At Your Clinical Site

[JaimeC]

I just finished my first semester of clinicals at a hospital 30 minutes west of Philly on a Med-Surg floor. This hospital has a great reputation and I was super excited to start my nursing practices there. Have any of you been to a clinical site where the RN's treated you like absolute crap? I've heard about nurses "eating their young" before but I and rest of my clinical group where in no way prepared for this!

We where refered to as the "nursing students" and this would have been fine had they not added the eye rolling and snotty tone of voice. They ignored any questions we would ask and basically made us feel as though we where drastically disturbing their work when really we all where just trying to stay out of their way as much as we possibly could. Even our clinical instructor saw what hell this particular unit on the hospital floor put us through and stuck up for us as much as possible but we had to stay to get the experience. Our instructor promised that future classes would not be going back to this unit in the hospital.

Some of my fellow classmates where lucky enough to do some work on other floors in this hospital and they said that it was like night and day compared to the one I was 'stuck' on.

Basically what I'm taking from this clinical experience is that when i'm working on a floor as an RN on a unit and have a student nurse come to me with a question, I'm going to do everything I possibly can to help them!

Jaime C.

[Future RN- June '11]

I had a similar experience. During my first clinical rotation in the hospital, the nurses weren't very willing to help out and seemed so relieved when they didn't have a nursing student. I have found that the more experienced you get and the more you can do independently, the more the nurses like you. I just finished my fourth clinical rotation and the nurses LOVED my clinical group. They got really excited when they had a student/students. During my first clinical rotation at the hospital I was not able to do very many skills independently. I needed RN supervision for my med passes, and pretty much all skills. It took alot of time away from the RNs to help me out, which is to be expected when you have a student who is doing something for the first time. I can understand how having a student would be a hindrance to an RN when they are having a super busy day and don't have the extra time to supervise a student. However, that doesn't make it okay for them to treat students poorly. I think some of them forget that they too were a student at one time. Now, back to the rotation I just finished. I was doing full care on three patients and was able to do most everything independently (Med passes, IV flushes, Foley's, assessments, etc.) The only thing I required RN supervision for was IV medications and invasive procedures that I had not yet been checked off on). So imagine that, a student comes along and takes three of your patients and requires minimal supervision. That would not cause a hindrance on their night, in fact it would take alot of work away from them. And that is what I think makes a big difference. Are you actually making their shift easier? Or are you adding stress and more work to their day? I think that is why some nurses don't really care for having students. So i'm guessing that it will get better for you as you move along in your schooling and gain more knowledge and independence. Hang in there. :)

[Nurse Kyles, BSN, RN]

I can relate. Some nurses are definitely like that. My favorite was when I was instructed to do something I had never done yet in the clinical setting and asked my nurse (who was still being oriented but had been at the hospital for 3 months) if she would come and show me. Apparently it was completely basic, and she refused to come help me when her and her preceptor BSed at the nurses station. Since the nursing students had taken so many patients for the day, that nurse and her preceptor had one patient between the two of them.

It is really ironic to me that so many of the nurses are so rude to students. Especially when you see them give each other a high five when they realize they have no patients because the students took them all. In my experience, they were usually rude initially, but after they realized you did 90%+ of their work for the day they were suddenly much, much nicer.

Be confident, and don't let the meanies get you down! Good Luck to you in your other rotations! I am getting excited for my next rotations Psych & Neuro/Peds.

kylee_adns:nurse:

[TerpGal02, ASN]

Thankfully, I haven't had this experience at EITHER clinical placement I have had so far. One hospital had a much higher nurse-patient ratio, and I noticed there that the nurses didn't really have a whole lot of time to go over things with us, but they were always professional, congenial, and polite. I just got to know the nurses at the other facility a little better.

[Sniper RN]

Not going to say where it was but...

My first clinical experiance was at a hospital in a small city. When we got to the floor we were completely ignored. We did what we knew to do and followed instruction from our Clinical Instructor (also a teacher at the college I attend) We would use the break room to do our paperwork. After 2 hours we were told all of our books and papers had to come out of the break room and into the supply closet. The nurses needed to have a meeting. So the nurses all (yes every nurse on the unit) locked themselves in the breakroom, pulled out an electric skillet and proceeded to cook a mountain of bacon over the next 5 hours. There was a small window on the door to the break room. As we looked in and saw what they did, they taped a piece of paper over the window that said "DO NOT DISTURB" We as 2nd semester nursing students and our instructor continued to take care of EVERY patient on the floor. By the second hour the entire unit was filled with smoke and the smell of burning bacon. It is a wonder that the fire alarm did not go off. Patients were complaining about the smell. This was the most unproffesional group of people I had ever seen in my life. As I said this was a small hospital in a small town. Management was not in the hospital during the weekend. Come Monday, my instructor had a meeting with the Hospital Director. Things changed a little after that but we were still treated like crap. We had to do our paperwork on the floor of the supply closet.

Worst weekend ever of clinicals. The next 2 were a little better after the meeting. I hope I never have to go the that place agian.

[Irishlass79]

I think I know what hospital you were at...lol. Just blow it off, there are a lot of people that are not fun to work with. I think it is a good idea to try to remember what it is like to be a student. Just think, if they don't help you what nurses will be caring for them when they are knocking on deaths door...lol? US!

Good luck!

[~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN]

I have had a really good experience with majority of the nurses I have worked with in a variety of different floors and places. There as been a very few that started off annoyed to have a student or snotty or standoffish and within a couple hours I had them turned around and being very nice to me all by the attitude I kept even when getting the above attitude with them.

[JROregon, ASN, BSN, RN]

After the bacon cooking story, I'm gonna consider my experience a good one even if most of the RNs were a little cold.

[Kringe38]

That bacon story is absolutely amazing! All the nurses who did that sound like they must be completely nuts. I mean, it wouldn't even surprise me if some of them tried to hide out in the break room and shirk their duties off onto the students and instructor, but... BACON on top of that?!

[SingDanceRunLife]

Most of the nurses I've worked with have been pretty good...some better than others. One thing I've noticed across the board is that overall, at the hospital where I do my clinicals, the LPNs are much nicer and more helpful to us student nurses than the RNs are.