Does anybody else feel like this?.....

[ManderRN]

Maybe it's just me, but my class has been on the oncology unit for our last 2 clinical days, and I have ended up with a very sick patient each time. In general, we are required of each patient to ask certain questions (like what kind of support do you have at home, where do you work, what is your education, who are your support persons, etc), and perhaps do therapeutic communication assignment in the event that an appropriate topic arises to discuss with the patient.

These "extra" things that we need to accomplish to pass our homework, which are in addition to vitals, physical assessments, meds, etc. seem to put an extra burden on patients who are very ill. I hate to ask a patient any of these seemingly non-essential questions when they are moaning out in pain, and when they c/o pain of "20" on a scale of 1-10!

I know that sometimes you might be able to wait for a more opportune time to accomplish these extra "nursing school" tasks, but sometimes an opportune time does not come up. My pts. have had extremely progressive cancer, and I feel like by trying to complete my required school work and ask them questions for my assignment, I am not giving the best care to the patient during their time of hardship, because I am only burdening them with questions I am certain they don't want to answer.

For example, my pt. today was in terrible pain as soon as I came in to care for him. I only had the chance to do his vitals before he began yelling at me to leave him alone because he was in pain, and he wanted rest. It just seems unfair to pts. who are in such a state to have to deal with students. Maybe I just had a bad couple of clinical days, but I have to wonder if it's just me, or does anyone else feel this way?