On our second day of clinicals the nurse on the floor was the nastiest person I have ever met! Our clinical instructor told us if we had any questions or problems and couldn't find her to ask the nurse that she would help us. Well when we first met this nurse, she gave all of us the meanest look possible. When we asked her if it was ok to find her if we had any questions so she could help us, she gave another mean look and said "With What" very sarcastically.
Needless to say, we drove our instructor crazy bc we wouldn't ask the nurse anything! Our instructor told us to kill her with kindness, but this didn't work, she was just miserable. This made our clinical experience pretty miserable.
Reading this thread reminded me of clinical the other day.
We were talking with the instructor and she said you KNOW you better turn and RUN if you hit the floor (as a student) and the nurses greet you with HUGE smiles, telling you they have a great "learning experience" for you today. She said if they are ever REALLY excited to see the students, you know you are in for something really ...um...exciting! :chuckle
So, hey, maybe it's a good thing when they are not all that happy to see us! :wink2:
This is JMHO... I believe already licensed nurses think they are above any nursing student, newly licensed nurse, etc.
Oh, that's absolutely true! I am more experienced, have more knowledge, and know my unit. On the other hand, students tend to mess up my day by doing things like--true story--giving dig to patients whose apical pulse is 40, necessitating a stay in ICU.
only because they see others as a threat to them and their stability.
No, not a threat to me. But a potential threat to my patients by virtue of their inexperience. That infringes on my territory somewhat because I am licensed, the student is not, yet I'm responsible legally for my patient.
LOL As if no one is good enough to be a nurse but them... a somewhat elitist attitude. NOW that's a thought. GET IT?!?! GOOD LUCK!!! I know I am brutally honest and I wish to keep it that way. Thanks for this post.
I appreciate your honesty and I hope you now have a clue as to where we nurses are really coming from. Here's a hint:
Actually, I don't think it is as complicated as that. I don't know any nurses working with me who see nursing students as a "threat to them and their stability". I really think we are just tired. Just plain mentally, emotionally, and physically tired. Which for some people manifests as grumpiness, or impatience, or "please just leave me alone". It takes extra energy and time to work with a student, to explain every thing you are doing, instead of just doing it; I try to keep my feelings to myself, and if the student is eager to work and learn, it brings me more into a "teaching" mode. One problem in our unit is that the instructors basically drop off the students and we, the staff, are solely responsible for teaching them. Their instructor is not around, probably has students all over, and is not experienced herself in our specialty. Also, the students I have the most impatience with, are the ones who have done no reading whatsoever on their patient's problems; they want me to lecture them and feed them everything--"tell me all about XYZ". I ask them to look it up--we have good up-to-date books on the unit--and then I will answer any questions that they have.
I'm not making excuses for rude behavior. Rudeness is not excuseable. But if the staff aren't acting all joyful that the students are there, just do your best, show that you don't mind working and that you want to learn, and that you are willing to do the prep work---reading about it--too.
I agree...no excuse for rudeness..betting the nurses with the mean/nasty attitudes are STRESSED beyond belief. Just as there are nasty nurses, there are nasty students...works both ways..give me the student who knows the pts history and is willing to work and learn..you can keep the one who wants you to do everything for him /her and doesn't want to put forth any effort..with the pt loads we have today , that makes it hard on everyone.
It takes extra energy and time to work with a student, to explain every thing you are doing, instead of just doing it the instructors basically drop off the students and we, the staff, are solely responsible for teaching them. Their instructor is not around, probably has students all over, and is not experienced herself in our specialty. Also, the students I have the most impatience with, are the ones who have done no reading whatsoever on their patient's problems; they want me to lecture them and feed them everything--"tell me all about XYZ".
Agree 100%. Last year my ward had four weeks out of 52 without students of some kind. For all that I think clinicals are a vital component of nursing education, it's exhausting to have the work of education on top of my other duties (which already include educating staff, patients and family).
Some students are a delight to work with - they're prepared, they do the work, they ask questions and they pay attention. Most of all, they can tell when a good time to talk is.
However, there are also the students who think they're above performing basic care (because "I did that on my last placement/yesterday"), who are third years and can't be trusted to take a set of obs, who can't understand that the middle of a code isn't the best time to ask questions of the staff running the code, and that includes the ICU reg! I'm sure there aren't any students like that here, but after coming across that over and over, one sometimes waits to see what kind of student is assigned before going the extra mile.
A few years ago I had a final year student - the ward is an acute, tertiary medical specialty unit. I had five patients (pre-ratios), including a diabetic end-stage renal patient on overnight peritoneal dialysis (demanding, going home around 1030), a diabetic woman with an AKA going to hyperbaric at 0815, a newly-diagnosed HIV-positive patient recovering from pneumonia and depression (unbeknownst to her, her ex was an in-denial bisexual), and a really unwell haemodialysis patient.
I was on the evening shift the day before, and I knew the night nurse had an awful shift; I also knew my morning was going to be fairly full on. So I said "We'll just do a really brief handover, then get into the work. I'll go over everything with you after nine, but right now this is more important."
As I start checking sugars and getting out meds, she sits at the satellite station (outside the patients' rooms) and starts writing up a history on all the patients. I say "I know that this is important for school, but I need to get all of this done right away."
The renal patients need their meds with food, the diabetics need sugars and insulin before breakfast (which arrives at 07:30), and they all need obs (she "already knows" how to so obs). I check my AKA woman's BSL and draw up her insulin; the student asks if she can give it, so I go in with her (we single-check at my hospital). She started to depress the plunger before the needle pierced the skin and, before I could stop her, injected the rest, so my patient got some of the dose sub-cut and some of it transdermally! Before I could do anything the orderly arrived to take her to hyperbaric - (some) insulin on board, no breakfast, and it's 0740.
Long story short (too late?!) despite my assuring her that once these AM things were out of the way I'd help her with any requirements she had (eg this history taking), she kept sitting down and asking inappropriate questions (like "how did Ms X get HIV?" in very loud voice, within earshot of four patients including Ms X) and doing nothing.
When her clinical teacher came around I explained that there weren't any patients who were appropriate for her to take - they were either too complex, self caring, or off the ward, so she was moved up to the next group.
She kept wanting to help make the bed of an ambulant patient; although the RN with her told her this was not a priority, she went off to do it while the patient was in the shower. The RN found her in the corridor - she had left a contracted, vulnerable vCJD patient in bed, naked and uncovered (they were supposed to be setting up for a bed bath), rails down and bed elevated.
While this is by far the most extreme example, I've worked with other students who showered patients will their IV pumps in the shower stall (unrepairable, according to biomed),a nd one who complained because the patient kicked her - he was ambulant and oriented, so the RN in the area ran into the room to find the patient blue, clutching his throat and gasping. After she Heimliched the toast across the room, the RN said "He was choking!" The student said "I won't stand to be kicked." (The patient's foot made contact with her ankle as he was writhing).
Like I said, I'm sure you're all more competent than this, and previous posters are right to say that this doesn't excuse rudeness. I've worked with some outstanding students, and I really enjoy having the opportunity to teach. Just please keep in mind that supporting and educating you is not our main priority - patient care is.
it must work very differently in some places. We don't have NEARLY the level of involvement with the nurses that some of you seem to have with students.
Until we precept for an 8 week rotation in our senior year, the only real contact/communication we have with the nurses is report, and a few questions that come up specific to the agency that the instructor may not be familiar with.
If I was a nurse and had to be "in charge" of students 40 plus weeks a year, I think I would pull my hair out!
it must work very differently in some places. We don't have NEARLY the level of involvement with the nurses that some of you seem to have with students.
Until we precept for an 8 week rotation in our senior year, the only real contact/communication we have with the nurses is report, and a few questions that come up specific to the agency that the instructor may not be familiar with.
If I was a nurse and had to be "in charge" of students 40 plus weeks a year, I think I would pull my hair out!
Thanks everyone for your input! Some of the other nurses there were very sweet to us, unfortunately we weren't really dealing with them. In answer to one of the post, all the students were with their patients most of the time, we even did more than we were suppose to, because we aren't suppose to do any procedures that we haven't done in the college lab. This particular nurse was nasty before we even started, when we went to the floor and our instructor spoke to this nurse she had a nasty attitude
and our instructor looked at us shocked. But as everyone has said on this post, not all nurses should be judged by this one!
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LeesieBug
717 Posts
Reading this thread reminded me of clinical the other day.
We were talking with the instructor and she said you KNOW you better turn and RUN if you hit the floor (as a student) and the nurses greet you with HUGE smiles, telling you they have a great "learning experience" for you today. She said if they are ever REALLY excited to see the students, you know you are in for something really ...um...exciting! :chuckle
So, hey, maybe it's a good thing when they are not all that happy to see us! :wink2: