clinical breakdown

[olivianurse]

It said here that you can vent so I just want to do just that. Clinical rotation was really bad for me yesterday. I just can't seem to keep up with everything at the same time sometimes but the worst part yesterday was after the nurse in my team helped me with my medications before I passed them, she went to the nurses station and ranted about what is going to happen if all these new nurses are going in the workplace and they do not know anything? and how she would not want to be working with them but would rather work with seasoned nurses who she can ask questions with and basically know what they are doing. She was so fake in my face and was telling me the rest of that day , ok just let me know if you need anything and then talk to the people there of how i do not know anything. I asked her to check my medications before I pass them because that is what our instructors wanted us to do and then I asked about how they transfer their crushed pill from the mortar and pestle to give to the patient. My instructor talked to me and told me about how the nurse felt that I do not know which pills to crush and which ones can't be crushed. My medication was late and she just went through my meds for like several seconds and wanted me to know everything. That is why I am not yet a nurse, I am still in school!!!! I am learning..... Why can't they be all nice and helpful and encouraging? It was awkward walking around there knowing how she ranted about me in the nurses station of how incompetent I was but I just have to have a thick skin to survive. There, that feels better... thank you. :)

[emtb2rn, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

Here's what jumped out at me:

"she just went through my meds for like several seconds and wanted me to know everything."

Yeah, you actually do need to know everything about any med you're going to administer.

[heron, ASN, RN]

Seems like we can't do anything right. Let a negative opinion show and we're munching on the young'uns. Put negative reactions aside and try to meet the students' need for support professionally and we're being "fake".

OP, you requested help with your med pass and got it, along with the nurse making herself available as a resource if you need help again. You had some issues during med check which were communicated to your instructor for follow up.

By your own account, she didn't berate or demean you. She waited until after her interaction with you to express her private opinion - though I would have said it in the breakroom rather than the nurses' station. She seems to have handled the whole situation quite professionally, in my opinion.

I know it feels lousy that she found your performance lacking and said so ... but you will be held to professional standards of performance for the rest of your career. You need to learn to tolerate the nasty feeling of being found wanting and use it to motivate yourself to learn to do it right.

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

Take a few moments to think about what it means to be a staff nurse who (involuntarily) is asked to function as a clinical instructor for a student nurse.... in addition to his normal workload & with no extra compensation. At the very least, he deserves a bit of a rant.

[lanoneus]

The staff nurse was not professional, so let' s not put a stamp of approval on her behavior. She may not like it, but that day it was part of her job to teach that student. Complaining about her to the other nurses in a public area is unprofessional.

Just do your best to know your stuff. Some people are more patient and professional than others, and some have forgotten what it was like to be new and terrified. Do your best, and remember that silly witch is probably a really miserable person. :)

[vanilla bean]

Hmmm... let me think about this for a moment. You came here to vent about your less than ideal clinical experience, while the nurse you're venting about went to her colleagues to vent about what she saw as a less than ideal situation, and you're upset with *her* for venting. See the double standard there? And then she had the audacity to be "fake" to your face, rather than treating you poorly? The nerve. Obviously, the cherry-on-top of this whole horrible clinical experience is that she actually helped you with your med pass and expected you to know about the meds you were giving. Unbelievable.

[heron, ASN, RN]

The staff nurse was not professional, so let' s not put a stamp of approval on her behavior. She may not like it, but that day it was part of her job to teach that student. Complaining about her to the other nurses in a public area is unprofessional.

Just do your best to know your stuff. Some people are more patient and professional than others, and some have forgotten what it was like to be new and terrified. Do your best, and remember that silly witch is probably a really miserable person. :)

Oh, please! We don't even know what this "rant" consisted of. For all I know, it was an off the cuff remark made while waiting to get into the pyxis or something.

The fact I gleaned from the OP is that her performance during her med check was less than stellar. The nurse helping her knew it and said so after the interaction was over. The unprofessional witch is the one who made sure to tell the OP all about it. Knowing how gossip works, I suspect the story morphed a fair bit in the telling.

Once again, if the OP is serious about becoming a professional nurse, s/he'll have to learn to tolerate how it feels when others express their opinions of a poor performance.

BTW, the OP seems to have seagulled. You guys have fun.

[Whispera, MSN, RN]

How do you know she was talking about you to others? Did someone tell you or did you hear her? If you heard her, you could have told her you felt bad when you heard what she was saying...

[Cream and sugar LPN]

This is a red flag to me:

" I asked her to check my medications before I pass them because that is what our instructors wanted us to do and then I asked about how they transfer their crushed pill from the mortar and pestle to give to the patient. My instructor talked to me and told me about how the nurse felt that I do not know which pills to crush and which ones can't be crushed. My medication was late and she just went through my meds for like several seconds and wanted me to know everything. "

Why is a student nurse passing meds on her own? Why is the instructor not by your side available to you to ask questions? Who's assuming this responsibility? Who is watching to see if you've done your 3 checks? What about the 5 rights?

When I passed meds in school it was under the wing of my instructor. Randomly after 3 checks were done she'd ask me what the medication was for, possible adverse reactions, parameters, the whole 9 yards. We passed to 5-6 people on our turn. Meds were never passed late and aside from telling the nurse on the floor what she needed to know, we stayed out of her way! She has enough to do without a student interrupting her med pass or charting. If I had to guess this is probably her frustration with the students. This is the job for the instructor. This sounds very disorganized and potentially dangerous for the patient.

My advice would be to download an app on your phone for nursing and look up what you don't know. Leave the staff to their job- it's not their job to teach you. That's your instructors job and your job as well.

[lanoneus]

As you can see, you will definitely need to have a thick skin. Plenty of nurses think badmouthing each other while working and in the nurse's station is par for the course and not unprofessional. Other occupations call it "gossip," we call it "expressing our opinions of a poor performance." If you're lucky, they will tell you what you're doing wrong to your face before they go tell everyone else.

[sjalv]

First off: I don't care what other nurses here are trying to say, that nurse was wrong for talking crap about students/new nurses while students were on the floor. Would nurses talk about 'idiot physicians' within earshot of doctors on the floor? Doubtful. It's unprofessional and rude.

However, having a student really sucks. Seriously. I used to think I was never going to be that grouchy nurse who said 'no' when asked if I wanted a student. I'm not grouchy if one is forced upon me, but I will by no means volunteer to take one. It seriously weighs down your entire shift and doubles your workload. That's just the reality of it. Nursing schools need a better way to structure their clinicals so that staff nurses aren't expected to act as preceptors to students for a random day without any compensation or forewarning. Our floor literally gets no prior notification of when students will be on the floor, so it's not like assignments can be tweaked to accommodate the additional work that comes with having a student.

Also, to be honest, I would rather work with seasoned than new nurses, and I say this as a new nurse myself. It sucks when you have a question about a patient or need someone to come help you with something, and they're just as new as you are. So again, while what she was saying wasn't without merit, it also wasn't the right time or place.

[la_chica_suerte85, BSN, RN]

As students, we get what we get. I agree that a lot of nurses have had to put up with taking on unprepared students and that can be a major chore. A lot of students just can't find it within themselves to go the extra mile and get it together. For instance, I hate not knowing what meds are being given so I bought a pocket reference that has helped out so much and sometimes even helps the nurse out if it's something they are unfamiliar with. Instead of getting your feelings hurt about what the nurse did, identify what you did wrong and what is making you feel like you can't keep up and address it. I have had snarky nurses who are difficult to learn from and make me feel like I know nothing and wasn't as prepared as I thought I was but I used all of that as a learning opportunity. If there was something I was rusty on or just uneducated about, I fixed it instead of letting my feelings get hurt.

....granted, a lot of this comes from my suspicion that my education is not as rigorous as it used to be and if I come off unprepared it's not entirely my fault but there is a lot I can and am willing to do to fix that.