Bringing your *new* baby to school....

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Problem here all....recent member of class had a baby. Now, so far our school has been VERY strict about pretty much everything. Now, I understand that this student is a single mother, on assistance and struggling (well, who isn't nowadays). But anyways she was recently told by our instructor that she can bring her baby to class with her so she doesn't have to miss time. We have class one night a week and we ALWAYS have a test that night because the rest of the week we are in clinical. A lot of the students are complaining that it is distracting, granted she is pretty quiet for the most part but she gets passed around from person to person to be held for the 5 hours we are there and it IS distracting! Plus there are people in class that have had to miss class time because of "children" problems, babysitter couldn't come or whatever....these students feel it is unfair that she was given the choice to BRING her baby to class but others missed time! Something just isn't right about this situation. I don't want to sound like a mean person because I DO want to see her succeed and finish school but at the same time COME ON!!!!!! :angryfire Am I wrong for feeling this way????

As for childcare in hospitals, some magnet hospitals in my area do have childcare for the nurses... of course it's only open til 4 PM (you know the time at which the administrative people go home..:rolleyes: )

That's exactly why this will not only be an issue for her as a student. Unfortunately the difficulty in finding childcare won't dissapear when she becomes a nurse.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ER.

To the OP. If your school is anywhere near MD, you tell your friend that Iwill babysit for her for free if she likes. I will PM you with my contact information if she lives near here.

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Specializes in LTC,Hospice/palliative care,acute care.
I've already appologized for making that statement. However I have higher expectations of nurses than the rest of society which is perhaps why I have been dissapointed with nursing in general. Your argument for personal responsibility is valid from the logical point of view of accepting the results of one's choices. Yet it shows a real lack of concern for the impact of those results. I am more concerned with how this woman's life is going to be a struggle for years to come... not so much that this struggle may be in large part as a result of her own poor decisions. To me, her suffering is the issue.
Off topic,I know -but-why hold nurses to a different standard then the rest of society? We are human and we are professionals-We are NOT angels in white.........Back to topic- I agree that personal responsibility needs to be stressed here.We don't have medical coverage for everyone in this country-why should we offer day care? Why should we look to the government to provide it? Why keep having children if you don't have the resources to support them? The problem here is not about day care at all----it IS about "this woman's struggle" in the coming years and the fact that women like this just keep having babies dnd collecting the handouts..The answer is NOTto give them more and more assistance.....That has not been working-it just keeps feeding the system....I WISH someone HAD the answer....I truly do..Why is it accepted behavior for many to just keep popping them out one after the other? Suffering? She wants babies-she's got them...Suffering is the woman unable to bear the child she desperately wants.....argh....I'm getting hypertensive.....
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Bluesky, I am a mother of 3, they are 13, 5 & 19 mos. The last two were born when I was in school (actually the first too, just a different school, different degree). I was a single mom for many years, I am very sympathetic. I can see doing this as a one-time thing if the babysitter was sick or if something happened to her caregiver and she was looking for another but IMO this is not ok on a daily basis. She had her whole pregnancy to make childcare arrangements and deal with things like all the rest of us do. If her classmates/instructors want to pitch in to help her hire someone or help her with her living situation that is another thing and that would be lovely but the classroom environment should be kept separate from their empathy for this girl.

Actually the OP never stated exactly just how "negatively" others were affected. Interesting, eh? I can only state what I feel which is that if this girl has to leave school it will be very difficult for her to come back as she will have to start working full-time to support her kids. I have seen this happen at least 3 times during the course of my nursing school alone. One cannot just look at numbers of people affected, one must strive to look at the acuity of the potential damage as well... in this case; minor irritation for a few vs. complete destruction of carreer and wellbeing for at least 2.
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Specializes in OBGYN, Neonatal.

My school does not allow children unless we are doing a special focused assessment on them LOL.

But seriously, I am due to have our son on Monday via C-section and I did take off this semester because I'm a high risk pregnancy. I am not sure how I would handle this. I don't think it is fair to the other students because while the baby may be quiet now, that could change but at the same time there may be some situationw ith the mom.

My best suggestion would be - if the child is distracting, get together and discuss it with the teacher - they should have asked the other students, and the alternative of another room or tape recording lectures seems very adequate to me as an alternative. Whatever care the mom has for the baby during clinical days may need to be extended or maybe someone in the school could help her to find students on different rotations that would share child care.

I know its no easy answer but I do think it would be distracting to have a baby in the room (b/c I'd be too busy cooing at the baby LOL!).

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Whatever care the mom has for the baby during clinical days may need to be extended or maybe someone in the school could help her to find students on different rotations that would share child care.

Although I think this thread should die, I just can't resist this one...

She probably needs assistance with medical care for her baby too. So, on clinical days, she could just leave it in the with one of the doctors on-site there.

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Delete

delete

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with all the apparent effort put in to giving this woman crap about her situation, maybe somebody could have helped her find a solution. No, the baby should not come to class but sheesh.......:uhoh3:

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Specializes in Oncology/Haemetology/HIV.
with all the apparent effort put in to giving this woman crap about her situation, maybe somebody could have helped her find a solution. No, the baby should not come to class but sheesh.......:uhoh3:

As far as I see, no one here has given "this woman crap".

And quite a few solutions to her situation have been given.

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Specializes in cardiac/education.
Off topic,I know -but-why hold nurses to a different standard then the rest of society? We are human and we are professionals-We are NOT angels in white.........Back to topic- I agree that personal responsibility needs to be stressed here.We don't have medical coverage for everyone in this country-why should we offer day care? Why should we look to the government to provide it? Why keep having children if you don't have the resources to support them? The problem here is not about day care at all----it IS about "this woman's struggle" in the coming years and the fact that women like this just keep having babies dnd collecting the handouts..The answer is NOTto give them more and more assistance.....That has not been working-it just keeps feeding the system....I WISH someone HAD the answer....I truly do..Why is it accepted behavior for many to just keep popping them out one after the other? Suffering? She wants babies-she's got them...Suffering is the woman unable to bear the child she desperately wants.....argh....I'm getting hypertensive.....

:yeah: :yeahthat: :w00t:

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Specializes in cardiac/education.
and furthermore-I guess I am lacking in empathy in this case....When I went to nursing school I had left an abusive husband with nothing but a paper sack full of ragged clothes,a cat and a car with 4 flat tires (yes-he flattened them) I lived on my mother's sofa for 4 months....When I finally got my stuff together and got into school I let NOTHING interfere....I was determined to make it -and I did.(I also took birth control.)....There were no handouts for me-It took 10 years to pay off my student loan.I think the simple fact that I paid for it made me take it seriously.The difference between us and animals is that we can practice family planning....Sheesh-you can get condoms at the grocery store-there simply is no excuse these days....

:yeah: :yeahthat: :p

THANK YOU!!!!!

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Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.
Those that succeed, do so by adapting.

Exactly.....

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