RN's, what would you like to see from Student Nurses?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

You are reading page 2 of RN's, what would you like to see from Student Nurses?

vashtee, RN

1,065 Posts

Specializes in DOU.

Speaking as a new nurse, I want to add that there are many things I used to get to do as a student that are now delegated to CNAs, and I wish I could do it myself. Obviously, it would be a better learning experience to put a foley in or start an IV, but you WILL get lots of practice with that when you are a nurse. As a student, you will have the TIME to make a lasting impact. You can talk to a patient, give them a bit of emotional support, set them up for bathing, make them feel human. Once you are working, you won't have a lot of time for that, so enjoy it.

MedSurgeMess

985 Posts

Specializes in Med/Surg, ICU, educator.

I love students, in fact I teach clinicals on a prn basis. A couple more for the students:

Don't roll your eyes at the staff at the hospital. Chances are, the instructor knows the staff and will hear about it. It will make a very bad representation of you, and other instructors at school will hear about it as well. You will not have a good reputation as a team player. And no one needs to know that the menial task is beneath you; we all wipe butts on a regular basis!

Be pleasant. You may have a headache or be tired, but if you feel that bad, stay home! The patients want to be taken care of, not have to hear someone else's problems.

Lastly, if you don't know something, ask. We'd rather have to tell you how to do it than to have to undo it then tell you how it should have been done correctly the first time.

Specializes in Peri-op/Sub-Acute ANP.

Even if it is not the specialty you "know" you want to be in when you graduate, please pretend like you are happy to be there and want to learn something.

catshowlady

393 Posts

Specializes in ICU.

Please do not sit around in the nurses' station, especially a bunch of you. Most nurses' stations have limited chairs and computers at which to sit & chart. If you are charting, that's absolutely fine, but if you aren't, please make sure you are not in the way of someone else charting.

I understand that you need the chart to do your work, but *please* make sure the unit coordinator or the nurse knows where the chart is. I do not enjoy spending 30min looking for a chart, especially when the doctor is breathing down my neck about finding it *now*.

Answer the call light. Anybody's call light. Please. You have no idea how helpful that is.

vicarious

19 Posts

Remember that you will get out of the experience what you put into it.

DON'T be a know-it-all (nobody likes a know-it-all, especially one who isn't licensed)

DO ask questions (when appropriate)

and 2 good rules of thumb:

1. treat the patient as you would treat your mother/grandmother/loved one

2. if you aren't sure, ASK. (e.g., Don't just act like you know how to pull a Foley because you want to do it. I appreciate your eagerness, but the patient won't.)

and some more advice..

you are no doubt going to encounter RNs who are not a good example. it will be EASY to emulate their practices. challenge yourself to be the best. sure the right way is sometimes the hard way. but remember, it is the right way. take pride in your work and the care that you are providing--even as a student. I have found nursing to be both a rewarding and at the same time a frustrating field..on a related note, nursing can be stressful, please forgive any bad attitudes you may encounter as a student nurse. Just grin and bear it, and thank God you don't work there :lghmky:

vicarious

19 Posts

Also, don't talk about your patients. It is so tempting when you are with your clinical group to start talking about your patient and all the things you did for him. But what if the woman taking the elevator with you, even if she is hospital staff, just happens to be his sister? Of course you weren't gossiping about him, but that information really is confidential. Even if you aren't saying his name, how would you feel if you got onto an elevator full of giddy students hearing about how you did this and that and then when you get to your brother's room you find that he was the subject of discussion in the elevator?

Another tip-do NOT write down your patient's last name down, and if you are going to print something out, make ABSOLUTELY sure you are cutting his name off. There was a story about a nursing student at my school who lost a full report sheet--name, dx, and everything--on campus from a patient she had. A good samaritan, figuring it was property of a nursing student, found it and turned it into the nursing office. Yeah, I would be lying if I said that I knew what the ending to this story is, but I could just see this happening to me--bottom line, cut the names off and use initials if necessary.

Lastly, maybe others will agree with me on this one, but you will find that most of the "cooool" things that you learn in skills labs or whatever (e.g. injections, blood draws, IVs, NG insertions, Foleys, fingersticks, etc.) are really NOT that big of a deal once you get to the meat of your program. I remember being so excited to give a SQ shot or an accucheck at first. Ha. Fine tune your assessment skills. Keep your old assessments for fun (SANS patient identifiers, of course) and look back every year at how much you have grown.

vashtee, RN

1,065 Posts

Specializes in DOU.

Answer the call light. Anybody's call light. Please. You have no idea how helpful that is.

Speaking of this, make sure you ask about the call light system. I didn't even know what a call light was until half way through my first rotation! No one bothered to explain it.

Also, be careful about doing something so simple as to give a patient who is thirsty some water. The first call light I answered was for a stroke victim who wasn't allowed to drink water unless it was thickened, but I didn't know it (who would think it?). Fortunately, a sympathetic CNA came to my rescue before I did any damage.

Here's another useful tip: during my first semester, I found the CNAs to be much more patient with me than the nursing staff. After all, during the first semester, you won't be allowed to do most of the skills you will be learning about in school independently. If you have down time, it is a good idea to offer to help the CNAs. They don't spend much time in nursing school focusing on this aspect of work, but you WILL be doing it later.

Likewise, if you find a friendly nurse, you can ask if s/he minds if you shadow them for the day once your own work is done. To be honest, I never did this with the unfriendly nurses (and yes, there ARE some of those out there).

yazzy26

8 Posts

This is a great post! I too will be starting my clinical rotations in the Fall in NYC and I am just terrified that I will 1)be "left out" of performing such tasks (I hear that before you are allowed to do ANYTHING you MUST FIRST get your clinical instructor's permission and in some cases, they even have to observe you performing whatever task/procedure it is...) and 2) being overwhelmed and "unprepared" to do tasks and procedures.

Right now I simply volunteer and I find it frustrating that all I am allowed to do is stock PPE boxes, serve trays, and fill water pitchers. I wish I could do more, but I know it's learning process and I will definetly be printing all of the replies here to remind myself how I can be helpful and make the clinical experience the best it can be!

thanks all.

tlc2u

226 Posts

RN's what would you like to see from student nurses?

When I was in nursing school my nurses were either very busy and did not have much to say (never heard anything negative from my nurses) or they were less busy and occasionally took a second to express their appreciation of whatever the student was able to help with.

As students we had so much paperwork required to turn in to our nursing instructor we were all focused on (Clinical Instructor, how can I be successful in clinicals) that we had little time to worry about how much could we be helpful to the nurses.

Although we felt we were being helpful to the nurses with the patient care we were giving; our main focus was caring for our patients, quickly providing our nurse with necessary information and then making sure we completed all the requirements of our "Clinical Instructor."

If there are any CI's on this board I think an interesting question would be, "CI's, What would you like to see from student nurses? or what advice do they have for being successful in clinicals.

Specializes in ICU.

Wow...with some of this stuff, I'm really shocked that it's necessary to point it out. Scarfing down donuts that were gifted to the nursing staff? Eye-rolling in response to reasonable requests? Yikes.

But then some other things, seem to be just a liiiiiiittle over the top - like, don't touch the window in a car you're riding in without asking? I'd most likely ask before cracking a window to get some air out of courtesy ("Hey, you mind if I roll this down?"), but daaaaamn, Gina. Letting your finger slip from that hyper environmental control button for just a second won't cause the world to come crashing down around you, I promise!

shoegalRN, RN

1,338 Posts

I love students, but they don't often come to our PACU because we are too busy and learning is very difficult.

I have to say, though, that if they are willing to "hang" with us, and don't mind our craziness, it's great for them.

I did part of my Capstone in the PACU and I loved it! I would rather work there, after I've gotten a year of ICU experience. It was a great learning experience and the nurses were all wonderful! They didnt have students over there very often, but they all took well to me. I was told I have a great work ethic because I really enjoyed learning and I would take every opportunity to learn when I could. I also went around to each bay asking the nurses could I help with something, as little as getting a warm blanket, or a cup of ice, the nurses really appreciated it. I also assisted with transporting patients and offered to do that alot, because it would leave the nurses available for the next patient. I wish I would have done my entire Capstone over there.

RosalindRN

43 Posts

overall I like students and I can remember being a student and feeling unappreciated by the nurses on certain units. I also felt like I couldnt be trusted. We also use to bad mouth the nurses over small things they didnt do or how short they were with their patients. Now that I am a nurse I can see how I didnt have all the facts as a student. I got really ****** off at a student for questioning me about medicating a pt before doing a dressing change. I was already mad at the doc because he came in and removed a wound vac off of the patient without any prior notice and just left the wound open and the lady was screaming her head off. I gave her pain meds but it wasnt gonna help her when she was already in pain before he ripped it off and he left her wound exposed. The student got cocky with me and was like" Youre not gonna give her more pain meds". Okay fisrt of all she is a renal pt and if I give a bunch of meds to a 100lb renal pt it will eventually catch up with her and knock her out or worse. And secondly, her pain is important but covering up this gaping wound before she bleeds to death is my main concern right now. I dont mind you asking me questions but I can do without the attitude because I feel like I have been doing the work to make the decisions. Even after you pass the NCLEX and spend the next 5 years working with 7 pts every night for 3 12 hour shifts, I still will not appreciate your cocky attitude. I dont even tolerate that off my own co-workers.

+ Add a Comment