Floor nurses that make clinicals a bad experience

[NurseLoveJoy88]

Once again I find myself having a bad clinical experience due to nurses that are rude to students and act like they were born with a RN license. First let me say I appreciate the nurses that do show us students respect and don't make us feel like a burden. I am a nurse in LTC. I'm a LPN. I have had nursing students on the floor and to say the least it is overwhelming !!!! I have 20 residents, med pass, treatments, documentation, dealing with docs, family, other emergencies and to have six students on top of that can be stressful. Having to answer a bunch of questions, being asked to look at something or to clarify something is alot on just one nurse.

With that said I have never been rude to the nursing students or acted as if they were a burden. I know what it is like to be a student nurse. Granted there are some students that are a little more needy than other but then there are some that really just want to learn but at the same time want respect.

Being on both sides I'm more aware of how they can make it better for students and how students can make it better for nurses. As students we should take initiative but at the same time realize that the nurses are busy and may not be available as soon as we want them. Also that the patients are the priority and our learning comes second. For nurses we must remember what it was like to be students and just having a little more respect. Floor nurses don't need to teach the students but allowing us to observe a thing or two would be nice.

Just a little vent.

[bellanurse30]

I completely agree with you. I am also a nursing student on clinical rotation and I cannot believe how rude some of the floor nurses are. During rotations in LTC we also have to deal with crap from CNA's watching over us take vitals and it's just ridiculous.

I just don't understand where these nurses get off treating us like crap half of the time and the saddest thing is they are the older ones and I can't help but wonder if they have children our ages and how they would feel if their children had to go through the same crap.

However, this past week on rotation at a popular hospital in the peds dept, for the first time I came across some really great nurses that took plenty of time to show us everything possible, encouraged us to go as far as we can in the nursing profession and treated us as equals. It was a great and weird experience since we are not used to that. It was so great we felt the need to let them know just how great they were.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

you have to remember those nurses who are rude, belittling, etc whatever, are probably unhappy with their lives, probably older, burned out nurses, who are unhappy wherever they go. it's not just students they take their anger out on, but students are a very convenient scapegoat.

i've worked with older nurses in ot who thought absolutely nothing about yelling at and belittling students in front of surgeons, other nurses, etc. and i've seen that nasty, curved up smirk they try to hide, like no-one will see it. truly nasty moles they are. i often wonder how any of them got married and raised children - i used to often wonder what their children were like.

i suppose you can only do your best as a preceptor though. one way to deal with nasty, unhappy people is to constantly smile and always be positive around them - that really really annoys them!

you've been busting on older nurses a lot lately, on various threads. i wonder if you've considered the idea that if you're lucky, you might be older one day. i was wondering why it was you seemed to encounter so many nasty people in your jobs . . . but then i figured it out. have you?

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

very true, while students may sometimes "appear to get in the way", they are still generally a help during the day whether it is vitals, baths, meds, or just an extra set of eyes, they can be a positive for everyone on the floor. when i was in school there was an extremely rude, arrogant nurse at one clinical site...so after a run in or two, our instructor just made sure she didn't assign any of that nurse's patients to a student. in other words, all the other nurses had help on our clinical day, the rude nurse was relatively on her own, as she deserved. how many times in a day or week would we not want an extra set of eyes, hands, or legs to help with something, lets work on giving those students a positive learning experience rather than a nerve rattling day for them.

i enjoy teaching and do it every chance i can. that said, a lot of my colleagues don't enjoy teaching, aren't good at it and don't get any choice in the matter of whether or not to precept or when to do so. we don't get any extra money for precepting, either. if you do it right, precepting is an enormous amount of work for which you get no compensation -- assignments aren't lighter, days aren't longer, supplies aren't more accessible, there isn't any money and no one gives you kudos for being such a good sport or thanks for being such a good teacher. students seem to take it as their godgiven right to have an rn impart her/his wisdom, correct their mistakes without "making me feel bad" and praise them when they get something right.

students don't "appear to get in the way." they are in the way. even the best students add more to my workload than they take away from it. they need help finding supplies, have questions about whether to do it this way or that way, cannot figure out how to change an occupied bed, haven't read the procedure i gave them before we went in to practice that skill on a real live patient and don't understand what they're doing, don't take direction well or worse, don't ask for it. even the good students who think they're being respectful to that "tired old nurse" often are not. (hint: rolling your eyes is not a sign of respect.) extending yourself to help and teach someone who cannot seem to be grateful or even respectful is often the straw that breaks the camel's back. that "rude nurse" who was relatively on her own probably got exactly what she was angling for -- no student to mess up her day. it's a shame she had to be rude to accomplish that. it would be nice if management would simply take you at your word that you simply can't handle the additional stressors of teaching today or this week or even this semester.

i'm an old nurse, and before you jump on me, i do remember what it was like to be a student and a brand new graduate nurse. i haven't forgotten any of than. i see the necessity for teaching, and mostly enjoy doing it. but there are times when i am a little burned out or unhappy with my life -- when dad was dying and mother needed 24/7 supervision, for example, or when my dh was hospitalized with a serious illness. that doesn't mean i can afford to stay home until things get better for me. but it does mean i don't have anything extra left over (after giving my best to patients and visitors) to give to a student nurse who may or may not be kind, respectful and appreciative to me. sometimes i have to teach anyway. i do my best.

to all of the students who are complaining about floor nurses making their clinicals a bad experience, consider this: you are making some poor nurse's workday a bad experience. and you're not the first student to do so, nor will you be the last. she knows this. have a little compassion for the floor nurse you're abusing.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

it's also part of the job of a rn to work through problems with students, not just be rude to them. being rude doesn't achieve anything. we have to be managers and try to manage all and every problem to the best of our ability.

i do not think personally there is any excuse for being rude. i can't stand it, and am not like that towards other people. i don't see any reason for it - most of these nurses i've met are just burned out and don't know how to cope anymore. i think a lot of them like being rude actually - it brightens up their boring lives.

i think a little self-examiniation is in order. you're disrespectful of older nurses on this forum . . . i'm wondering how much of it leaks out to the older nurses you encounter in your practice. i'm guessing you are rude to other people.

[CCL RN, RN]

It's also part of the job of a RN to work through problems with students, not just be rude to them. Being rude doesn't achieve anything. We have to be managers and try to manage all and every problem to the best of our ability.

I do not think personally there is any excuse for being rude. I can't stand it, and am not like that towards other people. I don't see any reason for it - most of these nurses I've met are just burned out and don't know how to cope anymore. I think a lot of them LIKE being rude actually - it brightens up their boring lives.

I hate rude nurses. I hated them in clinical, and I hate working beside them now.

I love students! I love asking them questions that make them think, figure stuff out, come to their own conclusions.

But the above bolded statement is simply.not.true. It is absolute not my *job* to deal with students. Its more work on my end and students are really not helpful at all. That is OK, they arent meant to be helpful, they are meant to learn. I will do my best to help with that. If I worked the floors I can see how having a few students would help out the CNAs.

Laziness and rudeness comes in all fields. But I too have also had students turn me down when I offer to let them help with a complex dressing change, or with titration. I get the, "I do not want to work in ICU ever so there is no need for me to even be here" line as well.

Heck, I knew I wasn't ever gonna be a psych nurse, but I still applied my all in those clinicals...

[CCL RN, RN]

i enjoy teaching and do it every chance i can. that said, a lot of my colleagues don't enjoy teaching, aren't good at it and don't get any choice in the matter of whether or not to precept or when to do so. we don't get any extra money for precepting, either. if you do it right, precepting is an enormous amount of work for which you get no compensation -- assignments aren't lighter, days aren't longer, supplies aren't more accessible, there isn't any money and no one gives you kudos for being such a good sport or thanks for being such a good teacher. students seem to take it as their godgiven right to have an rn impart her/his wisdom, correct their mistakes without "making me feel bad" and praise them when they get something right.

students don't "appear to get in the way." they are in the way. even the best students add more to my workload than they take away from it. they need help finding supplies, have questions about whether to do it this way or that way, cannot figure out how to change an occupied bed, haven't read the procedure i gave them before we went in to practice that skill on a real live patient and don't understand what they're doing, don't take direction well or worse, don't ask for it. even the good students who think they're being respectful to that "tired old nurse" often are not. (hint: rolling your eyes is not a sign of respect.) extending yourself to help and teach someone who cannot seem to be grateful or even respectful is often the straw that breaks the camel's back. that "rude nurse" who was relatively on her own probably got exactly what she was angling for -- no student to mess up her day. it's a shame she had to be rude to accomplish that. it would be nice if management would simply take you at your word that you simply can't handle the additional stressors of teaching today or this week or even this semester.

i'm an old nurse, and before you jump on me, i do remember what it was like to be a student and a brand new graduate nurse. i haven't forgotten any of than. i see the necessity for teaching, and mostly enjoy doing it. but there are times when i am a little burned out or unhappy with my life -- when dad was dying and mother needed 24/7 supervision, for example, or when my dh was hospitalized with a serious illness. that doesn't mean i can afford to stay home until things get better for me. but it does mean i don't have anything extra left over (after giving my best to patients and visitors) to give to a student nurse who may or may not be kind, respectful and appreciative to me. sometimes i have to teach anyway. i do my best.

to all of the students who are complaining about floor nurses making their clinicals a bad experience, consider this: you are making some poor nurse's workday a bad experience. and you're not the first student to do so, nor will you be the last. she knows this. have a little compassion for the floor nurse you're abusing.

wonderfully said ruby, and 100% accurate. each and every word. i wish i was so eloquent when i respond to these type of threads.

[NENE RN]

I am a nursing student and also a tech. I have had really good nurses and really bad ones. I understand that life happens outside of the hospital. I have been through multiple losses while I have been in school. I am not rude to the students on my floor, my pts, or the nurses that I deal with because I believe in Karma. I understand because of the floor that I work on that crazy days happen and frustrations mount. I can understand patience levels are gone because your work load is ridiculous because staffing is horrible that day and everything that could go wrong has and continues to go wrong. I do NOT understand when as a student, I walk into the breakroom and my nurse or other student's nurse is gossiping about whatever be it the cruise they just were on, the Night shift nurse sleeping with, etc and the student ask a question and they are cold rude and indifferent. I have seen where a nurse wants a student to change their assessment because something happens with a patient that the student caught and charted with verification from instructor because they missed it in their assessment. This is after the student and instructor repeatedly told the RN what was happening with their pt. The RN continued talking to whomever about whatever and waited too long to go see pt. We as students have to work within our limited "scope of practice". I know that I must ask medications, iv fluids. If I am told "i have to check with dr." I am at a stand still as a student. I frustrates me as well. I want to help my RNs as much as possible. A RN that I wasn't assigned to had a critical patient, if I can help with other pts I ask...I need my instructor's permission of course, but I ask. That way the other non critical patients can be seen while the RN is busy with her critical pt. Which would relieve some of the stress, especially if it is basic dressing changes, IV fluids, ect. that have to been done that she/he cant get too. I have sorry, lazy classmates but they are 1 or 2 out of 8. The rest of us want to work. We aren't hiding or shying away from any skill that we can do or learn. We follow the instructions of our instructor because we want to pass our clinical. I have had instructors tell us in a code situation "stand in the corner."?????? As a tech I have had RN continuously call or page me while I am in a critical situation for a bathroom call in a room that they are in and be rude later on when they ask me about where I was. Even though a code was called. They have 4 to 6 pts I have 10 to 15. Which means I have a minimum of 2 RNs usually 3 or 4. People are people. Some are nice and helpful others are not. I don't buy "old RN" stuff because that is where the knowledge is. I seem to have more issues with the newer RNs that may not be confident in their skill level or dont deal with stress well.

[mystory, BSN, RN]

Nurses are often overworked. I worked med/surg in a struggling nyc hospital and my assignments were unsafe to say the least. When students came, I initially thought they would be somewhat of a help and lighten the incredible load. I learned quickly that they added to it.

Their job is not to help, it is to learn. This involves me teaching, slowly walking them through steps, answering questions, reading over their notes, giving the student and instructor feedback, etc. It was a lot of extra work for an already hectic and unsafe agenda.

That said, the genuine enthusiasm and passion many students demonstrate renews my own and makes it all worth it. I love students, but I hope you students out there can fathom how some nurses may not love them. Not that it justifies being rude, but if you can sense that a nurse is not thrilled with your presence it is an opportunity to be empathic. Good luck on your journies. :heartbeat

[criticalRN10]

It's not that we don't empathize with you...I completely understand that I am in the way and I am bothersome when I don't know things...we HATE that we don't know things, we WANT to help lighten your load... I will go find someone who doesn't look busy to ask where supplies are or ask a quick question about something when I know my nurse is really busy. We have to be there too for our job as a student. I will give nurses the benefit of the doubt when they make it very obvious they don't want me there. Sometimes I will ask if they would rather me find someone with a lighter patient load... But that doesn't excuse behavior such as simple common courtesy like acknowledging that we just introduced ourselves to you and you can't even make eye contact with us and introduce yourself back and let me know that you ARE busy and you don't have time to hold our hand and to just hold on for dear life and don't get in the way...try actually talking to us about your stressors and watch how you deal with them. I've had some nurses who didn't talk to me ONCE the entire day and literally pretended that I wasn't there. Luckily I don't need someone to hold my hand, I DO know the patho of every disease of my patient and google the heck out of every aspect of their care in the off chance that a nurse does acknowledge me and quiz me about something, I ask every nurse and CNA on the unit to come get me if there's any procedure that needs to be done because I need to practice it like crazy before I am proficient at it. Please don't lump all the bad nursing students together as if it's "our generation" that 'has no focus or drive' I am a type A personality and find ways to get around these things but I have fellow nursing students who cry when they get into post clinical because the nurse ignored them and literally said to another nurse standing right there in front of her that she didn't want a student and she was mad that she had to deal with her today. I mean that's just RUDE. Old, new, whatever. We know you're stressed out- we are too! We were up until 4 the morning before that writing our detailed careplans about that pt and looking up every med and every lab value and couldn't go to sleep b/c we were nervous about what kind of nurse we would get the next day... I guess it's just part of the package. I like to think that it will make me a better nurse but for the most part- I just do what I have to do to get the most out of my clinical.

[NurseLoveJoy88, ASN, RN]

wow. interesting responses. Once again I can sympathize with both students and floor nurses, being a LPN and RN student. The bottom line is :nurses should have a little more respect and students do not need to "abuse" the floor nurse.

[IaCountryGirl]

Most of the nurses on the floor where I've been have been pretty nice. I did have one problem with one nurse last rotation who was extremely rude to me, but she seemed to have a chip on her shoulder in general (she talked down to a lot of people, including patients). I let it roll off my back because I know I'm competent and so do my instructors- I figure her attitude will catch up with her later at one point or another whether it be her getting fired or her getting sick and have a nurse just like her!

[steelydanfan]

It's also part of the job of a RN to work through problems with students, not just be rude to them. Being rude doesn't achieve anything. We have to be managers and try to manage all and every problem to the best of our ability.

I do not think personally there is any excuse for being rude. I can't stand it, and am not like that towards other people. I don't see any reason for it - most of these nurses I've met are just burned out and don't know how to cope anymore. I think a lot of them LIKE being rude actually - it brightens up their boring lives.

This is EXACTLY the kind of snippy attitude that poisons seasoned nurses towards students.