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

[mindlor]

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.....

[Flo., BSN, RN]

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.

Now that's the right attitude! Good Luck mindlor.

[KSU-SN]

From a nurse to student nurses.....when all 10 of you are crowded into our break room first thing in the morning when we are trying to get prepared for our shift and go over our assignment for the day and you are taking up all the chairs at the table so we have to stand, thats not exactly a good way to get on our good side. When you choose to make us repeat the report on your patient instead of coming and listening when we are getting report from the previous shift, it makes us a little irritated. When all of you are sitting at the nurse's station taking up all the computers and talking so loud about nothing to do with nursing and browsing the computers for whats in the cafeteria for lunch, we are going to be a little frustrated and annoyed by your presence. When you are standing in the hallway talking with your classmates or sitting at the desk and your patient's call light is going off for 5 mins and you choose to ignore it, dont expect us to want to help you later on. When you do the vitals, ADLs, baths, I&O's, etc. and dont chart a single thing dont expect us to be too thrilled to see you the next time.

You are there for your own learning experience....it doesnt hurt us if you choose to be too shy to assess your patient or turn down a chance to do something you've never done before because you are afraid. But dont expect us to have much respect for you. I love teaching and having students that take the initiative to learn and that have the common sense to not be in the way by taking up all of our computers and chairs and putting the charts in the wrong places. If you come to me and act like a mature adult who wants to learn then I will treat you with all the respect in the world.

[Aurora77]

If you decided to sit and chat while I took care of my (your) pt for the day, your CI and I would be having a talk immediately. If you could sit idly by and watch your coworkers work while you do nothing, I question your ability to not only be a nurse, but to work as part of a team in any work environment. Laziness and passive agressiveness is not a virtue.

From reading posts like these I have to wonder if many nursing students have no work experience whatsoever. Not everyone is nice and easy to work with, not even nurses. No one, even those who love their job, wants to go into work every single day. Occasionally we have problems outside of work that affect our attitudes. Is that right? No, but it is what it is. Are there jerks in the world? Yes. Are they fun to work with? No. Do we sometimes have to suck it up and deal? Yes.

Nurses are only people, not saints. I'm not sure why we should be held to a higher standard than the rest of humanity, when all we are is human.

[SNB1014, RN]

op, are you sure you arent a tech??

all my clinicals (and im still a student) had techs responsible for those duties.

as a student, you are supposed to do your best to make it easier on the nurses on the floor. if they dont have the time to teach, you must take the time to observe and look it up yourself. if one nurse preceptor is nasty, get another one. you can usually tell by report who is willing to have students/TEACH.

all students understand and can sing backup to your sad song, but i sure hope you never give this attitude back to your preceptors.

i think of every clinical as a job shadow/interview

[Aurora77]

i think of every clinical as a job shadow/interview

Exactly. I got my job b/c I did clinicals at my facility. The nurses and managers are watching students. They can tell pretty quickly who would make a good addition to the team and who wouldn't. Behavior described in the OP would rule him/her out of a job there fast.

[Philpster]

Mixed bag of comments here, but it is hard as a student, there are nurses who find students just 'extra work' but this is their issue and not the student - some of the times! If you hold little interest where you are and struggle then you may come across as unwilling - and I have met my fair share of those students. Enjoy the 'no responsibility' because when you qualify and start your first day on the ward you are on your own - literally. That 'I'm just a student' gets replaced with Nurse and patients don't know if you are newly qualified or twenty years under your belt. Get as much as you can from each learning opportunity, put yourself forward, request to go and watch procedures etc and utilise your opportunity to really consolidate your theory. I HATED being called 'the student' - it's something I never do myself - everyone has a name...use it. I utilise students on our wards - teaching them how to do dressings, I had to teach a student today how to put on a pair of sterile gloves as noone had taught her - everyone starts somewhere. I think the best mentors are nurses who don't mind being challenged and have excellent communication skills. It's sooo frustrating as a student if you ask an experienced nurse why they do what they do - and they reply 'I've always done it like that' - but why - 'i just have...'

Enjoy your student days, some nurses will treat you like shite, others remember the hell they went through and wouldn't dream of subjecting you to it - but put yourself out there - harass everyone as get out of your practical what YOU want.

And enjoy it. Time goes too fast then before you know it you are a terrified newly qualified who feels clueless.

We have ALL been there! ;-)

[wooh, BSN, RN]

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 ...)

One school doesn't even send an instructor with the group of students. (Not senior practicum students doing their final round with one nurse. This is the entire group for clinicals.) So on top of our full load of patients, we have to do ALL of their teaching AND get to fill out evaluations.

[All4Seasons]

Mindlor, excellent posts. You will make a very fine nurse.

Disregard the flotsam and jetsam expressed here -I quite happily do so. Thankfully,developing a cynical and hard-nosed attitude is not a given in this profession -and I'm speaking 30 years in.

All the best in the remainder of your formal schooling!

[RainMom]

... 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 ...)

Wow, that is completely different than my clinicals were! I went to a small community college ADN program. At our clinicals, we were assigned 1 (& later 2) patients for whom we gave TOTAL care with few exceptions like blood transfusions. We were on the floor at 7 am to receive report & meet the RN also assigned to our patient. However, most of the time, I rarely saw the RN after report except to maybe update on the patient if there was anything significant happening. Our clinical instructor was who we went to for help unless there was something quick we might ask of the RN (& she happened to be there). Essentially, the RN would do her assessment at the start of the shift, but then pretty much did not have much contact with the patient until after we reported off at 2-2:30 pm. We did all bathing, toileting, linens, ambulation, meds, dressing changes, everything....& then charted it all. RNs were happy when we came on the floor for their shift. I can't imagine going to a clinical where I just "shadowed" an RN & helped out here & there. (All our clinicals for 3 semesters were med/surg too.)

[carolmaccas66, BSN, RN]

I'm lucky. All my students have been pretty much good. If they don't work when they're with me I don't push it now, I just think boy, you will have an extremely hard time getting organised when u have ur own patient load.

Mind you, I treat my students like human beings, get to know them as people & chat about this & that at break time. I do as much teaching as I can fit into a shift.

OP u have a right to be treated like a human being - nobody has the right to treat you like $h*t, so stand up for yourself. Be a hard worker, ask heaps of questions and be proactive & u should be fine.

I've nver understood the 'them and us' mentality of RNs vs students. Maybe I've just been pretty lucky with having good students. But like I say, if a student doesn't do the work, doesn't listen, etc I don't care - that's their choice & they will regret it later on.

[linearthinker, DNP, RN]

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?"

Who taught me? Nursing faculty, that's who. In my day staff nurses were not expected to assume any responsibility for students. As a student I had almost zero contact with hospital staff. As it should be. As a staff nurse I did not appreciate being expected to teach students. It was not part of my job description. I had enough to do without the added responsibility. I didn't enjoy teaching. I didn't enjoy students (no offense). I wasn't being compensated for it. I didn't want cookies, muffins or Yankee candles at the end of the semester. I just wanted students to be taught by their faculty and to leave me alone. I really don't think that was asking too much.

[OCNRN63, RN]

Who taught me? Nursing faculty, that's who. In my day staff nurses were not expected to assume any responsibility for students. As a student I had almost zero contact with hospital staff. As it should be. As a staff nurse I did not appreciate being expected to teach students. It was not part of my job description. I had enough to do without the added responsibility. I didn't enjoy teaching. I didn't enjoy students (no offense). I wasn't being compensated for it. I didn't want cookies, muffins or Yankee candles at the end of the semester. I just wanted students to be taught by their faculty and to leave me alone. I really don't think that was asking too much.

Sometimes I think we were separated at birth.