Clinical advice for nursing students

[tulsaL&D]

Reading through some of these posts I see that many of you are in nursing school and I've seen a few posts regarding nurses attitudes toward students. I graduated from RSU claremore. I remember thinking as a nursing student that I would never treat students like I was treated by some nurses. I've been in nursing for a little over five years now and I'd like to give those of you still in school a little advice.

1.) Listen to report.

2.) Review charts of pt's you are assigned to.

3.) Let the nurse you are following know what skills you are allowed to do with/without your instructor and which skill you are most interested in doing.

4.) Do not sit in the breakroom and expect your pt's nurse to come find you for learning opportunities.

The reason for these four tips are this:

Once you've received your pt assignment you need to know as much about that pt as you can. Not to sound hateful, but I don't always have time to tell students everything about a pt. I know that not all nurses have time to teach you skills, but I for one do not mind letting students start IV's, perform straight caths or foleys, take VS, etc...

If your nurse knows #3 ahead of time most will be more than happy to help you get the experience you want.

#4 is the most important of all. My biggest pet peeve is when I have a student assigned to my pt that is never around. I'm not sure if RSU is still this way, but we were expected to be prepared and ready for anything. Sure if there are no pt's around it is no big deal to do homework or work on careplans, but if you have a pt assignment you should be close to the nurse working with that pt. If you are not around I don't feel as though you want the experience you are there for. The only reason you should not be at the nurses station is if your instructor or nurse says otherwise.

I hope this will help those of you in nursing school and clinical rotations. If you have a bad experience with a nurse keep in mind that he/she may be having a bad day, or they may be unaware of how they are acting. Some nurses are just crabby. Your instructor should speak with the charge nurse prior to making pt assignment and hopefully know who you will get the best experience from. If you are doing 1-4 and you still have problems, speak with your instructor. They may be able to assign you to another pt or determine what the problem is. Good luck to all of you.:welcome: