Title says it all . Second semester baby nurse in clinicals at a major hospital.
Patients = Awesome
Most Nurses = Very sweet and helpful
Some nurses are rude, terse, horrible with patients, horrible with students and horrible with each other.
To those nurses I say this, please retire.
Its only a matter of time before management figures out they can live without you and hire some very hungry and very competent new grads that want to be there to fill your dusty shoes....
word...
sadly the vast majority of the time these happen to also be charge nurses....in charge of what? Misery?
Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
There are some pretty sour grapes out there......and horizontal violence that goes on.......I'm glad you've never seen it or been near it.......but sadly no matter how rare it may be.....they exist.
I agree. It seems sometimes people are dead set on shifting the blame and can't possibly fathom that there just might be some negative, bitter nasty nurses(people) out there and it's not because they were forced to be this way.
I saw a couple of these very people in nursing school. I have no doubt they will be the same as a nurse. It's a type of personality. I also don't buy the excuses on why the person deserves a free pass on treating people like crap if it Is because the situation brought them there. Having a bad day every once in a while and maybe being short. I get and would still apologize to whoever was in the crossfire. But to constantly be mean and bitter and nasty. No excuse. If you're that unhappy that you are going to treat everyone around you like crap then get out of the situation or do something to change it.
Yeah its definitley a joke, nothing to see here, carry on.
But seriously folks, like I said, most nurse I have met are absolutely awesome, but a few have no business calling themselves a Registered Nurse....
I do have a lot to learn, and I love to learn. But when I get paired up with someone who obviously wants nothing to do with me, its tough.
The other day though a seasoned nurse called me over and said he was going to give me a dose of reality. He had me doing everything and he was awesome. I learned more in that 12 hour shift than I learned in 1.5 semesters of nursing school.........
So please dont get me wrong folks, most RN's are awesome, this post was directed at the very few that truly do need to step aside.....
You sound like one of those students that nurses HATE to get because "you know it all" or "you don't care to know." I once was given a student, from my own school a year below me. She was very nice/polite. But i'm fairly new to nursing myself, im 23, i graduated in '10. So she tells me "I'm so glad i didnt get paired up with an old cranky one" and chuckles. i wanted to be like "seriously? you just said that? because those are my coworkers." I dont know...she was given to me because i was up for an admission on a FRESH open heart. There is nothing more exciting than a fresh open heart because you learn so much from them. So after we got our patient settled, family went down for lunch, i got all patients medications/assessments done i had a few minutes before we went to lunch. I was showing this student chest tubes and explaining the different chambers, what you do if one becomes loose or if you notice an air leak...blah blah blah, and she tells me "Yea yea i know this."
I tried teaching her about insulin drips, because he had an insulin drip going. I was talking about titrating her insulin, and the different algorithms we use. She was like "Yea, i can read the order"...then was when i kind of had it with her. I was like "Insulin is the kind of medication where you have no room for mistakes because this will turn bad and it will turn bad quickly" When i asked her to titrate the insulin drip, with me watching over her shoulder, she had NO clue what to do. She didn't even look at the patients blood sugar. She went off what the CNA told her. Which i told her NEVER to do. Its not that our CNA's are not trustworthy, its the fact that they have a gajillion blood sugars to do and to get it mixed up with another patients blood sugar or to accidently tell me the wrong number DOES happen from time to time. therefore we look on the EMR when the blood sugar machine gets Docked so we know it is accurate....she tells me "Yea i know that"..."then why didn't you do it?"
THOSE are the type of students we hate, and people like me have a little bit more tolerance for them, where as if she were placed with any other nurse this girl would have been eaten alive by them because they don't put up with it.
Your refusing to believe that it is you that is the problem. Nurses are happy to teach, nothing more amazing then knowing someone learned something from me. But if i'm giving you the time of day...you better listen and give me the time of day as well. Give me your attention. don't tell me "you already know." I know your going to rebuttle this with...that is nothing like me. But if nurses are treating you in that way, than it is probably very similar. It is in our JOB DESCRIPTION to teach. we go into nursing knowing that we are going to have to teach and we are going to have students.
i'm not an old "fuddy dud must retire nurse", but i sure as heck can act like one if a student is acting like they know everything and the world is all about them because they are new and a nursing student. Which sounds a heck of alot like you.
WOW, and to think MOST older nurses aren't the ones that really don't eat their young, it's the fairly new nurse with less than a couple of yrs that thinks she knows everything~ LOL
Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
You sound like one of those students that nurses HATE to get because "you know it all" or "you don't care to know." I once was given a student, from my own school a year below me. She was very nice/polite. But i'm fairly new to nursing myself, im 23, i graduated in '10. So she tells me "I'm so glad i didnt get paired up with an old cranky one" and chuckles. i wanted to be like "seriously? you just said that? because those are my coworkers." I dont know...she was given to me because i was up for an admission on a FRESH open heart. There is nothing more exciting than a fresh open heart because you learn so much from them. So after we got our patient settled, family went down for lunch, i got all patients medications/assessments done i had a few minutes before we went to lunch. I was showing this student chest tubes and explaining the different chambers, what you do if one becomes loose or if you notice an air leak...blah blah blah, and she tells me "Yea yea i know this."
I tried teaching her about insulin drips, because he had an insulin drip going. I was talking about titrating her insulin, and the different algorithms we use. She was like "Yea, i can read the order"...then was when i kind of had it with her. I was like "Insulin is the kind of medication where you have no room for mistakes because this will turn bad and it will turn bad quickly" When i asked her to titrate the insulin drip, with me watching over her shoulder, she had NO clue what to do. She didn't even look at the patients blood sugar. She went off what the CNA told her. Which i told her NEVER to do. Its not that our CNA's are not trustworthy, its the fact that they have a gajillion blood sugars to do and to get it mixed up with another patients blood sugar or to accidently tell me the wrong number DOES happen from time to time. therefore we look on the EMR when the blood sugar machine gets Docked so we know it is accurate....she tells me "Yea i know that"..."then why didn't you do it?"
THOSE are the type of students we hate, and people like me have a little bit more tolerance for them, where as if she were placed with any other nurse this girl would have been eaten alive by them because they don't put up with it.
Your refusing to believe that it is you that is the problem. Nurses are happy to teach, nothing more amazing then knowing someone learned something from me. But if i'm giving you the time of day...you better listen and give me the time of day as well. Give me your attention. don't tell me "you already know." I know your going to rebuttle this with...that is nothing like me. But if nurses are treating you in that way, than it is probably very similar. It is in our JOB DESCRIPTION to teach. we go into nursing knowing that we are going to have to teach and we are going to have students.
i'm not an old "fuddy dud must retire nurse", but i sure as heck can act like one if a student is acting like they know everything and the world is all about them because they are new and a nursing student. Which sounds a heck of alot like you.
And it sounds like you are refusing to believe that it might not be the students "fault" that the nurse is mean or ugly to them. That it just might be the nurses personality. The OP said that majority of the staff she met was wonderful and caring. So it's not like they have this "all older nurses" are mean and ugly mentality. People are upset that assumptions are made about the nurse in the scenario, and let's face it, how many seasoned nurses here have never had a co-worker they thought was negative or nasty and treated the co-workers crappy. You see on this very board people vent about these people. So why is it so hard to fathom that this same bitter nasty co-worker might be the same way to students, other staff or patients? But if it's a student or non nurse venting about this same type or person they are automatically reamed and belittled and told it's probably their fault.
THOSE are the type of students we hate, and people like me have a little bit more tolerance for them, where as if she were placed with any other nurse this girl would have been eaten alive by them because they don't put up with it.
Your refusing to believe that it is you that is the problem. Nurses are happy to teach, nothing more amazing then knowing someone learned something from me. But if i'm giving you the time of day...you better listen and give me the time of day as well.
above is the crux of the matter.
(well said, jenni.)
that we 'bitter' nurses are tired of dealing with these arrogant, precocious students, who've been there and done that.
someday they will see that with age, comes a laissez-faire confidence, a decisive impatience with those who waste our time and breath, and a palpable comfort with who we are and what you're not...yet.
and that is why 'we' eat our young and why 'we're' bitter.:thankya:
fwiw, i don't believe op is like this.
s/he seems to be receptive to the constructive criticism received...and do believe s/he will take the needed time and journey, to contemplate the input received.
ftr, i'm extremely grateful that the aforementioned, is a very tiny percentage of students...
because we battleaxes know how to keep them in their places.
Disclaimer: This is entirely my opinion forged from hours/days/months/2 years of observing.
As a former student,
I think Students should go to clinicals RESPECTING the nurses.
More often than not, students love to PROVE how much better they are than the nurses, how many errors they can catch how much more compassionate they are and how when they are nurses they will never be like those 'old cranky bitter' (insert choice adjective) nurses.
Walk a mile in their shoes and treat them with the respect that they deserve and maybe just maybe they will treat you with the respect you show them and there will be less whining about eating ones young...
'Dried up and bitter' aka to much of doing more with less-- a managment rule not the bedside nurses.
My advise to the original poster- get about 10 yrs of bedside experience before you go waltzing into a managment position you are not experienced enough to take on!! Have some concept of what the job involves first.
Maybe this is one of the reasons for the big problems in management: too many that are put into or attain these roles really have no business being there due to the fact they really haven't spent enough time in the trenches, living daily as a bedside nurse. Maybe 5-10 yrs as a staff nurse should be a strictly adhered to pre-req to being hired as a NM...?
I agree...This world is full enough of bitter, angry people...If someone is in the hospital the last thing they need to deal with is a nurse that is rude, bitter or just plain mean....They did not ask to be a patient but whatever the cicumstance is that brought them there, it is your responsibility as a nurse to treat your patients with the respect they deserve....If you can't, than get a different career...Maybe try a corrections officer!!!
alright, the OP already stated poor choice of words. But as a nursing student, I have seen the same exacty behaviors that she describes. I was assigned a very nasty nurse. As a matter of fact each week someone in my clinical group was assigned to this nurse. She was nasty to EACH AND EVERYONE US..!!! I know Im always polite to the nurse, I am interested in learning from them and value their input immensely. Some nurses are
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:lol2:
bsyrn, ASN, RN
810 Posts
Wow, just wow....imagine if everyone in nursing were as perfect as the OP....what a wonderful world it would be. Troll....no Pot stirrer absolutely.