Nursing Student annoyed me

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in LTC, Med/Surg, Peds, ICU, Tele.

I had a nursing student assigned to one of my patients yesterday. I had a very busy day with several issues coming up, and this student was not exactly helpful. She definately was in the chapter of the book to never let the patient be in pain, because the patient that she actually had could have IV pain med every 2 hours, which I was trying to keep on top of the best I could, but I had some other pressing issues with my other patients. I was trying to include the student in what was happening with my other patients too, since she had expressed interest in this. But, she seemed very annoyed with me when I didn't get back into that room soon enough to get him his pain med. The patient was NPO and had a lot of IV BP meds due contantly, in addition to abx and IV Dilaudid, so this was all very timeconsuming, and this student couldn't give anything IV.

The patient was scheduled for a follow up CT scan and had to take oral contrast, and was supposed to go down in an hour after taking it. This student was acting like an annoyingly pro-active family member and became very annoyed when radiology got delayed in by other patients. She insisted I call them even though I told her that they would call when they were ready for the patient, then she was very put out when they didn't come when she expected them, as if they were making her poor patient suffer. The student acted as if I was neglecting her patient. I know she was trying to be an advocate for him, but I needed to prioritize care and had several more pressing issues with other patients. The patient was fine with everything, he'd been in the hospital 15 days and was finally starting to feel a little better.

I told the student that we could change the sheets when he went to CT, but she said that she would be going with him there. She never did let me know that she was taking him, but just took off. She definately wasn't into doing any personal care for this patient. Basically, this student was a thorn in my side all day, I felt. I kept trying to explain some other issues that were going on with patients, but she was disinterested.

Basically, this student was clueless still about the big picture of caring for several patients, and was pushy with me in advocating for her patient, and she definately annoyed me.

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Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.

I'm sorry. I think we've all had experiences like that. I think she means well but like you said "is not getting the big picture". When you have several other patients who are having issues also it's hard to give pain meds consistently every two hours. We all know that there will always be delays with CT scans and other tests. Perhaps it would have been best to speak with her instructor.

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It's hard, sometimes, as a student because your teacher really stays on top of you and being assigned to only one patient for the day makes things hard. I remember when I was in school that if our bedding wasn't changed in the morning we would be in trouble. Our teacher would also make sure that we were constantly "busy" in the room, with one patient for several hours... That gets hard sometimes because you end up in conversation with the pt regarding their care and feel like you need to get answers to each of their questions because you aren't busy with anything else but them. Regarding the pain medicine, if she stated in post conference that the pt had pain and there was a delay in the delivery that the teacher noticed she would have been drilled about it. The teacher would inevitably say that if the nurse she was with was busy with something else she should have advocated for the pt and called the charge nurse. At least that would have been the way it was for me. It was always an awkward situation. All this to say, try not to let it get to you. I know it was frustrating for you, but it probably was for her too.

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Specializes in ICU.

eek. sounds like she'll annoy a few more people when she becomes an rn :icon_roll

while it is hard being a student and not really understanding the bigger picture (yet) the one thing that is important is being able to learn as much as you can from the primary nurse ( you in this case) whom is the experienced one.

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Specializes in LTC, Med/Surg, Peds, ICU, Tele.

I just needed to vent. It was an extremely busy day. I know it's hard to be a student. I didn't like the way this student acted judgmental and pushy with me, however. She was an older student, btw, probably close to my age. I actually think she'll make a decent nurse one day once she gets a clue.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, NICU, Med-Surg.

Maybe the instructor was a little behind the push for the pain meds? I know that my instructors are VERY big on a patient getting their pain meds when they are in pain. I remember seeing some of my classmates being scared that maybe the instructor will think they are not doing their jobs correctly if they do not get the meds to the patient in a timely manner.

All said, sorry you had a time. :icon_hug:

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Specializes in neuro/ortho med surge 4.

I just graduated in May and I know how frustrating it is for both students and nurses. Students are petrified of making a wrong move in clinical and have to rely on either their instructor or the primary nurse to give meds. Sometimes the instructor is with one of their other 7 students and is not available to help the student. The primary nurse on the other hand is extremely busy with his/her other patients and sometimes can not help the student at that particular moment. The student also does not know that the primary nurse has more pressing issues with their other patients.

When I was a student it was the most uncomfortable feeling because you knew the nurses were busy and the last thing they need is a nursing student slowing them down. I always felt like I was bothering the nurses but sometimes there wasn't a choice if the instructor was tied up with other students. I do think the student you are talking about in particular did not need to be annoying. On the other hand I have had to work with some nurses that were just downright hostile towards me and treated me as their nursing assistant. I would say the stress of the job made them that way but it seemed they were nasty every week.

Students should have more than one patient to have a better understanding of what the realities of nursing are.

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Specializes in Pediatrics.

Maybe a dumb question, but where was the instructor?

I know when I teach clinicals, if the RN is too busy to give a pain med, I am glad to do it myself. If the student couldn't administer IV meds, the instructor could have done it while teaching the student.

But at the school where I teach, all students (except for last semester seniors) have an instructor on the floor the entire time of clinical. I guess it isn't like this everywhere.

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Specializes in Cardiac Nursing, ICU.

Sorry that you had a rough day. I guess that's the name of the game. The student nurse, however, will soon understand what's it's like to be in your shoes. I could tell you it takes a while to understand the big picture....and you really don't until you ARE the nurse responsible for your patients.

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I also was wondering where the instructor was, if the patient was in pain, couldn't the instructor have given the med?

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Just FYI - at the hospital where I did my clinicals (and now work), they don't allow instructors or students access to the med Pyxis. One of our CIs was a supervisor at the same hospital, and still couldn't get meds out. We also were not allowed to give IVP meds at all while we were in school, so we had to annoy our nurses every single time our pts needed pain meds, or any other PRN IVs. It wasn't the best situation. I'm sorry this student couldn't have gone about things in a better way though - sounds like she got tunnel vision pretty badly, which I suppose can happen if you always only have one patient (we started taking 2+ in med-surg areas in our first clinical semester). I would assume that her CI was behind a lot of what she was asking for, so the blame probably belongs to more than one person. Hopefully she gets the chance to take care of multiple patients soon, and can realize what it's like to have to prioritize.

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Maybe a dumb question, but where was the instructor?

This is what i'm wondering. As of now I give all my meds with my instructor. Afterwards, I notify the nurse and document it myself. Most of the nurses on my clinical floor love it when the students come in because we really handle our patient by ourselves. This is my first semester of clinicals and i've never asked the nurse to come help me, only the instructor. I don't know why this person can't do IV meds because with only about seven weeks into my clinicals I have given IV meds, done a foley cath, trach care, bed bath, ect., either on my own, or with the help of my instructor.

This student may think they know what is best which is wrong thinking. I never go into clinicals thinking I know more than my nurse, or even a tech. Experience can't be learned by reading from a book.

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