Losing respect for nursing students

timmedico · Apr 28, 2013

At my school, we're not allowed to do that stuff (not that we'd want to sit around anyways...wouldn't learn much). We're graded not only on skills but on professionalism. Gossiping? That would land you in hot water. Sitting? That's unsatisfactory. Uniforms must be decent and hair/etc really can't be unkept.

Don't give up on us OP! For those of us that actually care about what we learn in school, a good preceptor and/or nurse at a facility makes the experience not only less intimidating, but also encourages us to be like them. I, as many nursing students probably do, watch nurses closely. We look for those awesome qualities, techniques, communication, and mirror them.

MatrixRn · Apr 28, 2013

And this whole lengthy thread just proves how nurses do not work together as a team.

Can we agree to treat each other with respect:

Nurses on the floor stop rolling your eyes at the student. That is disrespectful and just a power play on your part.

Student nurses, guess what, you are the student, get up and let the your mentor sit down. Then you lean in and listen. SHE needs to be the one to hear all of the details so she can help you.

NOT all nurses, whether they been a nurse for 1month or 10 years, are willing or want to train new grads. Just because an experienced nurse does not want to train a new grad does not make her bad. She is just letting you know that is not her preference. ALL nurses should have a say in if they want to be a mentor.

Student nurses do lighten the patient load on the nurse, what they do not lessen is the role of responsibility. The nurse who oversees the patients is the one responsible even if the student dispenses a med. So yes, in that regard the load is heavier because the nurse needs to assure things were done correctly.

FuturePsychNP · Apr 28, 2013

No sitting? That must be some type of traditional thing? Let me see. I'm not wearing white, I'm sitting at the computer on a discussion board, and I'm at work. I suppose I'm really gouging the eyes of tradition.

I understand having a good ethos for education and the workplace, but times are changing. Granted, they're not always for the better. I'm a politically ultra-conservative, Christian guy, and we seem to be on the way out, sadly. Nonetheless, even as a career changer who has supervised and managed a lot of people I don't think there's anything wrong with sitting or even for female students wearing their hair down as most nurses in the work place (young and old) seem to do the same. We're not in a tactical scenario, however, yes I was initially trained a good, long time ago about why long hair, dangley ear rings, and jingling in the pockets is a no go. Someone mentioned a patient grabbing hair. You couldn't grab mine if you tried, lol, but I don't wear a stethoscope around my neck for that reason, yet someone I've seen tout the "down hair defense rule" wore that strangling device around her neck.

Sitting in a small workspace with someone else standing who needs to use a computer or take advantage of the limited real estate and write something is a different scenario. If everyone is sitting, or even if others are moving about and one has no other direction, then let the kids sit. It doesn't alone make them bad people, bad students, or bad nurses. I even remember being told something like, "I can tell you're not just a student" by a hospital staffer. I asked what she was talking about, and her reply was, "You don't seem timid." I laughed and said, "Mam, what have I to be timid of?" I told her what I did for a living, she understood, and like a hundred others asked why I was in nursing school. For all of you, read my screen name, and you'll see why I went.

I don't know if this is a male perspective, a laid back perspective, or someone who has a nursing license but didn't pass the indoctrination, however, I don't view this as an issue. I recall being in clinicals and seeing staff nurses take delight and go hide for the six or so hours we were there letting us handle the reigns. Let it rest. Finger pointing always occurs from both sides. If you need the chair simply do as I would. Say, "move." I was also taught a long time ago if you do your job you're going to tick other people off, but please don't lose sleep or a good mood over this. There's a lot more negativity in the workplace than sitters and hippies.

FuturePsychNP · Apr 28, 2013

Just a piece of advice from the other side of the fence: Nursing is far, far, far behind many other professions in regards to fair and respectful treatment of employees, the level of personnel protection provided, and the concept of empowerment. It is a culture all its own. As a career-changer entering the nursing field cold, with no prior knowledge of the culture of the nursing profession, I was shocked at how disrespectfully nurses are treated by all, and at the meanness and all of the dust-ups over very petty things like personality differences. Women should realize that work is not about relationships. Work is about work. You can like someone or not like someone, and it really makes no difference, because you are there to do a job and you can still work together. Even if you hate each other. Men accomplish this feat all the time.

I agree. I refer to my first college experience and degree as my education and my second time in and BSN as an indoctrination. Fortunately, I rejected it like a bad liver. It is indeed a vastly different culture and one that makes no sense to those who have experienced life outside the little pond.

FuturePsychNP · Apr 28, 2013

It's a part of our professional responsibility to teach our young nurses. But the attitudes of some nurse I wouldn't want to expose a young nurse to the poor attitudes. It's called eating our young, bullying or horizontal violence. Lets all be the professional we should be.

The awkward part is when they try to eat someone new who isn't young. It happened in school with teachers, and it's happened here in the workplace. Psych-oriented or not, I push back.

typoagain · Apr 28, 2013

Student nurses do lighten the patient load on the nurse, what they do not lessen is the role of responsibility. The nurse who oversees the patients is the one responsible even if the student dispenses a med. So yes, in that regard the load is heavier because the nurse needs to assure things were done correctly.

It has been my experience that students can, and most often do, drastically INCREASE your work load. But I do love having them around. it helps to keep you reminded just why we choose to do this.

TopsDrop, RN · Apr 28, 2013

As a new nurse I remember my my nursing school days very well. I love having students paired up with me because I feel I can, in a way, show my future co-workers what I expect.

I was fortunate enough to be in an excellent nursing program, it was a very rigorous, 2 year ADN program that is well respected at our clinical sites. Our instructors did not tolerate goofing around on the floor you were sent home for improper dress/actions or failure to do your prep work. You had 2 chances, 1st time a warning second time you had to try to re-start next semster. Our clinical sites knew this, and I never had a bad experience with any RN i was paired with.

It really comes down to the program standards, how they are followed, and the instructors. The current bunch of students and their instructor at our hospital is great. They seem to have a grasp on things and are curteous and try to help out.

The last group we had from a different school, however, will not be coming back to our hospital after watching the instructor of that group give insulin with students before blood sugars were done, BP meds without a pressure/pulse to judge on, and best/unbelievably of all watching the instructor sit in the nursing station with her feet up getting a back rub from a student for 15 minutes. while the others sat and chatted. I was working that wing that night, so it is not a word of mouth thing.

It's all in the programs and instructors. The students with the wrong attitude were weeded out of our program by 2nd semester. We started with ~80 students, I graduated with ~25.

Pepper The Cat, BSN, RN · Apr 28, 2013

Pepper the cat,
25 yrs of experience and patience to help a student figure it out. It's about asking the right questions to stimulate their mind. It's the reason they are students. You were once a student and I am sure you didn't get things every time hopefully those that helped you were patient and kind. Nursing school is different then real world learning.

I asked the student if they knew what Coumadin was for. They did not so I should them how to look it up.

I asked if they knew the pt's medical hx. They did not so I helped them look it up.

I explained that an elevated INR is expected and. Also showed them how to look at past results.

Even with all of this, they were still fixated that the INR was not normal.

And for the record, other staff tell new staff to go to me for help because I teach them things without making them feel stupid.

shoegalRN, RN · Apr 28, 2013

I am an ER nurse and I had a student with me yesterday who was AWESOME!

I love to teach, so it does not bother me to have a student with me. I challenged this student's thinking most of our shift and she nailed it! She listened when I spoke with the doctors, when I questioned some of the doctor's orders, and she jumped in on patient care after asking if it was ok with me. She had great bedside manner and got along with most of the patients we were assigned.

By the end of the shift, she wanted to be with me again for the next rotation but I was not working my normal shift so I told her she may be with someone else. I also ended up with another nursing student from a different school because her nurse was too busy with a potential stroke patient, where I had to explain to both students what was going on and why we were doing certain things. Both seemed to appreciate my input.

Now, I have had some nursing students who didn't care what was going on because they "just wanted to be an OB nurse", etc. So, when that happened, I would find another nurse to pair them with. I refuse to waste my time on someone who obviously shows no interest in learning.

Iâ™¥Scrubs, LPN · Apr 28, 2013

I really think it all depends. Some of my fellow students are terrible (they sit and not because of exhaustion or looking things up, they talk about the nurses and the instructors and other students, sometimes even in front of the patient.)and some of the nurses love some of us. This past week I was in clinical and I was running late because I was helping another patient so when I found my nurse and told her I was leaving, she thanked me for everything I had done that day and she said that I helped her a lot. When she told me what she wanted me to document, I told her it was already done and saved in the computer and then I asked if there was anything I could help with before I left the floor. As for my school, if we do not live up to our dress code, the hospital or instructor will call the program coordinator and they call you into their office and they tell you that you have been dressing or acting inappropriately. We have to wear white socks with no designs on them, with white shoes that have no color. We have white pants so we have to wear tan underwear and they can't have designs because we don't want our underwear showing. The only earrings you can wear are studs and only one on each side. No hoops or dangles, and no facial piercings. No bracelets, necklaces or rings that have rocks, only a plain solid wedding band with no stones is allowed. Only a watch is allowed on your wrist. Fingernails are to be kept short and clean with no polish and hair must be tied back with nothing hanging on your face. No body spray/cologne is allowed either. And I have seen other students get yelled at for not following these rules. But lets face it, some people should just not be nurses, and they do not care.

babyNP., APRN · Apr 28, 2013

It's fascinating to listen to all of this because the only time I actually had a RN talk to me about anything was during my last quarter during my preceptorship. I don't know if it's because my school didn't have the hospital assign RNs to students or if all of the RNs of my patients just didn't "do" students. I would do my assessment and if there were medications to be given, it was always with my teacher.

Fast-forward now, I don't get too many students in the NICU, but lots of new grads and new RN employees. It's fun! But exhausting. I can definitely see the burnout. I come home and feel like telling my husband that my quota for talking has been used up for the day.

Geslina, BSN, RN · Apr 28, 2013

As someone who has not been out of school long, I guess I am going to have to agree with you. I was an older student, nursing is not my first career - but I noticed appalling behavior from both younger AND older students.

Most of my adult life I have been in sales, where it is important to look nice - but even if I were not, I still think I would care about my appearance. I saw students (and even some nurses today) who came to clinical looking as if they just rolled out of bed. Wrinkled and yellowed white scrubs, hair straggly and hanging, no makeup, dirty shoes, etc. Considering it was stressed to us in the early days at school that we were to arrive at clinicals in clean pressed uniforms with our hair back and looking presentable, it kind of bothered me that none of our professors did anything about the more slovenly among us. Maybe that sounds snobby, but as a group, a sloppy unruly member gives a negative impression of us all.

As for sitting around and gossiping, where do they find the time? I barely had time to go to the bathroom during clinical, let alone sit down. We had a pretty tough professor, and if he saw us doing nothing, he made us find something to do. Clinical time is not easy to get in my area, there are a lot of nursing schools, and hospitals can pick and choose. We always had to be on our best and most productive behavior. So if students are just hanging around and gabbing, I think that maybe your teacher isn't doing his or her job in keeping them in line.

During my orientation on my first job, I was paired with 2 different nurses for a week each. It's a lot of work orienting new nurses, they have much to do as it is, so I am sure I slowed them down. I tried to make myself as helpful as possible, and to make their job easier, doing all the things that I could do without their supervision and offering to do more. The nurses at my job do not get compensated for doing orientation. So at the end of mine, I went out and bought each of them little thank you gift - Pandora earrings - and made them cards with cartoon likenesses of themselves (i'm an artist) in their nursing uniforms. Both were thrilled and really appreciated it. My point is, we newer nurse really do appreciate the hard work that goes into teaching us the ropes!! At least most of us do....

I've always been one that enjoyed having students. Im not one to eat the young. We were all there once. But I feel like I'm losing respect for some of the new students coming out. I guess I'm old school but we did not sit when we were students and we did not stand at the desk and gossip. You did not see a nurse or a doctor standing and a student sitting. Uniforms that look disastrous and hair hanging down. They are at times loud and unruly. Is the respect for our profession gone? Or is it just me?