dealing with things not done on time

[Purple Princess]

All throughout my schooling I've been preached to that everything MUST be on time no matter what. Also as a student we have to get the instructor to oversee everything. Recently we got a new teacher who is slow/forgetful. I paged him twice, looked for him, asked others if they saw him lately. it had me upset because my other teacher would disappear, i'd page, things were late and basically i was told i was a bad nurse get in trouble for paging her etc. pt was in pain needed a pain pill she's no where to be found can't cosign so primary nurse just had to give it. i've actually got in trouble if a pill was due at 10 and it got given at 10:15! so i got upset with this teacher yesterday. sometimes i think the stress of nursing is too much. i was told over and over things must be on time. i plan out my day, have my meds pulled and waiting equipment all there, treatments getting done, assessments, charting. but this guy took nearly an hour to finally come. i'm finding i'm not the only one dealing with the frustration. but it just has me crazy because i was forever getting yelled at for something with the other instructor, bad grade, even though i worked top speed to get my stuff done. a med was due i was there and waiting sometimes an hour but if the med was late, guess who she blamed me. so now it's been ingrained and i have no tolerance for slow as molasses instructors. cause i went through 8 months of torture with her, and fear i'll get a bad eval again and blamed for stuff beyond my control.

[augigi, CNS]

Giving a med at 10:15 rather than 10:00 is not a problem in 99% of cases! Have you tried talking to your teacher and explaining how his/her lateness affects your shift?

[intrepidstudentUK]

Hi!

I can honestly tell you that I've encountered that many times.

I worked in a children's ward for nine weeks and it was a nightmare because patients were not having the proper care that they should have been given. And because I'm a student there's no way I'm allowed to give medication and so half the time I was there, children were getting their meds way later than they should have been. So trust me, 15 minutes is nothing and I don't see why you should be getting in trouble for it.

I'd have a sit down with that tutor and explain the situation. If you have midterm reports to be done then that is the perfect time to discuss anything you're not happy with.

[S.T.A.C.E.Y, LPN]

We were told it 30 minutes before or after the schedule time is ok with the hospital/school (ie. 1900 med can be given 1830-1930) with a few exceptions. If I have a 1900 med, I start looking for my instructor at 1820, so by the time shes done with whoever else, does all the checks with me, and I answer her questions, its still usually within that time frame. As well, because our instructor finally realized that checking off all of us giving meds wasn't going to work, she said that we could do routine meds with the nurse who was really responsible for our pt. For things that are new to us we still have to go find her, but now we don't need to wait forever to show her how we give things like Tylenol or Tums.

Ask your instructor what meds you can just have the primary nurse check for you, and which ones she needs to be present for.