How do Nursing Instructors deal with this? Clinical site RNs don't want us around

bekindtokittens · Sep 20, 2008

I'm sorry you're having a bad first clinical experience.

My first clinical site was very similar. Much attitude. I quickly learned to kill everyone with kindness. I may have been smiling to them, but in my mind, I was on Animal Kingdom showing them my teeth!

The nurses were even rude to my clinical instructor. She knew about the situation and did her best to help us get the experiences we needed. But there's not a lot an instructor can do. If your area is like mine, trying to get clinical sites is very hard, because several schools compete for spaces.

My advice is just get a calendar and a big black marker, and count down the days with a smile. Just think how great your next experience will be compared to this one!

Flames9_RN, BSN, RN, EMT-B · Sep 20, 2008

Last year on our very first clinical day we ran into a group nurse. Our instructor put us in pairs --being the first day---So me and my partner tracked down the RN and introduced ourselves, stated this was our very FIRST day and we had been assigned one of her patient to do AM care and did she have any advice for us? She said nope and immediately walked away! Nice introduction,lol Luckily she has been the only true %&&*^ that I have dealt with. majority of RN's have been great. I just filed that experience in my pocket and stated I will never be like that! If one treats their own kind like that, how do they treat their patients? Just do your best and don't let them get you down, don't stoop to their level! And maybe they are having a bad day or year,lol

flightnurse2b, LPN · Sep 20, 2008

there is one nurse at our clinical site who absolutely hates nursing students and refuses to deal with us. my instructor has even spoken with her and she seems to have gotten even more prickly since then.

my instructor has simply given up on assigning us with any of her patients. there are other nurses there who want us to learn and who are more than happy to teach us and give us opportunities to get our check offs completed. one of them has even become a close friend of mine and she has agreed to be our speaker at graduation!

kill them with kindness and wow them with your skills. and if you still get no response, stick with the PCT. a good tech can sometimes teach you more than a nurse can... i've made friends with two of the techs on the floor i am doing my preceptorship on. i go and find them when i have downtime and knock out a couple of their fingersticks or baths, and they seek me out to not only thank me but offer me their help with my patients in return. it worked out well.... they told their boss how much they love me and she's offered me a job upon graduation!

it's funny how some nurses forget that they were once the scared, green nursing student who was always in the way. i guess they forgot how it felt.

good luck to you, you will get through it, and remember for every unkind nurse, you can find 10 more that are more than happy to help you learn!

chicagrl · Sep 20, 2008

thanks for your replies. It almost seems as if the system is broken and I was not sure if it was just my school, this hospital or what?

I really like and even admire my instructor. I feel bad for her ..she seems very qualified and so far is GREAT . I have had professors in other areas who know the material but don't know how to teach it. I don't get that vibe from her. She is still practicing in the ER - registry but not at this hospital. She does not seem to have any kind of "in" with these nurses and they are definitely not helping her out. She has maintained a professional presence but I think maybe she is annoyed as well. This is her first year as a full time instructor. HELP

how do we fix a broken system ?

I wonder if i can xpost this in nursing instructor forum???? any ideas

I will kill them with kindness but i can't really show off my skills...I just got checked off on bed baths. Many of us have taken CNA course in the past but not necessarily utilized the skills we learned . It is not a requirement to have a CNA license for our 2 year program as I know it is for some . We are a very "willing to learn" group. A lot of adult learners and not too many with the attitude of "i am already THIS so I am sure i can be a nurse" . most people are generally in this program for a reason (it is so hard to get into as i think all are )

I will continue to be kind but when i really don't *know* anything it is hard to have that mentality. I would have loved to have really chatted with my pt today therefore probably gleaning LOTS of info but i was so worried about THERAPEUTIC conversation and HIPPA that i was so STERILE ..like i needed to say the right thing...i think if i had just been myself i would have gotten a lot more info. UGH

Melinurse · Sep 20, 2008

I can't speak for other nurses but, I love to have student nurses around. :heartbeat I have not been a RN for long, but even as an LPN I loved to see the students. The other RNs at my facility also really truely do love having the students there. So sorry you are at a facility where they don't nurture our future. Good luck with your clinicals and like someone else said, if the nurses don't help you look for the tech. :heartbeat

BlueRidgeHomeRN · Sep 20, 2008

my nurses' reactions to students varies by the students' knowledge and behavior. well prepared students who get things done are always welcome. we know you are here to learn...but we expect certain basic knowledge. students who haven't learned the fundamentals..... "where do you take a radial pulse?" "what does a prn order mean?"...or who show up late, sloppy, and glued to their cell phones..are just more trouble than they are worth.

while many students are great, the least prepared are frequently young, traditional aged students. the 31 year olds with 2 kids and a part time job usually seem to still pull it all together. :yeah:

AOx1 · Sep 21, 2008

It really depends on what semester the students are in as to how closely I shadow them. The newer they are to nursing, the more 1:1 time I spend with them. As for unpleasant staff members, I don't knowingly assign students to them. If the majority of staff members are unpleasant, I would attempt to discuss expectations with the person in charge. For example, if students have always given all the am care, but you want your students to practice assessment on a given day, make sure the staff is aware ahead of time. Communication works out most issues. I talk to the people in charge well ahead of the clinical day so we can come to understandings of what will happen. If all else fails, I try to support my students as much as possible, and if the experience does not seem worthwhile, to move locations. But honestly, it's usually a few bad apples OR the place is such a miserable place to work that the employees are venting their frustrations on anyone they consider "weaker" than themselves....NOT ok. But 99% of the sites I've been to have been fantastic! I know the staff by name, try to get to know which love students, ask after their children and grandchildren, etc. Building relationships takes a long time. The longer I'm at a facility, the better the relationship and it seems, the better the experience for my students.

whiteoleander5 · Sep 21, 2008

my nurses' reactions to students varies by the students' knowledge and behavior. well prepared students who get things done are always welcome. we know you are here to learn...but we expect certain basic knowledge. students who haven't learned the fundamentals..... "where do you take a radial pulse?" "what does a prn order mean?"...or who show up late, sloppy, and glued to their cell phones..are just more trouble than they are worth.
while many students are great, the least prepared are frequently young, traditional aged students. the 31 year olds with 2 kids and a part time job usually seem to still pull it all together.

i feel like there is a stigma on young nursing students, and this coming from someone who is one. but i understand why. i'm only 20, and most of the people in my classes are well into their 30's. i feel like because i'm so young, and not only inexperienced in nursing but inexperienced in life in general, i have something more to prove than the older students. i can sometimes sense that the older students think they are superior to me, and i am trying to change that.. but i still feel like a child (yet dont act like one..) around them. thankfully, i do not talk on my cell phone, i do know where to take a radial pulse, and i know what prn means. i guess i'm in good shape...:loveya:

myrose · Sep 21, 2008

I am a first semester student too. I'm sorry, but I do not think we should have to put up with "those" type of nurses. I pay very good money to go to school and learn, not to be harassed or put off by people in the hospital. We are gonna be there, we are gonna learn. I hate to sound harsh towards them but I am there to learn and get a grade. I am not going to get intimidated by some nurse who was once in my shoes.

chicagrl · Sep 21, 2008

my nurses' reactions to students varies by the students' knowledge and behavior. well prepared students who get things done are always welcome. we know you are here to learn...but we expect certain basic knowledge. students who haven't learned the fundamentals..... "where do you take a radial pulse?" "what does a prn order mean?"...or who show up late, sloppy, and glued to their cell phones..are just more trouble than they are worth.
while many students are great, the least prepared are frequently young, traditional aged students. the 31 year olds with 2 kids and a part time job usually seem to still pull it all together.

okay so therein lies the problem? i am just really confused . i am the person you just described but we are all so green . start clinicals from the beginning. this is our 3rd week in school and in clinical. maybe our school is doing it all wrong. that is what one pct told us. she has seen other students from other colleges who are more on their game...well they are probably not 1st year 1st semester students....duh ...so how do i deal with this ?

thanks for your reply btw :) i totally understand not wanting to deal with the slacker type newbie acting student.....but these days i wonder how many of those types are allowed into nursing school??????????????? my program is asn/adn but it is hard to get into.....all of us seem to really have our stuff together. we are wondering if maybe we made the wrong choice by choosing an adn program ...i feel it is probably like this a lot of places ...

Bortaz, MSN, RN · Sep 21, 2008

My school ended their agreement with one of our local hospitals because of the way my class was treated in our first semester clinical rotation.

We had nurses that absolutely told us not to even talk to them, refused us access to their patients, one RN wouldn't even let my clinical instructor enter the room of one her patients (My CI is an employee of the same hospital). They would answer no questions, would talk about how "in the way" we were, and how "annoying it is to have these &(^$ students underfoot all the time!", even talk about us while we were standing right there beside them at the bedside.

Most of my classmates are youngsters who were afraid to make a peep. I, on the other hand, am a grown man who has spent 15 years of my life working on death row in the Texas prison system, and refused to be talked down to by those assholish, ignorant nimrods.

We reported the behavior for several weeks to our instructor, to no avail. We were simply told to "deal with it, and vow to never be that way when we become nurses."

I don't think so, Sunshine. No one has the right to be an arrogant ignoramus, and take advantage of young, scared, new nursing students.

Before you could say "don't do it!", I'd told 2 or 3 of them off (with my CI and the nurse supervisor standing there), reported their behavior to the hospital administrator and the person with whom my school had an agreement, and was in my Nursing Program Directors office, telling her to move me to another hospital immediately before they all got told off.

The director's response was "I'm not raising you students to be walked on by anyone...other nurses, doctors, patients, or family members. Leave this to me, and I'll handle it. Of course, I'd have preferred you to be a little less straightforward in your handling of the stress, but...you seem to have gotten their attention!"

A few weeks later, we were told "We no longer will be sending students to ABC Hospital. I sure hope they can continue to meet their staffing needs in the future."