Dirty clinical sites?

[l'etudiante]

Hello everyone...I came to this site today because I have a problem I'd like some perspectives on. I am a student in my 3rd semester in nursing school. My clinical rotation this semester includes a nursing home that is so disgusting that I nearly throw up every time I walk in there. I've been there before, but I've been spending a lot of time there this semester and I cannot take it anymore. The OUTSIDE of the building smells, let alone the inside......everything. None of the other homes we go to have a stench like this; a smell, yes, but a horrible stench that seeps into your clothes even despite washing them with bleach twice.

I've witnessed the staff and their countless out-and-out breaking of state regulations, including providing peri-care with the DOOR OPEN...kitchen staff drinking alchohol (I am so serious right now...) residents who are so dirty that one swipe of the washcloth during the bed bath leaves it BLACK despite the home having 4 full time shower aides. The laundry room people fight with you about giving you towels. You have to beg the shower aides for some washcloths because the laundry room aides will tell you "You only need one towel [ no washcloth] to give a bed bath." My classmates and I have also been informed that we are "wasteful" for wanting more than that because "This facility only has 45 towels." For 130 residents!!!!!!!!! And kitchen staff and CNAs screaming at residents for what basically seems like no reason.

I cant even go on and talk about anything else (and believe me, there's worse) let's just leave it as it's a horribly disgusting place, both from the attitudes of the staff towards the residents and the lack of patient care and infection control....

I've had three different instructors there and all of them hate it and tell us to ignore bad behavior (unless it's abuse.) One told me when state came this year the facility got 25 violations. I was shocked it was so low, really...

I don't think I can take going back to this place...I feel so horrible for all of the poor residents who have to live there. I feel like I have a responsibility to them, even though they are only my temporary patients, to say something when I Feel something really bad is going on...this isn't just "cutting corners" like how we've seen at other places, there is some really bad stuff going on. I don't understand why my school has us coming to this place when the instructors have told us they complain. There isn't even anything to learn here except bad things, they only let us do ADLs here anyway.

Complaining to my school about this facility does nothing, a student a semester ahead of me told me she requested for it to be taken off her schedule once, and the next month they scheduled her there for a month straight instead even though it's supposedly random and they 'do not take student requests into account.' but that seems a little too coinicidental to me :/

So my question to you, fellow nursing students: do (or did) your schools send you to places like this? Did you ever report anything that you saw in clinicals while you were in nursing school? Do you think I should?

[Miller86]

I had a clinical experience similar to yours, although not as bad. I was definitely appalled at the way the facility was being run and how certain staff members behaved. I informed my clinical professor and we completed an evaluation sheet so future students would not have to be in an environment that's really not facilitating their learning needs. I would definitely in your case report (preceptor, to the school, management etc) the fact that you feel you are not gaining any valuable experience from this rotation. It should be the schools responsibility to provide you with a good learning environment. If that does not work out, then remember its always important to advocate for your patients rights and safety.

[nursel56]

That saddens me so much to hear! I would look up your state's reporting laws- you may be able to make an anonymous report.

Gross as it is, at least when you are there they are getting decent care, and I'm sure they appreciate it more than you can know. It's just so sad to think about them living that way. I used to work with a doc who had a lot of patients in these homes, and he said he always evaluated the facility by the "smell test". It told him everything he needed to know. . .

[AOx1]

There is something very wrong with not only this place but also your school. I am an instructor, and yes, clinical sites are scarce, but I would not accept students being placed in this facility year after year. The fact that 3 instructors have been here tells you all you need to know. By continuing to place students there, they are implicitly condoning this behavior. This is disgusting. That sick feeling you probably get in the pit of your stomach when you have to go there tells you this is wrong. It needs to be reported. I wouldn't want a beloved elder treated this way.

[CrunchRN, ADN, RN]

The poor patients certainly need you. Does that make it tolerable? You can't always fix things that should be criminal like this, but thank god for the patients that you all go there.