I am a second year nursing student enrolled in a consortium. Our nursing program is somewhat unusual in that we take our first year courses at one school and our second year courses are at another school, which is 2-3 hours away, depending on where we live. I really enjoyed my first year of nursing school. Now? I hate it. HATE IT.
We have 3 new instructors at the new school. I feel like I'm spending my day with strangers. None of the instructors even know our names unless we are in their clinical group. We have about 40 students so its not like there are hundreds of us. They haven't shown any interest in getting to know us either. One of them is a complete OCD control freak and everything is her way or the highway. Another has only been out of nursing school for 3 years and he's already "teaching", if you can call it that. He spends 99% of his time goofing around and cracking jokes. You can forget about getting a straight answer out of him and with all his goofing, one can never be sure when he's serious and when he isn't. The third behaves as if she is in the early stages of dementia.
Before we went to this other school, we were told that our driving situation (remember, its 2-3 hours) would be taken into consideration. They must have considered it for about 30 seconds, if at all. They scheduled our clinicals in such a way that carpooling is difficult and often, impossible. I have a reasonably efficient car and a trip there and back runs me about $25 in gas and we go 4 times a week. I'm slightly employed but most of us aren't employed at all and there are a lot of single mothers in our class.
We drive these 4 to 6 hours a day to listen to the control freak READ every single word of the powerpoints to us. We don't have any kind of class discussions and even comments and questions seem to be discouraged. I am learning not a single thing from these "lectures". In fact, I feel as if I haven't learned a single thing from these bobble heads the entire time we've been at this school. We can sit at home and read the PowerPoints and save $100 a week in gas money!
And then there are clinicals. I can't speak to the other clinical groups because I'm not in them, but ours is useless. Do you see a trend here? We are on a floor that consists of hospice patients and old people with lung issues. That's it. No variety, nothing. The nurses on the floor are assigned anywhere from 7-10 patients every single day so they certainly don't have time to teach us anything or hardly even let us watch anything. I was assigned to a nurse ONCE. She just graduated from nursing school, she said she hated being a nurse, and was completely frazzled with the patient load. We went to give IV meds and she mentioned checking for compatibility but because the computers were down, she didn't bother to consult a paper drug guide and gave the meds without checking. Excellent learning right there.
So, in a nut shell, we drive 4-6 hours a day to stand around in the hospital hall and wait for something to happen, or for the day to end. I asked my clinical instructor to listen to my patient's lungs to help me understand what I was hearing. His response? "No, it doesn't matter what I hear. Everyone is going to hear different things." Really? Thanks, that was helpful. We get the same d**n speech from him EVERY SINGLE MORNING about how "we'll pitch in and help the CNA's because that's what we're there for". Now, I don't mind helping, I'm a CNA myself, but that is NOT what I am there for. I am there to learn to be a registered nurse. I don't appreciate all this traveling and getting up at 3 am to do CNA stuff. Bed baths? That's all we did the first 2 weeks we were there. I have managed to avoid that since but a lot of my classmates are doing CNA skills and nothing else.
I am just sick of it. Its a waste of time, money, gas, and its all completely useless. I enjoyed nursing school at the beginning but now I'm just marking time waiting for it to end.
Allow me to reiterate, I ABSOLUTELY DO NOT mind doing CNA duties and I am aware that I may be doing it on the job. But for RIGHT now, I need to be learning to be a REGISTERED NURSE. That is what I am investing all this time and money in. I've been a CNA since 1995. I've got that. I do not need a speech every single morning about how we are "there to help the CNA's". Although we're not exactly "helping" them when they're perched on their butts at the nurses station...
We can jump in to do things now and then, but on our unit, nurses have from 7 to 10 patients EVERY DAY. It's insane. They don't really have time to fool with us most days.
I agree that right now you do need to be learning to be an RN. I also agree that you don't need a speech about helping the CNAs every morning. However, I will share with you what my clinical instructor told our group, "Wihle you are here to learn to become a nurse, and while you are mainly here to perform the duties of a nurse, you are not above doing CNA work, answering phones, looking information up on the computer, putting in orders, or doing anything else that is asked of you. I don't care if you are assigned a task that is typically done by the unit secretary or the CNA, you are here to help the staff on this floor and you need to do whatever task is assigned to you, and do it gladly and gratefully. The staff let you come onto their floor, and they are putting up with you being in their hair all day so that you can learn. If they have time to teach you, and they want to do that, then that's wonderful. If they don't have time to teach you, or they just don't want to, then get over it and go about your day." I think this is the general feeling of all clinical instructors, and I think it explains the lecture you get everyday about helping the CNAs. I guess clinical instructors feel that since the staff was nice enough to let you on their unit, you should do whatever is asked of you without complaining. I understand it, but I admit that I wouldn't be happy if I was spending twelve hours doing CNA work. In North Carolina you have to be CNA I certified before you can apply to an RN program, so everyone knows that we are capable of doing CNA work. Because of this, I think we end up doing a lot more of the CNA work than RN students in states where NA I certification isn't mandatory prior to starting the RN program. I love doing all the work for my patient (or two or three, as the case may be). My philosophy is, "the more you can do for your patient, the better." I don't mind giving a bath, changing the bed, brushing teeth, ambulating, doing ROM, etc, becuase I also get to do RN duties like empyting drains, giving meds, doing assessments, charting, monitoring I&O, monitoring cardiac rhythms, and other procedures. A lot of the time, you can do more by simply asking the nurse. Go to the nurse and say, "I'm caught up right now, and I don't have anything to do. Is there anything you need help with?" Or, if there is a specific procedure you would really love to do, let the nurses know in the morning at the beginning of the shift. For instance, if you haven't started an IV, and you really want to, go to the nurses and say, "I've never started an IV before outside of skills lab, and I would really love to do that. If you have a patient who needs an IV, and you have time to find me, would you consider letting me know so that I can try to put one in?" Often times, communicating with the nurses and showing them that you are truly interested and ready to learn goes a long way. If you don't, they may assume that you are like the other bad nursing students they've had in the past, and totally blow you off. Don't give off that, "I know it all, there is nothing you can teach me," attitude while you are in clinical, and try not to let your bad mood show. Smile, offer to help, ask the nurses if they need anything, ask the CNAs if they need anything, and do whatever tasks are assigned to you. Being willing to help and having a positive attitude go a long way.
Specializes in Post Acute, Home, Inpatient, Hospice/Pall Care.
I agree that right now you do need to be learning to be an RN. I also agree that you don't need a speech about helping the CNAs every morning. However, I will share with you what my clinical instructor told our group, "Wihle you are here to learn to become a nurse, and while you are mainly here to perform the duties of a nurse, you are not above doing CNA work, answering phones, looking information up on the computer, putting in orders, or doing anything else that is asked of you. I don't care if you are assigned a task that is typically done by the unit secretary or the CNA, you are here to help the staff on this floor and you need to do whatever task is assigned to you, and do it gladly and gratefully. The staff let you come onto their floor, and they are putting up with you being in their hair all day so that you can learn. If they have time to teach you, and they want to do that, then that's wonderful. If they don't have time to teach you, or they just don't want to, then get over it and go about your day." I think this is the general feeling of all clinical instructors, and I think it explains the lecture you get everyday about helping the CNAs. I guess clinical instructors feel that since the staff was nice enough to let you on their unit, you should do whatever is asked of you without complaining. I understand it, but I admit that I wouldn't be happy if I was spending twelve hours doing CNA work. In North Carolina you have to be CNA I certified before you can apply to an RN program, so everyone knows that we are capable of doing CNA work. Because of this, I think we end up doing a lot more of the CNA work than RN students in states where NA I certification isn't mandatory prior to starting the RN program. I love doing all the work for my patient (or two or three, as the case may be). My philosophy is, "the more you can do for your patient, the better." I don't mind giving a bath, changing the bed, brushing teeth, ambulating, doing ROM, etc, becuase I also get to do RN duties like empyting drains, giving meds, doing assessments, charting, monitoring I&O, monitoring cardiac rhythms, and other procedures. A lot of the time, you can do more by simply asking the nurse. Go to the nurse and say, "I'm caught up right now, and I don't have anything to do. Is there anything you need help with?" Or, if there is a specific procedure you would really love to do, let the nurses know in the morning at the beginning of the shift. For instance, if you haven't started an IV, and you really want to, go to the nurses and say, "I've never started an IV before outside of skills lab, and I would really love to do that. If you have a patient who needs an IV, and you have time to find me, would you consider letting me know so that I can try to put one in?" Often times, communicating with the nurses and showing them that you are truly interested and ready to learn goes a long way. If you don't, they may assume that you are like the other bad nursing students they've had in the past, and totally blow you off. Don't give off that, "I know it all, there is nothing you can teach me," attitude while you are in clinical, and try not to let your bad mood show. Smile, offer to help, ask the nurses if they need anything, ask the CNAs if they need anything, and do whatever tasks are assigned to you. Being willing to help and having a positive attitude go a long way.
Wow I am surprised the floor staff feels that way! While my program SUCKS, it is the administration that makes it suck. The nurses and CNA's on our clinical rotations LOVE us and tell us all the time how much we make their lives easier! I am thankful I am in that position and not made to feel as though I am "in their hair"!
Thank God for small favors I guess!
If we finish up with our 3 assigned patients, we answer call lights, ask the CNA's what we can do to help, ask all the nurses if they have flu/pneumonia shots to give, etc. I guess I am lucky to be in a good hospital.
Everybody's situation is different. Sometimes you get lucky with a clinical assignment, sometimes it's a struggle. The biggest challenge for me is to keep focussed and remain calm. Lots of times I act as if I'm confident, when I'm not (especially during validations.) I'm not saying I don't ask for help or ask questions. I'm saying that on bad days like today, "fake it til you make it" is the way to go.
I let school, classmates, teachers etc. live rent free in my head and drive myself nuts. Stop. Breathe.
But sometimes it's hard to remember that nothing worth achieving is going to be easy.
I'm a lot older than my classmates and sometimes I feel isolated and lonely. Thank goodness for this board!
Wow I am surprised the floor staff feels that way! While my program SUCKS, it is the administration that makes it suck. The nurses and CNA's on our clinical rotations LOVE us and tell us all the time how much we make their lives easier! I am thankful I am in that position and not made to feel as though I am "in their hair"!
Thank God for small favors I guess!
If we finish up with our 3 assigned patients, we answer call lights, ask the CNA's what we can do to help, ask all the nurses if they have flu/pneumonia shots to give, etc. I guess I am lucky to be in a good hospital.
Most of the nurses we encounter are very nice, they are eager to teach, and they are really glad that we are on their floor. However, there are some who don't seem to enjoy seeing us coming, they don't teach, and they hardly ever speak. The last group of nurses we worked with actually took time to thank us for helping them, and they said that we were the best group of students they had ever had on the floor. That made me feel really good. I felt like I had actually made a difference, and I felt like the nurses thought that I was competent and able to handle my patients well. We have had nurses that have said absolutely nothing to us for twelve hours, and that's sort of hard to deal with. No matter how nice the nurses are, we are always reminded by our instructors that we are students, that we have the potential to drive the nurses up the wall by constantly asking questions, that we need to use our own judgment and not go get a nurse for everything, and that we need to be respectful and thankful no matter what task we are assigned to do. Last shift I got to do a lot of things (We are on an all-surgical floor, so we always take care of patients who are post surgery or pre-surgery and not able to go to the OR at the moment for some reason), I emptied JP drains, NG tubes, and Foleys, I hung IV fluids and gave meds, I ambulated my patient, I changed the linens on his bed, I did a head to toe assessment, I took vitals, I documented that my patient was using his incentive spirometer, I did morning care, and I charted everything in the computer. I did all of this independently and without my instructor in the room, because my instructor had already observed me doing these things during a pervious clinical day, and she said that I could function on my own. If I found anything abnormal, I alerted one of the RNs on the floor, and she came back in with me and we re-assessed the patient together. All the RNs we worked with during the last clinical day were great, and they had a lot to teach.
Our hospital still has paper charting until next week. After they "go live" with the computers, the students won't have access to the Pyxis or the patient charts. So, we are going to be 'relegated' to being CNAs.
We didn't have access to Pyxis either. Only the instructor had access so we had to find her, and go that route. I still think you can learn a lot whether you can chart or not. Although nursing is more than just CNA stuff, it really doesn emcompass it all. How are you going to get your care plans done without computer access? Someones going to have to do something to get some kind of computer access or you're instructor will have to come up with some way to prove profeciency. Not a good clinical at all, sorry!
We didn't have access to Pyxis either. Only the instructor had access so we had to find her, and go that route. I still think you can learn a lot whether you can chart or not. Although nursing is more than just CNA stuff, it really doesn emcompass it all. How are you going to get your care plans done without computer access? Someones going to have to do something to get some kind of computer access or you're instructor will have to come up with some way to prove profeciency. Not a good clinical at all, sorry!
Well, WE don't have access to Pyxis by ourselves but from what we've been told, our clinical instructor won't either. We aren't going to be given a patient so we won't need to do care plans. But, I'm going to ask to be given a patient anyway. I can still do my assessment and other things the patient needs. The nurse can give me report on my patient and I'll just have to use that info to do what I can.
Frankly, it is becoming more and more clear that my clinical instructor really isn't interested in teaching at all because I really do think he could find a way around this. The more I think about this, the madder it makes me.
He may as well save you all the gas money if you won't be getting a patient. How can you even have a clinical with no patient, no access to the chart, and no guidance. You've paid money to learn and that isn't happening. Anyone talking to the Dean yet? Will they hold you all back because of this? Seems like if you can't master what is posted in the syllabus for the clinical, how can you all go onto the next one? Even though it's no fault of your own, they should at the very least inform you and acknowledge the difficulties with this particular clinical. I would rather be working at my skills in the lab than picking my nose standing around with nothing to do. Is he giving you a fake pt to do a care plan on?
Too bizarre and I'm so glad this was not my school. My fellow classmates would have been to the Dean as a group. I'm so sorry, experience is so important even if for confidence sake.
He may as well save you all the gas money if you won't be getting a patient. How can you even have a clinical with no patient, no access to the chart, and no guidance. You've paid money to learn and that isn't happening. Anyone talking to the Dean yet? Will they hold you all back because of this? Seems like if you can't master what is posted in the syllabus for the clinical, how can you all go onto the next one? Even though it's no fault of your own, they should at the very least inform you and acknowledge the difficulties with this particular clinical. I would rather be working at my skills in the lab than picking my nose standing around with nothing to do. Is he giving you a fake pt to do a care plan on?
Too bizarre and I'm so glad this was not my school. My fellow classmates would have been to the Dean as a group. I'm so sorry, experience is so important even if for confidence sake.
I don't know if I am the only one thinking this: but is this school you're attending CCNE or NLN accredited?? I would have to safely presume something like what you're going through would not be acceptable under accreditation standards.
Dont mean to sound insensitive, but didnt you know about the commute before hand? Sure it really does suck, but you should have taken that into consideration before applying..
And yes, the nurses not helping is a big bummer. None of my clinical nurses have helped, and have actually been pretty rude at times. Not to mention nurses in other areas of the hospital that insulted us students as we walked by!!
These are typical nursing school woes.. I really do feel for you. But just think of what the outcome is giong to be, and you can get far far away from these people.
Dont mean to sound insensitive, but didnt you know about the commute before hand? Sure it really does suck, but you should have taken that into consideration before applying..
And yes, the nurses not helping is a big bummer. None of my clinical nurses have helped, and have actually been pretty rude at times. Not to mention nurses in other areas of the hospital that insulted us students as we walked by!!
These are typical nursing school woes.. I really do feel for you. But just think of what the outcome is giong to be, and you can get far far away from these people.
The nurses aren't the problem. They are super busy and I'm okay with that. The problem is this program and the idiots it is run by.
Yes, we knew about the commute but we were also told that they would take that into consideration when scheduling classes, clinicals, etc. We had been told that we would get to do off site clinicals in the counties where we live. We were told they would schedule us to maximize carpooling opportunities. None of that turned out to be true.
If our time at school was worthwhile, I wouldn't mind the commute. I complained to an instructor today that its ridiculous for us to have to drive that far just to listen to a bobblehead read to us from a PowerPoint. His response: we're working on that. So, I'm guessing that by the time it gets worked out, we'll be graduated.
This is what we did in class this week: They gave us a word and told us that we have to make a rhyme, song, or poem to go with it. Yeah...
This is simply a rant. I have to live with it and get it done. We are all just BAFFLED at the blatant stupidity of this program and those in control of it. But I'll probably complain till the end!
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NCRNMDM, ASN, RN
465 Posts
I agree that right now you do need to be learning to be an RN. I also agree that you don't need a speech about helping the CNAs every morning. However, I will share with you what my clinical instructor told our group, "Wihle you are here to learn to become a nurse, and while you are mainly here to perform the duties of a nurse, you are not above doing CNA work, answering phones, looking information up on the computer, putting in orders, or doing anything else that is asked of you. I don't care if you are assigned a task that is typically done by the unit secretary or the CNA, you are here to help the staff on this floor and you need to do whatever task is assigned to you, and do it gladly and gratefully. The staff let you come onto their floor, and they are putting up with you being in their hair all day so that you can learn. If they have time to teach you, and they want to do that, then that's wonderful. If they don't have time to teach you, or they just don't want to, then get over it and go about your day." I think this is the general feeling of all clinical instructors, and I think it explains the lecture you get everyday about helping the CNAs. I guess clinical instructors feel that since the staff was nice enough to let you on their unit, you should do whatever is asked of you without complaining. I understand it, but I admit that I wouldn't be happy if I was spending twelve hours doing CNA work. In North Carolina you have to be CNA I certified before you can apply to an RN program, so everyone knows that we are capable of doing CNA work. Because of this, I think we end up doing a lot more of the CNA work than RN students in states where NA I certification isn't mandatory prior to starting the RN program. I love doing all the work for my patient (or two or three, as the case may be). My philosophy is, "the more you can do for your patient, the better." I don't mind giving a bath, changing the bed, brushing teeth, ambulating, doing ROM, etc, becuase I also get to do RN duties like empyting drains, giving meds, doing assessments, charting, monitoring I&O, monitoring cardiac rhythms, and other procedures. A lot of the time, you can do more by simply asking the nurse. Go to the nurse and say, "I'm caught up right now, and I don't have anything to do. Is there anything you need help with?" Or, if there is a specific procedure you would really love to do, let the nurses know in the morning at the beginning of the shift. For instance, if you haven't started an IV, and you really want to, go to the nurses and say, "I've never started an IV before outside of skills lab, and I would really love to do that. If you have a patient who needs an IV, and you have time to find me, would you consider letting me know so that I can try to put one in?" Often times, communicating with the nurses and showing them that you are truly interested and ready to learn goes a long way. If you don't, they may assume that you are like the other bad nursing students they've had in the past, and totally blow you off. Don't give off that, "I know it all, there is nothing you can teach me," attitude while you are in clinical, and try not to let your bad mood show. Smile, offer to help, ask the nurses if they need anything, ask the CNAs if they need anything, and do whatever tasks are assigned to you. Being willing to help and having a positive attitude go a long way.