Good future L & D nurse?

[cookie78]

Sorry to start a vent but I had to get it out somewhere...I am a nursing student in my 3rd semester (maternity and pediatrics). I have a particular classmate that always interrups class with personal stories and is very attention needy. The professors have learned to manage her somewhat decently but there are still many times that she derails lecture and we loose so much ground we can't finish (during our psych rotation we all felt as if she used class as group therapy). She is very attention needy and always has a story to top yours. She so desperately wants to be an ob nurse and it is killing her that she is in pediatric clinicals first (we rotate every 8 weeks so the class is split in 2 and we switch from maternity to peds or vice versa halfway.) She has many horror stories and lots of "someone told me" or "my son..." She had every possible complication during her own pregnancy and delivery and we have all heard about it 400 times. Today when she "ratted" on another "bad nurse" from a friend's delivery the instructor responded by saying "we don't want to spread misinformation so lets move along" . Most of the students in class, including me, bow our heads so we can keep from making faces or outright laughing at how out of control she is. Anyway the kicker of all this is that she told me " I hope I get a pre-eclamptic patient who's baby is frank-breech, and needs an emergency c/s...this would be my ideal patient because I could offer her so much since this was what happened to me and the nurses were just bleepity-bleep-bleep rotten." I was just stunned. I didn't know what to say. But I feel that I would never wish these things on anyone for my own benefit or whatever. I also just wanted to yell at her "ITS NOT ABOUT YOU!" and tell her to get some much needed therapy. Anyway sorry to bore you all but I can't help but feel that this person would not necessarily be a benefit to moms-to-be when she hasn't sorted her own issues out. Just looking for what other people's experiences have been...have you encountered these types and does it scare you that they may be ob nurses someday?

[Jolie, BSN]

I couldn't agree with you more! First of all, EVERY nursing class has its "Wacko", and every student and instructor knows who it is. Secondly, these students require very firm management by instructors, and should be kept on a short leash when caring for patients, as they have the potential to cause all kinds of problems.

My worst experience in dealing with a wacko came in the form of a home-health nurse who I couldn't get rid of! At least in the hospital, a patient can request another care-giver, or in an office, the patient can get up and go. But she was in my home, and wouldn't leave!

After having worked in OB/NICU for 11 years, I had a complicated pregnancy and gave birth to a healthy premature girl. She came home from the hospital with me, but became jaundiced, requiring phototherapy. I requested home phototherapy, which my ped OK'd, and was offered a home visit once daily during her treatment to have a nurse assess her and draw bilis. Sounded good, until Nurse Wacko arrived on my door step.

I chose not to reveal my profession to the home care agency, as I didn't want them to assume that I could handle everything on my own. I wanted to receive the same care and education that any other parent would receive. Apparently, I sounded a little too knowledgable during my interview with the nurse, as she asked if I was a pediatrician. I answered, "No," and continued our conversation. She then quizzed me. Was I a lab tech, dietician, respiratory therapist..... I finally told her that I was a NICU nurse. Big mistake. She spent the next 2 hours going on and on about her schooling, job experiences, employment problems, childhood sexual abuse and how that made it impossible for her to care for laboring women.... I wanted to scream, "I don't give a hoot about you!" She gave my daughter a cursory exam, and asked me to critique her heel-stick technique. She ignored every polite hint I gave that it was time for her to go. I'm usually pretty direct in dealing with people, but being sleep-deprived and hormonal, I put up with far more than I should have.

Finally, my hubby and older daughter woke up from napping and came downstairs to she that the nurse was still there. Hubby got rid of her, and I immediately called the agency and reported her conduct. To their credit, they didn't charge for the visit. But she went a looooong way in damaging the agency's reputation, in my mind, as your classmate is likely to do to your school and any hospital she is affiliated with.

[cookie78]

Wow Jolie,

That is really unfortunate that the nurse decided you were her personal counselor...I feel that it is so unprofessional tell personal life/ work related experience stories to the patients. Also she was there to support YOU right? A major block to therapeutic communication is telling your patients personal information. Its funny sometimes I am hesitant to tell my nurses and doctors that I am a student because I think it changes how they conduct their care, and it does open them up to the opportunity to "talk shop". I do agree that the unfortunate thing is my classmate may give us a bad rep. I'm sure it more than a little codependent but we are all embarrassed for her and are fearful of the guilt by association. Thank you for responding and sharing your story I really needed to know that I am not the only person out there with this problem, and that I wasn't just being heartless...there really are genuine wakkos. I mean this genuinely...I just realized it might seem sarcastic since I was dogging storytellers...but this is the proper place. It isn't as though I don't want to hear stories, just when it is appropriate.

[truern]

Cookie, I had to look twice at your location to make sure we aren't in the same class :)

There must be a whacko in every nursing class!! Unfortunately, we have several in our class, and I can count on them to disrupt every single lecture with some personal story...and then there's the student that's always trying to impress the instuctors with her vast knowledge

No advice...just wanted you to know you're not alone

[MommyLauraRN]

You should tell her Siberia has high pre-ecclamptic, breech, & C-Section rates! :rotfl:

[BETSRN]

The floor nurss will take care of her. if she pops off around a specific labor patient, the nurse caring for that patient will hopefully be on top of it. Boy, I would LOVE to come up against a student like that.

[cookie78]

I am so glad to hear all the support you have offered me! TrueSN yes it is frustrating when students ask questions that they know the answer to just to "show off", equally frustrating are the ones who ask questions easily answered if they are keeping up with homework, but I would take the true clarification or reading questions over the show offs anyday. I will have to mention a trip to Siberia as a grad present (it might be worth the money to get here out of the country so she can see that there are other people in the world with more drama than her.) MommyLaura...just out of curiosity what increases Siberian's chances of PIH is it genetic or climate related? thanks again everyone and keep the wakko stories coming I can't help but find so much more humor in them now than ever!

[rnmi2004]

I think MommyLaura's Siberia comment was tongue-in-cheek...

We have one of those in our rotation. She monopolizes post-conference and everything gets related back to her experience that day, or back when she had her baby, or her friend's boyfriend's mom's neighbor's situation. It is very annoying for the rest of us. Our instructor (who is very nice & very green) has been putting up with it for a week, but today finally cut her off and moved on to a different subject.

[EmilyCCRN]

We have a student in our class who is CONSTANTLY sharing stories about her relative who is very sick. She talks about it in nearly every class. "When my [relative] was in the hospital, I..." And then "when my [relative] came home from the hospital, I..." And every time she prefaces it with "my [relative] has [illness]", like we haven't heard the last 30 stories about the person. I'm sure she's very upset having to go through this, but maybe she should see a counselor instead of taking up our class time with her personal problems.

[shay]

My skin was just CRAWLING reading your OP and Jolie's post about the hh nurse from hell. Yick.

The others are correct, every graduating class has their nutjob. Said nutjob always has the loudest mouth and knows something about everything and has either experienced everything or knows a 2nd cousin's wife's best friend's babysitter's sister who did. And they tend to use every lecture, pre conference, post conference, and clinical as their personal therapy session. :rotfl: Very annoying.

She will get smacked down pretty quickly on the unit, have no fear. Especially if she rolls in there with that kind of attitude and tries to drag her personal baggage with her. And saying that her labor nurses were "just bleepity-bleep-bleep rotten" is no way to win friends and influence people, kwim?

I was blessed with a wise OB instructor who, at the beginning of each semester, told each class that what happened when you/your wife/sister/partner had a baby was irrelevant, your patient could care less, her labor was about HER, not about YOU or your experiences. I loved her for that. :)

She does indeed sound like she has big time issues and is in need of some counseling and maybe a nice SSRI or two. Don't worry, she'll get smacked (figuratively, of course) in clincal by either the nurses or your instructor or both. That kind of attitude and behavior is NOT tolerated.

I don't tell my patients about my pregnancy/labor/birth/postpartum unless they specifically ASK, and then I only give the specific (read: brief) answer to the question they asked. Jolie, that was an absolute nightmare, and good for you for reporting that freak!!! Omg, how DARE she do that to you!!! Bleah!!!

[shay]

One more suggestion....you or one of your classmates could "accidentally" mention allnurses when she's within earshot. Maybe she'll come here, naturally go straight to the OB forum, and recognize herself in your post. Seeing what we all have to say about her behavior might be a rude awakening.

[SmilingBluEyes]

She is setting herself up for a good lesson in "the real world" . Trust me.