As an experienced RN, do you like/dislike having a student nurse assigned to you?

[jamie32764]

I'm in my 2nd semester of nursing school and have med/surg and OB clinicals this semester. I have to say I'm a bit bummed out (as are my classmates) by our clinical experience so far. In our OB clinical, the nurses seem somewhat receptive to having a student under them, but at the same time nobody seems to go out of their way to actually try to teach us anything. One night, sitting up in the nursery waiting for babies to be born, there were 5 nurses that stood there the entire time ******** amongst themselves about how there's not enough coverage....for 3 hours. When I say stood there, I mean literally. The other hospital where we have our med/surg clinical, the nurses don't just seem like they don't want to be bothered, they're downright rude and nasty......to the point of one nurse waving her finger in some of my classmates faces and telling them to "go somewhere else"! I understand that everyone is busy, but why do you have to be miserable too? I'd rather the nurse tell my instructor they don't want a student then to not get anything useful from my clinical experience. It's not a very good feeling when you get home after a long day!

Last semester our clinicals were at a nursing home. Of course the atmosphere wasn't that great but all the nurses were very nice and took time to show us everything they could even though they had 20+ patients.

Just thought I'd get some opinions from those who have been in the field for a while!

Thanks!

[brillohead, ADN, RN]

Personally I feel that being found with a cell phone on the unit should result in an automatic send home. We've hired a few that were lousy students (the grapevine stretches far in nursing) and they are lousy nurses. Phones in constant use in the med room, 20 minutes in the toilets, hiding in the linen room because they "had to take this call".

I set my phone to "airplane mode" so that I can still use my nursing apps, but not receive calls or texts when on the unit.

It just blows my mind that people do that, either as students or floor nurses. Who has the time?????

[futurepsychrn, ADN]

I love having student nurses work with me...that is, the student nurses who actually WANT to learn and get all they can out of their psych rotation. They don't have to want to do psych when they graduate: they just have to be enthusiastic and willing to learn all they can for the course. For them, I'll go to great lengths to get them all the education and experiences that I can. I'll even ask the doctors the questions that the students have but are afraid to ask them.

For those students who clearly don't want to be there AEB their remarks stating as such (because they're planning to go into L&D/ER/anything but psych and so this rotation is a waste of their time), who spend their time hiding in the lounge despite my encouragement to come out, or who are out of the lounge but fiddling with their phones and/or talking with their fellow students more then they are to nurses or patients...well those, I let drown, since they clearly don't want my help. They forget that clinicals are not about me, but are experiences for them--I already have my license.

I give every student the benefit of doubt when meeting them and see what they're willing to get out of their psych rotation. If they're game, I'm game! If they're not, good luck with their care plans and process recordings.

I truly wish I had been on your floor for my psych rotation. I was so excited for it to finally come, because psych has always been my dream job. Pretty much we walked up and down the 1 hallway there was, played Sorry! about 30 times, and did the 15 minute checks. Honestly, the nurses never came out of the station except to give meds. I went from excited to bored very quickly, I spent all the time I could talking with whatever patient would talk to me just to make the time go by. Sigh......

[Pangea Reunited, ASN, RN]

This thread is from 2012.

[mmc51264, BSN, MSN, RN]

I just noticed that LOL. I guess it is still relevant. I have my first student right now and it is great. She is going to be a great nurse. I like teaching and she is eager and takes initiative to learn. I'd take another in a heartbeat.

[Maevish, ASN, RN]

I love having any student unless they're a know-it-all. That I can NOT stand because they're a pain to work with and they're scary as hell on the unit.

Otherwise, I really do love having them because it gives me a nice refresher having to explain "simple" things and sometimes I learn something too! Usually they don't have an attitude (I've only personally had a couple like that in my 9 years) and it's a good time!

xo

[Scrubs_n_sirens, MSN, RN]

I adore students. I've had some iffy preceptors and nurse-assignments as a student and it really ruined my personal learning experiences. To me it's a great refresher on explaining WHY I do things. And the added benefit of having a second set of hands hehe.

I'm still relatively new but I can teach confidently and when I don't know the answer I'll point students in the right direction. Additionally I enjoy looking for cook experiences for my students.

I spent about ten minutes explaining how the tele-neurology consultation machines work and how to do an NIH assessment.

[aeboynton]

down south nursing instructors do not supervise their students and just expect the nurse to do everything-yet we're not the ones getting paid to teach. we already are over worked and it's just one more thing to spring on us last minute when the shift starts. i've also had several students make my day harder by having an attitude and acting like they were going to tell me what to do. atrium health also gets a kick back for having students and therefore we are over burdened with students almost every single day of the week without our consent or much help from the instructor.