gone before.

:bow:

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