Free teaching labor

Nurses General Nursing

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When I was in nursing school I always thought it was weird that my preceptor or the people teaching me for the day didn't get paid more. Now that I'm a nurse and can confirm how much more work it is to have a student I'm even more surprised. Do hospitals get paid to have nursing students? do any hospitals pay their nurses more when they have students? I didn't find any answers to these questions on the forum and I was surprised these questions didn't come up more in my googling. Am I the only one that thinks nurses are being taken advantage of by teaching for free?

At one of my practicum sites, the nurse got "paid" in the sense that taking on a student nurse to precept gave her a ticket punch on her promotion to Nurse II 'to do' list.

Specializes in Surgical, quality,management.

Yes they get paid...but in my hospital that money goes to pay for the clinical educators that work with the students (supervised med rounds, inservices etc.) but the buddy nurses are not paid anything.

I've never gotten paid more for having a student, only for precepting a new hire. I've also never felt responsible for teaching a student.

Students actually like me. I tend to start with one and end up with a bunch of them following me around. I'm friendly to them and show them things when I have the time ...but if I don't have the time, they get shelved in a hurry.

I've never gotten paid for precepting students or new employees and I've lost count how many I've had.

Specializes in oncology, MS/tele/stepdown.

I've never gotten paid for precepting a student or a new hire, but I've only had a student on a one-day-at-a-time basis, not over a weeks-long preceptorship where I'm essentially their clinical instructor. I think I should get paid for orienting new staff for sure, and I would not agree to letting a student follow me for a preceptorship without compensation either. As for the day-to-day students who come to the floor for like 6 hours with an instructor, it doesn't really require a lot of extra energy for me to work with them, so I don't mind - if they're motivated. I have and will refuse a student that is interfering with my ability to work or is lazy. That all being said, if I got paid, I would make more of an effort and students would probably get more out of it.

Specializes in Emergency Department.

In the UK it is written into your contract of employment that you teach students.

Up-side is that you get some training towards this which counts towards re-validation.

Specializes in ICU, LTACH, Internal Medicine.

Where I am, preceptors are paid approximately the same as nurses who work PRN (i.e. $8-10/h more than full time staff) with them being responsible for all students and on top of it expected to "help" (read: do everything but the initial assessment) with admissions and discharges.

Staff nurses who are assigned students are given certificates which can be converted to CE hours. They are not asked if they want or can precept that day or not.

Specializes in Med-surg, school nursing..

When I was the preceptor it counted for all of my CEU's for the year. Which was a plus.

Of the hospitals that I've worked, I recall only one that offered a small 'preceptor' differential. Unfortunately it seems, that perk has gone the way of the dinosaurs!

I had two students follow me as part of their BSN rotation. You won't believe it, but I honest to goodness never thought of being paid. Not until I just read your question. I guess Im the slow one?

I am currently precepting a BSN student. I don’t get paid extra but this girl is amazing. She is really advanced and takes the whole team. I need to be there for med passes, assessments, etc. She then documents and I read everything she writes and put a note that I agree with the statement. If I don’t I can correct it or have her correct it. She’s really great with with asking questions. This is not the typical student I have had but it’s a plus right now.

I’ve also precepted new hires which I did get paid more and hour.

We also get students from local colleges who work under their instructor. Most of the time they’ve been great. Very rarely have we said something to the instructor with concerns.

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