Mean and Nasty consistently

[tamz04]

For 4 semesters the nurses during our clinicals have been consistenly horrid. I continue to try and build relations. Each time we move to a different unit I continue to be astounded. Is this just where I am or do you all get the same attitude? Would you be interested in making a pact never to be like that when we are working?

[Shenanigans, RN]

Surprisingly, I've never had issues with the RNs I've worked with on clincal, but I've heard stories from my mates.

Its the Care Givers I've met that you gotta watch, some of them are just dreadful, one of my lecturers said it could be jealously that even as 1st year students we know more of the "whys" then the "how to clean up" sort of thing.

Just generalising of course, well aware that not all CGs are catty female dogs.

But I've made a pact with myself and my conscience that I'll be cool to students when I'm a nurse.

PS. I've found giving the nurses cakes and chocolates is a good way to smooth the way foward.

[Bonny619]

Have you been at the same hospital? I've had mixed experiences on different floors of different hospitals, but mostly great nurses.

[FireStarterRN, BSN, RN]

I guess you know where you don't want to work when you are done with school!

[Natkat, BSN, MSN, RN]

I've had mixed results. Some places were awful and some were great. I think it has to do with the management on that unit.

Here are some things I found that work well. Don't try to chat-up the nurses or be overly friendly. Be polite, say good morning and smile, then be quiet. I think people are territorial. You are on their turf. Let them give you the signal that they are ready to be friendly to you. I have worked around nurses, clerks, housekeeping staff and techs who were just vile but gradually came around because I let them open up to me first......or at least I think that's why. It's not much different from high school.

Stay in the background while looking for things you can do. Step up and do them, then back up and let her do her job. Be proactive about doing what you can at whatever level you're on. For example, if you can D/C Foleys and your patient's Foley needs D/C'd. Do it. Don't wait for the nurse to ask you to do it.

Don't talk much; be an information sponge. Stick to the facts. Give no opinions. If you are truly startled by something you don't understand, run it by your clinical instructor.

Ask questions when they arent' busy. If the nurse is busy and you need an answer now, go to the charge nurse.

And do not EVER say "that's not how we do it in school".

I kind of see it that we are guests in their world. They are doing us a favor by letting is come on their unit and learn. Granted, no one should be rude, but the reality is they are and I can't do anything about it. I have to make the best of it until I graduate.

And remember, other students will be coming on the floor after you're gone. I want to make the nurse's experience as painless as possible so they will be more willing to take students in the future.

Hope this helps. Sorry it's so long.

[Bonny619]

I once had a nurse that for some insane reason didn't think I was going to give the meds to my one patient. It was a truly weird experience. I am extremely professional and reliable and ive never had a problem with any nurse before.

I was getting the meds out with my instructor when I came across the LVN on our team and she said she JUST pulled the meds to give them to MY patient.

That could have been REALLY bad. My clinical instructor was furious. My primary nurse knew that I was giving all meds.

[APBT mom, LPN, RN]

Our clinicals are horrible too. We always have an orientation at the place when we start and every place says the same thing the nurses love it when the students are here because you help so much. Then we get on the floor and they don't let us help and give us things to do that they don't want to do (clean a pt, answer a call light, get the pt's water) so we stand around and the instructor wants to know why we don't do anything. I think they've forgotten what it ws like to be a student and have things that you have to do to perfect your skills and get a grade for.

[critical thinker]

I have had the same experience, some nurses have been very willing to help (I find male nurses the most helpful) and teach you things, but for the most part they are cold and downright rude. I do my clinicals at a "teaching" hospital so they have many students there, and while I can understand that students can at times get in the way, we have to learn some where. A nurse on my peds rotation was so rude to me that had I not been there representing the school I would have given her an earful. I have thought that I might (when school is over) write the hospital a letter, but then again perhaps I should just let it go. I have learned that I definitely do not want to become one of those nurses.

[JBudd, MSN]

Please do not write the hospital a letter! Write to your dean, your instructors, your school secretary, but not the hospital.

Schools have a difficult time finding clinical space to begin with, without clinical space you won't get any experience at all. Odds are, the school is already aware of the hostile atmosphere, but there may not be any alternatives. Making problems for the school isn't going to help. Several of my students had a bad experience with a floor nurse, I contacted my supervisor and my dean, and left it to them to deal with, and later got word it had been addressed. I do not know exactly what happened, and I don't really need the details. My students know less than that, they just trusted me when I said I would take steps. Your school may actually be addressing it, if so, a letter to them may just give them a little extra ammo, and it gives them the option in how to use it.

Also, the job market is volatile, and burning bridges anywhere isn't a great idea. Some hospitals HRs share stuff, your letter might end up somewhere you don't want it to be.

[BeachPrincess]

I know where your coming from. Best advice my clinical instructor told me. You're not here for them, your here for the patient and yourself. Block them out, you will not be on that unit forever.

When they are nasty with me I just smile at them, because obviously they are miserable and misery loves company.

[gabass]

I have not started clinicals yet, but hopefully things will be okay for me.

[I love my cat!]

My classmates and I encountered several difficult and rude Nurses during clinicals. These nurses made it very obvious that they did not want to be working with students. Now, this was many years ago, but it sounds as though things haven't changed. How sad.

We use to think that the main reason the Nurses we were paired with were mean and condescending was because we were students.

Little did we know that they were actually prepping us for the real world.