Losing respect for nursing students

Nurses General Nursing

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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?

However, when saying "doh those kids who sit around at the desk couldn't handle AIT..." Yeah, that's because they're kids sitting at a desk in a hospital and not members of a volunteer army who completed basic and went to AIT. The contrast is a contrast but does nothing for the direction of the discussion.

The point isn't the training requirements but the culture. That was what I took from it anyway.

It does make a great deal of difference as to your MOS/AOC during your TIS. If you weren't AMEDD, that could easily be why you're not picking up the comparison.

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Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
The point isn't the training requirements but the culture. That was what I took from it anyway.

It does make a great deal of difference as to your MOS/AOC during your TIS. If you weren't AMEDD, that could easily be why you're not picking up the comparison.

I know that when I was in MIC-KEY, very few people understood it was similar to M-O-U-S-E.

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Specializes in NICU.

Well being that I was a nursing student just a year ago, and now I'm a registered nurse who dealt with my first round of nursing students just a few weeks ago, I know all too well what you are feeling. We have 2 chairs on either side of our nursing station and any time I walked in to the nurses station, they were sitting there, normally just talking to one another. It really did bother me a little that they would see up standing up try to write or do something and not even offer to get up. I definitely believe the instructors are partly to blame. I had a few instructors that were brutal, there was never a question about how we could look and act, and don't even think of sitting in the nurses station or break room.

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I just want to laugh at some of these posts because I can relate. I just got done with my clinicals for my CNA course. Those of us who wanted to pursue nursing we all (23 and younger) took it seriously and enjoyed it. I will say there were something we didn't like but we swallowed our dislikes and carried on. I think the level of involvement depends on the type of unit you are on. But earrings, hair down, necklaces, um that's just nasty. We were told early on by our instructors about what to wear and how to act. I remember working on a dementia unit and there were residents who needed total care, we jumped in right away and we got our hands dirty.

I don't think it's the generation, I think it's the love and sincerity for the profession that shows. If you got into the profession for the right reasons, then you see a different outcome. But if you're doing for the money and you don't like the work then it definitely shows in a negative manner. We were told early on, wear proper fitting scrubs, be on time, smile, no hooped earrings, no bright colored thongs or bras (our scrubs were white).

I remember having a GNA I was paired with who never told me where he was going or what he was doing. He would just leave, he'd never give me and directions even when asked, and he'd be on his phone while the resident was toileting. But I followed his lazy butt everywhere like a puppy dog and I did that with all of my GNAs.

I know for a fact we were told how to act, and what we were allowed to do and not to do. I remember saying no to taking vitals because I was not comfortable doing it and I was never shown how to use the machine (we learned to take BP manually). But the charge nurse respected that and told my GNA to teach me. Eventually on an Alzheimer's unit my GNA showed me and I learned.

Funny story, there was an older student in my CNa course (she's past the retirement age), who was not acting professionally. Whenever we had to feed the residents she would be eating off of their plates.

Sometimes I think it should be a pre-req for nursing school to take a CNA course to really see if that's what the student really wants to do. I know I enjoyed my clinicals, I actually had fun and I knew that I was making the right career choice.

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Im a student graduating now with my bsn (although im a little older than most of my classmates, late 20s) and I think a huge part of it is maturity and the generation.

Young people now a days are much more lazy and have a huge sense of entitlement. I see it tremendously in some of my classmates, even myself a few years ago. But to be fair the faculty are also partially to blame to an extent, because if you let your student sit around the whole day yet still pass, youre saying that their efforts were satisfactory or sufficient.

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Specializes in Forensic Psych.

I'm really enjoying all of the generational bashing here.

What's funny is my grandparents and their peers were appalled by my parent's generation. And no doubt my great-grandparents felt the same.

I'm really enjoying the mass consumption, debt-loving, polluted world I've inherited from all of the above.

And the beat goes on.

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Specializes in Emergency.

Meh.

As a student I once had an RN ask me "well, what good are you then?" when I told her I would not be able to complete a task as it was scheduled for after I had to leave the floor for conference. She had a student assigned to every one of her patients and as we were in our final semester we were doing full care. She had spent most of her shift at the desk surfing the web. It was literally the only task for her to do in a 8 hour shift (spiking a bag of abx) and she acted as though I was dumping the weight of the world on her.

As a shiny new grad (

What these two stories have in common is that the people in them acted like jerks. The difference is, one of them should definitely have known better. I like to think that the student following me (on what still stands out as one of the worst days of my career) graduated, one day found herself bum-deep in alligators, had an aha moment, and felt ashamed of herself. Probably not, but I can dream. The nurse on the other hand is still lazy, and I was neither the first or the last student to be demeaned by her.

Like it or not, teaching and mentoring students is part of our job. If behavior is not up to par, by all means correct it, if attitudes need adjusting, go to town, but we need to rise above and be professional. I personally don't get riled up about seats or chart use, if a student is using something and I need it I will ask for it, politely. Other issues are certainly more serious, but again should be addressed professionally, on a case by case basis and not "charged to the field" of students everywhere.

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Dialysis.

I have yet to be shadowed by a student as the nurse, I imagine it is frustrating. Wish there was a solution to the problem of logistics when these two objects- nurse and student-try to occupy the same space!

Very true! I have seen this issue from both sides. It is frustrating to see students "sitting around" and taking over the computers, charts, breakroom etc. But keep in mind the students don't always choose that behavior. It has been a long time since I was in clinicals but I remember not being able to do anything without my instructor there, and we had one instructor for 8-10 students, hence the sitting around. I remember the whole group needing to chart at roughly the same time, using the same equipment the staff uses so who do the students tick off by taking over the charts/computer...the instructor that can and will fail them in that rotation or the staff that also need that equipment? Stuck between a rock and a hard place there. And at the beginning, middle and end of every clinical day we had a group meeting that meant taking over the break room because it was usually the only physical space on the floor large enough to hold us all.

So...too many people trying to occupy the same space at the same time

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Specializes in OB/GYN.
No. It is not you. I felt that our school did not screen properly. There were people in the program who really should not have been. The instructors did not discipline anyone. People did not show up with the correct uniform or on time. Some said they picked what they wanted to do on clinicals. The tattoos were out of hand. They said it was okay as long as they didn't show. People went and got more over the break that were on their necks and hands. It is a sign of the times.

I find this so silly and judgmental. I'm a 2nd career BSN student and I say 2nd career, not 2nd degree because it's my 3rd. I hold a Master's of Social Work and was a clinician for many years. I was ED PCT during my first undergrad degree and a case manager during grad school. I'm also a birth doula and mother of 3, and I happen to be heavily tattooed. It in no way reflects my ability to be competent and effective in any of my clinical roles, nor is it an indication that I am somehow unprofessional.

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I'm a little older coming into this game. I will graduate with my BSN one week before my 39th birthday. I think that many of the "old school" values that my father's generation passed down (he grew up in the Depression era Deep South) are gone for the most part. I try to really work hard at whatever I'm doing. Not being to best is ok, not trying to be the best isn't. I have two toddlers of my own and I plan on installing a lot of those "old school" values I them. Who knows, maybe one day the nurse they precepted might be. Inserting my Foley.

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woah, first and foremost, sounds like there are quite a few terrible nursing students. I'm crossing my fingers this means that getting a job will be easy for me. haha.

Speaking as a 2nd degree nursing student in her final semester at Hopkins I can without a doubt say that some of y'all are right. We do sit around a lot and look quite lost and we do get on the computers (usually researching things we don't know). We also get brushed off a lot. As Hopkins student's we are pretty eager to do absolutely ANYTHING! We think pretty much EVERYTHING is awesome. It's difficult to be a nursing student... to be on a unit and to be pretty useless. Like kbrn2002 said, we can't do too much without our instructor. We also only have one, maybe two patients and we aren't just going to sit in our patient's room all day. We also cannot give medications without our instructor. Not being able to give medications leaves a lot of downtime.

As a favor to us nursing students PLEASE ask us to help you with anything! And for those of us that act like we are above it, I'm sorry. Also, give us a chance, have an open mind, and give us constructive feedback. If we still don't respond then I understand the bashing.

Welllllll off to study!

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