Curious what your school would do?

[colleennurse]

Ok, I am an RN and I work on a med surg floor. I onnly graduated 6 months ago and I know I would have had an automatic clinical failure for what I am about to explain happened at my work the other day. We get students on our unit. When these students are there, the clinical insturctor picks 2 people each week to pass meds. This particular student was assigned to a patient that my co worker had and this student was not going to be passing meds this day, so obviously it was my coworkers job to pass the meds. The RN had pulled the medication out of the pyxis and checked them, opened them out of there packages and was going to pass them, but must have been sidetracked. So she put them (they were in a med cup) in these cabinets that are outside each patients room, in a drawer and was going to give them when she was done doing whatever. So a little bit of time goes by and the student keeps mentioning to the RN that the meds needs to be passed. These were 11am meds and we have and hour before or an hour after to pass meds. So a little more time goes by and the student goes up to the RN and says, "oh I gave the patient those meds". The RN asks the student if she did it with her instructor, the student says no. (ok in my opinion that is a HUGE no no). Not only that the student gave the patient the meds that had already been popped out of the package, so she had no idea what they were! Also a big NO NO. So the RN told the student that she needed to tell her instructor what she did. The student said she would. So before they leave the RN says something to the instructor and the instructor said that the student not only did not tell her the truth, but tried to accuse the RN of making a med error, (that is another story) and she did not make a med error. So the instructor says she is going to talk to the student. These students have 1 semester left before that grad, I think she should have known better than to pass meds withput her teacher and to give something that you have no clue what it is??? Anyway....the next time they came back, the teacher told the RN that they have 3 times they can get written up before they are failed. Does that sound right? Just curious as I thought that this was a major mistake. Sorry so long!

[nessy]

Wow. That was not cool. The student should have known not to hand the meds out. Even if she was allowed to hand them out, we were taught that we never, under any circumstances, hand out meds that have been poured by someone else.

[AuntieRN]

My program would definately have failed her out for the semester and probably the rest of the program. We can get 3 U's a semester before we fail. However, if it is a safety issue as this one was it would have been an automatic failure for the semester and the fact she lied would have gotten her thrown out of the program. Never lie, never pass meds someone else opened or drew up. Now the nurse was wrong opening up the meds before going into the pts room and leaving them in the closet. That would be a huge nono where I work and we are also taught in school never open the pills before hand...what if the pt refuses to take a particular one how would you know which one it was?

Now to address healinghands comments....I graduated from a CC. Guess I would have been a "substandard" student when I started since my GPA was only a 2.65, However, by the time I graduated 5 semesters later...I had a 3.75 GPA. There was a girl in my class who started with a 4.0...graduated with a 4.0....can't pass the NCLEX to save her life...hmmm just because you are book smart does not make you a good nurse or mean you are capable of being a nurse.

[CuriousMe]

I'm not in a program yet (I'm applying this winter....finally!)...but just from my CNA training, I can't imagine why this student would think this was an appropriate action. With her being so close to graduation....I'd say there were big concerns there. That doesn't even touch the bigger issue of lying to her instructor about the situation.

As far as what Healing Hands is writing....it seems that you are making global claims, based on very local data. You should make local claims or increase your scope of information. Your deduction was not logical, it was narrow minded. It is not logical to assume that admissions nationwide are in anyway similar to the 4 or so local programs you mentioned.

FWIW, the CC program I'm trying to get into is actually in a consortium with the state university. This means they have exactly the same admissions policies and they have exactly the same curriculum. The program is designed for me to attend the CC for the first three years and then for the forth year, I physically attend the CC, but am taking classes from and paying tuition to the state university.

Oh and btw, I'm applying this winter to the program. My GPA will be over 4.0 (don't know how much yet, grades come out next week) and there's a very good chance that I won't get in this time around. For my school, you need a 4.0 and you need to have your pre-reqs finished before applying.....it's that competitive.

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

Hi, Colleenurse! I'm also out of school six months, and I can just imagine how it would have gone down in my school's program. I can't swear that the student would be out because of having passed the meds without an instructor (or the nurse herself) because I believe that would be an infraction, a write-up, whatever, but not dismissal (not in third semester, anyway). The greater concern, IMO, was the ethics violations: she knew she was NOT to pass meds, she knew the nurse WOULD pass the meds, she knew she had NO permission or authority to pass them herself (and clearly no knowledge of WHAT she was to pass, where was the MAR??). And, beyond all that, she tried to cover up her exceedingly poor judgment and frankly, devious behavior (remember, she KNEW she had no permission here). She tried to cover this up with lies and, further, leveled her own accusations falsely against the nurse. Ethics issues all.

Based on the ethics violations, I'd oust her. We had an ethics issue in my program as well, different scenario, but still a cover-up that went bad. Fourth semester, weeks from graduation, and the student was out, period.

[SummerGarden, BSN, MSN, RN]

Sorry I stand by my opinion and of course am entitled to it. For example

Pasadena city college, all you need is a 2.0 and all prereqs completed. Then you are in the "random selected pool of applicants"

Los Angeles City College it is a 2.5 on required courses. Then once again it is random.

Rio Hondo Community college it is once again a 2.5 with random selection

Glendale Community College is a 2.0 with random selection.

The list goes on.

This is the case for many CCs in California. THIS IS NOT THE CASE FOR MOST CCs across the US. So your point is not valid. My CC and all of the CCs in my state accept heavily on GPA and do not use the "fluffy" criteria as your school may have used.

By the way, do not fool yourself into believing that schools without lottos don't accept substandard students. You need to wake up if you think all four year universities (including ivy league schools) accept top rate students. There are studies that show the contrary. Most private schools usually accept people who can pay ergo C average students are not uncommon.

[CarVsTree]

Deleted so as not to...

:deadhorse

:)

[CarVsTree]

As for the student being failed. She definitely would have been failed out of my program. Not because she gave the meds necesarrily although maybe just for that... But because she LIED about it. Now that is a scary nurse. I worked with a nurse like that and she was on my short list of who is NOT allowed to take care of me if I'm ever a pt. on my floor.

As for the RN that left them laying around - well that is why we shouldn't be leaving meds laying around. If she already had them ready to give - what was she waiting for?

Just the other night - an RN left a Fentanyl patch on her COW for "just a second." Well, it was gone just like that. Now there is a big investigation as to the patch that was never found. I'm sure she'll be written up and maybe peeing in a cup for awhile.

BTW, she's a great nurse and I am saddened that she is going through this. I've done similar things myself. But your post and this sit is reminding me to be much more careful with my meds.

[colleennurse, ASN, RN]

Thanks for everyone's input, although I am sorry that a debate was started. I agree that the RN probably should not have opened the medications prior to passing them, but that is her and not me. I always wait until I am in the pts room, cause half the time they ask me what I am giving and I would never remember which one is the yellow one or the little white one, etc. I can only hope that the student learned a valuable lesson. I just thought the situation was a bit much for a slap on the hand.

[RN BSN 2009]

If one of our students did that, we would have been termed, on the spot.

No tolerance policy....... We are a BSN university, not that it matters.

[augigi, CNS]

Just the other night - an RN left a Fentanyl patch on her COW for "just a second." Well, it was gone just like that. Now there is a big investigation as to the patch that was never found. I'm sure she'll be written up and maybe peeing in a cup for awhile.

She had her cow at work?

[CarVsTree]

She had her cow at work?

Why of course she did! Don't you keep your cows on the floor with you in Australia, is it? :lol:

COW=Computer On Wheels if you didn't know!

[augigi, CNS]

You learn something new every day. We leave the cows at home and just take the koalas, since they're cuter.