Just off to do a night shift so thought I would get this of my chest first. Can I add that collectively I have so much admiration for Student Nurses, I cannot believe how many work fulltime to fund nursing school and I generally find them hardworking committed and utterly professional
however......
Dear Student Nurse
I know that you think that it is my mission to make your placement as hard and unpleasant as I can but the truth is very different:
The reason I pull you up about arriving late is that when qualified a floppy fob watch is simply not tolerated and if your late it shows disregard for your colleagues who end up covering for you.
I know that you cannot understand my asking you to leave your mobile phone in the staff room. It is not as you believe because I am so old and sad that I cannot possibly remember what having a social life is, it is because I am scared that at some point I may have to perform a phoneectomy as you seemed to be permanently on it.
Please don't tut if I ask you to do something in the thirty minutes before the shift ends. I understand that you feel that this is winding down time but it's not and it's not acceptable to leave jobs to the next shift because you have run out of steam.
I ask you not to chew gum when giving patient care not because I am mean but because in order to gain their trust patients need to see us as professionals and you chewing and popping gum somehow might detract from this.
The reason I asked you to consider the appropriateness of 3cm nail extensions is not because I am an outdated fashion disaster (although there is some truth in that!) it's because I am terrified that you are going to have some poor patients eye out.
When I ask you questions about Anatomy and Physiology or a medical condition I am not doing so to score points or make you look stupid I am doing so to check that you not only know what you are doing but more importantly why and saying "dunno we haven't covered that" falls a bit short.
I know that the elderly, demented chronically sick patients are not nearly as exciting as the big traumas but these patients are our bread and butter. They deserve the best possible care we can give them so please do not resent them taking you away from the more exciting stuff. Trust me you can learn everything you ever need to learn from this group of patients.
Please don't expect me to be anything other than cross, really cross when your patient has an accident because you "forgot" the commode they asked you for. No excuses, not acceptable.
Although I don't use facebook trust me if you post ab
out your sxxt placement and battle-axe Sister I will get to hear about it.
When I ask you to consider whether nursing is the right career for you it's not because I am having a bad day, it's because I genuinely have concerns that you have either the capacity or more importantly the want to nurse. My suspicions were originally aroused whehn I asked you why you want to nurse and you told me that you liked the uniform!!
I know you think I am so old (i'm 41!!) that my sight and hearing must be going but trust me I hear every obscentity that you mutter as you stomp off.
Don't think I am daft if you come back smelling of cigarrete smoke I am much more inclined to think that your last job took so long because you shuffled off for a crafty cigarrete rather than you have found a new thoroughness!!
Finally the reason we are meeting with your nurse tutor is not because I get some great power trip from it, it's because I have a responsibility to current and future patients. I would also be doing a disservice to hundreds of other student nurses who are committed and hardworking, who deserve the opportunity they are being given and truly value the opportunity.
Just off to do a night shift so thought I would get this of my chest first. Can I add that collectively I have so much admiration for Student Nurses, I cannot believe how many work fulltime to fund nursing school and I generally find them hardworking committed and utterly professional
however......
Dear Student Nurse
I know that you think that it is my mission to make your placement as hard and unpleasant as I can but the truth is very different:
The reason I pull you up about arriving late is that when qualified a floppy fob watch is simply not tolerated and if your late it shows disregard for your colleagues who end up covering for you.
I know that you cannot understand my asking you to leave your mobile phone in the staff room. It is not as you believe because I am so old and sad that I cannot possibly remember what having a social life is, it is because I am scared that at some point I may have to perform a phoneectomy as you seemed to be permanently on it.
Please don't tut if I ask you to do something in the thirty minutes before the shift ends. I understand that you feel that this is winding down time but it's not and it's not acceptable to leave jobs to the next shift because you have run out of steam.
I ask you not to chew gum when giving patient care not because I am mean but because in order to gain their trust patients need to see us as professionals and you chewing and popping gum somehow might detract from this.
The reason I asked you to consider the appropriateness of 3cm nail extensions is not because I am an outdated fashion disaster (although there is some truth in that!) it's because I am terrified that you are going to have some poor patients eye out.
When I ask you questions about Anatomy and Physiology or a medical condition I am not doing so to score points or make you look stupid I am doing so to check that you not only know what you are doing but more importantly why and saying "dunno we haven't covered that" falls a bit short.
I know that the elderly, demented chronically sick patients are not nearly as exciting as the big traumas but these patients are our bread and butter. They deserve the best possible care we can give them so please do not resent them taking you away from the more exciting stuff. Trust me you can learn everything you ever need to learn from this group of patients.
Please don't expect me to be anything other than cross, really cross when your patient has an accident because you "forgot" the commode they asked you for. No excuses, not acceptable.
Although I don't use facebook trust me if you post ab
out your sxxt placement and battle-axe Sister I will get to hear about it.
When I ask you to consider whether nursing is the right career for you it's not because I am having a bad day, it's because I genuinely have concerns that you have either the capacity or more importantly the want to nurse. My suspicions were originally aroused whehn I asked you why you want to nurse and you told me that you liked the uniform!!
I know you think I am so old (i'm 41!!) that my sight and hearing must be going but trust me I hear every obscentity that you mutter as you stomp off.
Don't think I am daft if you come back smelling of cigarrete smoke I am much more inclined to think that your last job took so long because you shuffled off for a crafty cigarrete rather than you have found a new thoroughness!!
Finally the reason we are meeting with your nurse tutor is not because I get some great power trip from it, it's because I have a responsibility to current and future patients. I would also be doing a disservice to hundreds of other student nurses who are committed and hardworking, who deserve the opportunity they are being given and truly value the opportunity.
Your Mentor
phew that feels better :)
I am so impressed with this post. But I do feel bad that the said mentor has to even deal with this. Very first day of clinicals every tutor/instructor should read this to their student and warn them that behaviors like this will put their passing in jeopardy.
This is a great post and it definitely gives current and former students a look into what some preceptors have to deal with. However when I was a student I can remember my preceptor quizzing me about certain material that I genuinely had not learned yet in class and that made me feel very intimidated:chair: and hesitant to answer or ask any questions even though I know she was just trying to help me.
I am so impressed with this post. But I do feel bad that the said mentor has to even deal with this. Very first day of clinicals every tutor/instructor should read this to their student and warn them that behaviors like this will put their passing in jeopardy.
I'm amazed at the lack professionalism and respect among so many students...
and at the lack of discipline mandated by so many instructors.
Any correlation, I wonder, to the explosion of nursing-school-seats in the last 5 years?
Wonderful post! It's amazing the lack of work ethic and professionalism some of our peers have! Hopefully it will only make me stand out as one who takes my job seriously :)
Wow! I hope I have a great preceptor like you! It amazes me how some of my class mates act that way. I am be part of the younger generation but I still know how to be respectful and take responsibility for my own actions. People who can't do that don't belong having important careers like nursing!
But Snoopy29, tell us what "floppy fob watch" means? I got lost in the translation :)
Thanks for all the replies and in answer to the question if anyone is late on duty or shuffling out of the door ten minutes early then we say they have clearly got floppy hands on their fob watch - it's just an expression that UK nurses use for poor timekeeping :)
I have just read this post again and have to say it is even better 2nd time round!!
Think every student nurse should read this. The good ones will be horrified and do everything possible not to be like the nurse in the post and the not so good one's will be reminded that they might get a preceptor like Snoopy :)
Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
But Snoopy29, tell us what "floppy fob watch" means? I got lost in the translation :)
Thanks for all the replies and in answer to the question if anyone is late on duty or shuffling out of the door ten minutes early then we say they have clearly got floppy hands on their fob watch - it's just an expression that UK nurses use for poor timekeeping :)
Would that be the hand held watch on a chain that all the oldfarts in the movies wear in their vest pockets?
Crux1024
985 Posts
OP, thanks for your post.
You sound like a mentor i would have loved to have in school. I promise a phoneectomy would have been unecessary. D: