From a student, to, hospital floor nurses...

BuckyBadgerRN, ASN, RN · Sep 30, 2011

If you want to ignore me and look at me cross eyed when I ask for report or try to give you report, or if you want to just flat look through me as if I were not even there, then guess what?
Do your own vitals!
Do your own code browns.
Make your own beds with the patients
I will sit and practice therapeutic communication with them while you wipe them down.
Now if you want to engage with me and show me a little respect/kindness then,
I will do all your vitals.
I will do all your code browns.
I will make your life a breeze.
The choice is yours.....

Wow, you're going to go far in your student nursing career, I GUARANTEE it :yeah:

mindlor · Sep 30, 2011

No one respects nurses any more than I do. I understand what the job entails.

I am respectful and my attitude is excellent.

All I ask is this,

if my nurse is having a crazy day, why not say, "listen, its really crazy for me right now so please bear with me while I get caught up and hopefully we will get some time to talk a little later....in the mean time it would be awesome if you could do x, y, z blah blah, i think you get the point ....

That would take about 5 seconds yes?

Or just let me shadow you? I wont utter a peap. I can learn a great deal just be watching an experienced nurse. The shocking part is that at my hospitals the doctors are the ones that are nice and want to teach....had a doc yesterday doing an I&D on some MRSA infected abcesses....he saw me and said get in here I want to show you how to properly pack these wounds. He was kind and patient.

Thinking back, at each hospital I have been at thus far on average, the docs have been far nicer than the nurses which is just exactly opposite of what I would have anticipated....

I do not expect anyone to drop what they are doing. I understand that it is all about the patient. I understand that nurse-patient ratios are dangerous. I understand that you are overworked and underpaid and generally exhausted...

But in my mind those things give no one the free pass to be dissmissive, cruel, insensitive, and down right nasty.

I love my patients, I love cleaning up a code brown and then the patient looks at me after and offers a sincere smile and says thanks....thats what its all about for me...

Many of the nurses I see treating students badly are also treating their patients, the families and eachother badly....

It seems that many nurses have lost their way and maybe have forgotten that nursing is supposed to be a profession of caring and compassion..

This is all I have to say on the matter as I realize that my words will carry no meaning for the vast majority....

As the one replier said, all I can do is to not be that person...

Excellent advice my friennd, thank you

flightriskRN · Sep 30, 2011

I just graduated from nursing school in May, and now have students assigned to me. It is very different from the other side of the fence, being the nurse instead of the student. I am just off orientation, and still working on my time management, and when I have students I have to try and factor them into the equation as well. And when there are 7-8 students on the floor and 1 instructor to check their meds, it is very frustrating because sometimes my medications/treatments are late when I could have done them myself and been done. However, since I was a student so recently, I understand the need to learn the basics, which I am more than happy to teach when I have the time. I am also grateful during the times when I am overloaded and the students are there to carry some of the load. The students on our floor are very helpful, and therefore are appreciated and treated well by the RN's. If the students would have had a bad attitude/been sitting around and not willing to help, the situation would be very different. Perhaps if you go into your clinical time with a different attitude, you will be better recieved.

gatoraims RN · Sep 30, 2011

I can see where you are coming from. As a recent student (and will be doing it again soon) I had a few nurses who were just down right rude.

I learned over time that with most of the nurses who "ignored" me I just had to prove to them that I was not going to be a major pita. I gained their respect.

I am not sure how you are going about your clinicals but I would look for things to do without asking "do you need help?" If the nurse was slammed with meds. I would run ahead of them and take vitals, fill water pitchers (if it was allowed), get apple sauce if I knew the pt needed it, do the pts daily care, ect... little things that just made their job easier.

There are MANY students who think they are above some of the little comfort measures in pt care. They think it is up to the aid to do it.

I know it is difficult being a student and maybe out of your safety zone but you also have to respect that they are human, they have bad days, they do not know what sort of student you are going to be. One that needs their hand held or one that is able to find work to do that helps all the staff out with staying out of the way.

I am not trying to be harsh, I know exactly what you are saying. I was taken aback a few times by what seem liked rude hateful nurses but in the end I came to understand them and they learned the they could trust me to do things for them. Even if it was just running to grab a set of sheets.

elkpark · Sep 30, 2011

Reading the terse,dismissive replies you've received here,the question which begs answering is "WHO taught them when they came onto the wards as overwhelmed,excited student nurses?"

Umm, mostly the nursing instructor(s) from my school. Speaking as an "old-timer," I think part of the attitude a lot of students are encountering is a shift in how a lot of nursing schools handle clinicals. When I was a student, most of my clinical experiences were directly supervised by my instructor, and we worked alongside the staff nurses on the unit, but they were not really expected to spend time teaching us. Nowadays (and I've taught in both ADN and BSN programs), there is more of a trend for clinical instructors to plop a group of students down on a unit and assign them to staff nurses who are expected to bear most of weight of doing the actual clinical teaching, in addition to their regular assignment, without being given any choice in the matter or additional compensation for doing so. I'm not sure how or when that basic concept changed, but I certainly understand why a lot of nurses don't care for it (shoot, I've been put in that situation myself, and I don't care for it. If I wanted to spend all day teaching and being responsible for students, I'd get another teaching job ...)

EDnursetobe · Sep 30, 2011

I had students with me the other day, and they did help me out and I appreciate that.

however being on the other side, they do get in the way sometimes.

I think the main problem (and I know this isn't the student's fault) is that they only go to the floor for like 5 hours. And I know on my unit that the early morning is always really busy so you can't really stop to talk to students. I think it would be so much better for students to come for a whole shift and then we'd have more time to work with them. and maybe they could do like 6 weeks instead of 12 or whatnot.

I know that many nursing schools take what they can get in terms of which units students will be on, but it would be better for everyone if students were on a lower acuity unit or even a LTC for medsurg. They'd be able to do a lot and the nurses would have time to talk with them...

just my 2 cents. :)

hang in there students!

pockunit, ADN, RN · Sep 30, 2011

No one respects nurses any more than I do. I understand what the job entails.
I am respectful and my attitude is excellent.
All I ask is this,
if my nurse is having a crazy day, why not say, "listen, its really crazy for me right now so please bear with me while I get caught up and hopefully we will get some time to talk a little later....in the mean time it would be awesome if you could do x, y, z blah blah, i think you get the point ....
That would take about 5 seconds yes?
. . . But in my mind those things give no one the free pass to be dissmissive, cruel, insensitive, and down right nasty.

It is SO EASY to become frustrated by the treatment students sometimes receive on the floor. But wouldn't it have been just as easy to write this in your OP as it was to write what you did? Or to say it to the nurse? Use, you know, communication skills to try and get what you want? Then at least you can say you tried before you come here to vent. And believe me, we all get venting. It's half the posts on this board.

iteachob, MSN, RN · Sep 30, 2011

In my 15+ year of teaching it is my experience that (usually) staff nurses are quite easy to get along with and helpful with students......however, I am going to stick up for students in general (not necessarily the OP) and say that sometimes staff nurses are quite inappropriate and rude to students for NO reason. The eye-rolling starts the minute they hit the floor. At our clinical facility, there is one unit, in particular, that is notorious. The rest of the facility is fine.

My point being that it's not always (sometimes, yes, it is) the student....there are some "dysfunctional" nurses and nursing units out there....my 2 cents.

SweetheartRN · Sep 30, 2011

No one respects nurses any more than I do. I understand what the job entails.
I am respectful and my attitude is excellent.
All I ask is this,
if my nurse is having a crazy day, why not say, "listen, its really crazy for me right now so please bear with me while I get caught up and hopefully we will get some time to talk a little later....in the mean time it would be awesome if you could do x, y, z blah blah, i think you get the point ....
That would take about 5 seconds yes?
Or just let me shadow you? I wont utter a peap. I can learn a great deal just be watching an experienced nurse. The shocking part is that at my hospitals the doctors are the ones that are nice and want to teach....had a doc yesterday doing an I&D on some MRSA infected abcesses....he saw me and said get in here I want to show you how to properly pack these wounds. He was kind and patient.
Thinking back, at each hospital I have been at thus far on average, the docs have been far nicer than the nurses which is just exactly opposite of what I would have anticipated....
I do not expect anyone to drop what they are doing. I understand that it is all about the patient. I understand that nurse-patient ratios are dangerous. I understand that you are overworked and underpaid and generally exhausted...
But in my mind those things give no one the free pass to be dissmissive, cruel, insensitive, and down right nasty.
I love my patients, I love cleaning up a code brown and then the patient looks at me after and offers a sincere smile and says thanks....thats what its all about for me...
Many of the nurses I see treating students badly are also treating their patients, the families and eachother badly....
It seems that many nurses have lost their way and maybe have forgotten that nursing is supposed to be a profession of caring and compassion..
This is all I have to say on the matter as I realize that my words will carry no meaning for the vast majority....
As the one replier said, all I can do is to not be that person...
Excellent advice my friennd, thank you

Compassion and caring is all good and well but to survive in todays nursing world you need to think on your feet, have excellent time manangemnt skills, communication skills, and by all means take nothing personally. Im a generally nice person by virtue of my upbringing. That isn't a skill that I have to work on and I would hope most nurses shouldn't have to work on that either but some do. So I am nice to everyone even when they don't deserve it. But I feel the main skill you need to have is time management. While its true patients will be more tolerant of you if you are super nice and are late with their pain medicine but would more than likely rather have a nurse that is maybe just cordial but are on time with their pain medicine. i know I would.The ideal nurse is the one that can be both compassionate and timely. Doctors schedule is probably a little more free than the nurses apparently. He probably just got finished writing 10 orders on 5 different patients and was available to talk to YOU while the nurse was frantically trying to begin completeing the tasks that are all due NOW.

Its really easy to say what you WILL do or who you WILL be when you're not in the situation yet. But like other posters have said. Your clinical experience is YOURS. You cannot make a nurse behave like you think she/he should. Its not going to happen in school and its surely not going to happen when you're out in the real world. You have to investigate and find opportunities for you to learn because the nurse is not responsible for your learning experience, you are. So keep doing what you are doing, listening, buddy up with your classmates and get to know their nurses too. Tell your classmates if their nurse is going to do something, come get you too or better yet just be on the look out yourself. I did this ALL the time and I learn some great stuff this way.

Every nurse does not like to teach and frankly some nurses shouldn't and some nurses are so new themselves that they are doing the best they can and are still learning themselves and find it pretty difficult to juggle a student as well.(ME) lol. Its pretty hard to foster a nurturing learning enviroment in the acute care setting nowadays. Its just so busy. And this is unfortunate because I think new nurses are graduating with less and less clinical skills because they didn't get a good clinical foundation in school.

Keep a goodf attitude, be humble, and seek out your own learning opportunities. When you see something being done in the clinical setting and not sure about it go back home and read about it, ask your instructor if the nurse is too busy to be bothered. Keep learning no matter how difficult the journey is. This part of nursing school is preparing you for real life as a nurse, which cannot be taught out of a book.

beckster_01, BSN, RN · Sep 30, 2011

I personally love to teach, and I love having students on the floor. Extra hands are always needed when I have a patient who is a 2-3 assist for ambulation. But there are a few things I wish that instructors would teach students. For one thing, giving the nurse report when they are leaving the floor is not necessary. As someone said before, since I am the nurse taking care of this patient, it is MY responsibility to know everything there is to know about the patient. The only report I need is if the patient has a BM and their I+O's. If you can write it on a post-it and hand it to me that is even better. Also, please don't try to "make up" problems for the patient! If there are family concerns that were mentioned to you, please tell me, but don't expect me to deal with it at 9am when I have only passed 1 medication so far and have a patient going off the floor on tele. Unless it is an emergency. I will try my very hardest to save my dressing changes for you, but if it makes sense for me to do it I am going to do it, whether or not you are on lunch.

For the most part my best advice is to learn how to read your nurse. Does she have three nursing students and an orientee? If so, please go to your instructor with your issues first. Try and plan your day. If you want to do a dressing change then come to me and we can figure out a time when both of us are available to do it. And please please please try and look up answers to questions on your own before asking me. Not only is it a more effective method of learning/critical thinking, but as a nurse you will definitely be expected to look things up before calling the doc with a question.

shygoofyone · Sep 30, 2011

It's so ironic that I see this post today, and this past week's clinical group was one of the worst I've had at a long time. I usually love having students around, and love being able to teach them while I'm working....but...

If I tell you I can't give you a report right now, it's because someone is not doing well and needs me more than you do. Perhaps your instructor should make sure you arrive before we give report to ensure you can get it. But, that's not your fault...we've had to talk with your instructor before about that...unfortunately, it's not my fault either, and I've got a patient to discharge and another one seizing...all within 5 minutes after getting report.

Oh, and...don't roll your eyes at me when I tell you that your patient just discharged....I can't help that I didn't know you had my patient because you were late to get report and I had already discharged him when you found me.

If I have two charts in front of me while I'm on the phone and you hear me say "I am calling to make sure you're aware of this patient's condition, and I will call you again when their heart rate drops to 30 to ensure you are aware of his contdition" it's not a good time to stand over me until I get off the phone to talk about a completely different patient. I'm getting my orifice chewed for "bothering" the doctor.

We nurses may not always be able to be what the students want us to be...but some times, there's alot more going on than you will be privy to, sometimes it's the disorganized instructor...sometimes it's the workload...and sometimes, it's you. Be very aware of your body language. I'm far less likely to want to work with a student who thinks she is my priority and I have to fix her computer login a third time in one hour than I am one that realizes that my patients are my priority.

Not sure what semester your in, but each clinical is different. Read the comments above and try to be more aware of what's going on around you when you feel a nurse is "ignoring you" or "looking through you."

I hope it gets better, and you'll be surprised at how you feel somedays about students when you're in the Nurse role...I know I was.

mindlor · Sep 30, 2011

Excellent insight and advice everyone! I thank you and shall make changes in myself and see how it goes. Again I say thank you for taking the time.