I'm a Jr in a BSN program. I was in open lab today and was trying to help students a year below me insert a foley catheter. I have not done this skill since fundamentals, which was over a year ago, and so I was a bit rusty, and couldn't remember everything 100%. No, this isn't good but I've been so busy just trying to keep up with my Jr Level classes (Med surg etc) to keep up with every single skill I've learned so far.
I haven't gotten to insert one in clinicals yet, either. :/ I know this isn't an excuse but I was in there for the purpose of practicing, so it's not like I wasn't trying to amend the fact that I haven't done it in so long.
Anyways... when I went to set up my sterile field I was a bit awkward with it & one of the students looked at me like I was a complete idiot and was like... so how long has it been since you've done this? I was like, it's been a while. I'm humble enoguh to admit that & would never try to pretend to anyone that I'm not perfect- that's why I'm not a NURSE yet.
It made me feel horrified and very stupid. I said later that I was tired and she was like, why are you tired? And I was like... umm maybe because I was up most of the night writing papers? She just looked at me like "You're an idiot why are you here?"
When I know for a fact that a lot of the people in my class would have been the same way if they had been put in that situation. We have IV skills etc to learn and can't be constantly practicing every skill we learned in fundamentals.
Here, these students are a year below me and are making me look like I don't know jack crap. I feel really horrible about myself now. Yes, I need to work on my skills. That's what I was THERE for. Do people really expect nursing students to remember skills 100% that you learned over a year ago?
I just need some reassurance. It just really bothered me, and I guess it hurt my pride. I don't like how people think that because you're not perfect, you obviously don't know what you're doing, and she acted like I shouldn't be in nursing school.
Has it ever happened to you? Nursing students can be so brutal.
Our lives are not determined by what happens to us but how we react to what happens, not by what life brings us but the attitude we bring to life. Wade Boggs
I can find that quote as "Anon.," and it sure doesn't sound like the Wade Boggs we knew and loved in Boston. :) (and not so much when he went to the Yankees)
I had a classmate that was a new grad that was orienting in an ER who was in our critical care class. She told us that they use amiodarone in sedations when we were talking about cardiac drugs and acted like I was an idiot because I didn't know that. An hour later and talking to an instructor, the instructor and I figured out she screwed up amiodarone with etomidate. The one instructor was hesitant to correct her because she had been out of the field for awhile (used to work surgery) but she didn't think that amiodarone could be used in that way.
Specializes in Medical Surgical/Addiction/Mental Health.
What is the deal with both nurses and students who look down upon someone for not knowing something? Last week, there was a nurse on a unit who got snippy with a group of nursing students for not knowing that Vistaril can be used for anxiety. The sad part is, she hasn’t been a nurse for a year yet. We had a discussion behind closed doors about it. You’re not going to know everything upon graduation. Cardiac nurses are experts in that specialty. ED nurses are experts in the emergency specialty. Psych nurses are experts in the psych specialty. Unless you work every specialty weekly, you can’t possible know everything.
I think it was nice of you to show the students how to insert a Foley in lab. I agree that when you volunteered to do it, certain expectations/ preconceived notions were already made. If I am asked to show someone how to do something, and it has been awhile for me, I always tell the person that it’s been awhile. I then ask around to see if someone else feels comfortable demonstrating the skill or explaining the rationale. If so, I too become a student so that I can re-learn the skill or theory.
Don’t worry about the other student. She will be chewed up and spit out when she lands her first job. No one likes a smart ass.
Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
I had a classmate that was a new grad that was orienting in an ER who was in our critical care class. She told us that they use amiodarone in sedation when we were talking about cardiac drugs and acted like I was an idiot because I didn't know that. An hour later and talking to an instructor, the instructor and I figured out she screwed up amiodarone with etomidate. The one instructor was hesitant to correct her because she had been out of the field for awhile (used to work surgery) but she didn't think that amiodarone could be used in that way.
That is a shame....amiodarone is a anti arrhythmic. It has ABSOLUTELY NO SEDATIVE effects. Your instructor should have corrected her in private after looking up the drug or spoken to that nurses manager.
Amiodarone is generally considered a class III antiarrhythmic drug, but it possesses electrophysiologic characteristics of all four Vaughan Williams classes. Like class I drugs, amiodarone blocks sodium channels at rapid pacing frequencies, and like class II drugs, it exerts a noncompetitive antisympathetic action. One of its main effects, with prolonged administration, is to lengthen the cardiac action potential, a class III effect. The negative chronotropic effect of amiodarone in nodal tissues is similar to the effect of class IV drugs. In addition to blocking sodium channels, amiodarone blocks myocardial potassium channels, which contributes to slowing of conduction and prolongation of refractoriness. The antisympathetic action and the block of calcium and potassium channels are responsible for the negative dromotropic effects on the sinus node and for the slowing of conduction and prolongation of refractoriness in the atrioventricular (AV) node. Its vasodilatory action can decrease cardiac workload and consequently myocardial oxygen consumption.
I think people get snippy because they don't know the answer and become uncomfortable so instead of saying I don't know...they cover it up by being confrontational to avoid further questions.
I had a classmate that was a new grad that was orienting in an ER who was in our critical care class. She told us that they use amiodarone in sedations when we were talking about cardiac drugs and acted like I was an idiot because I didn't know that. An hour later and talking to an instructor, the instructor and I figured out she screwed up amiodarone with etomidate. The one instructor was hesitant to correct her because she had been out of the field for awhile (used to work surgery) but she didn't think that amiodarone could be used in that way.
Thats your fault for not know every single little thing that you have been told.(sarcasm).
Lets be serious, I can barely remember anything about pharmacology. Some people can barely remember things about medsurge.
Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. Now if you dont know to raise the head of the bed up if someone has breathing problems or what the ABCs of nursing are, then you have a problem.
I dont know why some nurse's attack eachother but I always felt we were supposed to be a big family.
Of course family members **** you off sometimes, but you are always there for eachother.
They may try, but it never works. I know I'm just as smart as anyone else in my program. If they feel the need to feel smarter let them! I really don't care. Some people try way to hard and love to act like they're teaching you something;)
Thats your fault for not know every single little thing that you have been told.(sarcasm).
Lets be serious, I can barely remember anything about pharmacology. Some people can barely remember things about medsurge.
Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. Now if you dont know to raise the head of the bed up if someone has breathing problems or what the ABCs of nursing are, then you have a problem.
I dont know why some nurse's attack eachother but I always felt we were supposed to be a big family.
Of course family members **** you off sometimes, but you are always there for eachother.
The issue was that she was wrong about the drug, however in class she acted like I was an idiot for not knowing that it could be used in intubations. In the end though, she was mixing up two very serious and different drugs. So basically, I was correct in the fact that I have never heard of it being used for intubations because it is not and she should not have treated me like an idiot without double checking her facts.
It could potentially be very, very dangerous as usually the RSI kit gets put on the code cart or near it. It doesn't take much for the RSI drugs to fall into the code cart or think the box may have slipped out of the RSI kit.
The instructor didn't have a chance to double check the drug until the break when I asked her about it and we tried to figure out what drug she was mixing it up with because we both realized that it was probably incorrect.
So no, you shouldn't remember every little detail however when you are 100% sure you are correct in a situation and start treating other people like idiots, you should double check your facts first to make sure you are correct.
I feel like most of your feelings are coming from within. Meaning, you're interpreting them as being 'brutal' and letting them get to you. Didn't Eleanor Roosevelt say that no one can make you feel inferior without your consent? Couldn't you have just said something like, "Okay, well in a year when you're where I am now, we'll see if you can remember how to do every skill perfectly." People will put you down if you let them.
Some people are ugly. Some of them are simply thoughtless about the discomfort they may be causing to another person, and some people are just trying to claw their way to the "top" and don't care whom they may step on to get there. I had a girl attempt to do that to me when we had our first group sim and I was assigned a job with which I was unfamiliar. She stood behind me saying "This one doesn't know what to do," and i turned to her and said for the whole room to hear, "My voice works better than yours and I can speak for myself, thanks." And turned to the instructor to say, "Yeah, I'm at a loss... what is my priority here?" It's a clinical simulation and if you can't admit you don't know anything THERE, you're going to be a holy terror on the floor.
nurseprnRN, BSN, RN
1 Article; 5,116 Posts
I can find that quote as "Anon.," and it sure doesn't sound like the Wade Boggs we knew and loved in Boston. :) (and not so much when he went to the Yankees)