I previously posted this in the Men and Nursing forum, but was told it was in the wrong place. So I'll try again.
I am a nurse at a large medical center in Raleigh-Durham, NC. Every Thursday and Friday, a group of students from a local community college come to my unit for clinicals. Overall, the students are wonderful and we are grateful for their help during their clinical time. However, there is one student who greatly stands out from the rest. To put it bluntly, he is downright strange. He spent 10 weeks on my unit over the summer, during which time no one ever saw him display any kind of emotion, empathy, or anything towards his patients, other students, or nurses on the unit. He walks around like he is in a daze, often idly pacing up and down the unit for no apparent reason. I've witnessed him go into patient rooms without even introducing himself, and do shoddy assessments in which he appeared uneasy about touching the patient. I've seen him practically beg other students to help his patients with their ADLs, as he was too embarrassed. In addition, he has made several nurses on the unit uncomfortable with his cold stares, and occasionally strange comments. For example, one morning he walked into the break room, which was full of women, and muttered "yeast infection" and turned bright red from trying to withhold his laughter. That was just strange and inappropriate!!
I've talked to his clinical instructor about this guy's obvious lack of social skills, empathy, and behavior that is almost antisocial in nature. But what worries me most is, how come any school would allow such an inept person to be in the nursing program in the first place. I don't think that he could possibly ever make a good nurse, unless perhaps he was in a clinical setting that required minimal social skills, such as the OR where patients are under anesthesia.
Anyway, sorry for the rant here ... my question for the board is, what do y'all think of this situation? Am I overreacting? Or is there cause for my concern?
