I totally get it now. As a student, I thought it would be great having students around, but after last week, I don't think I even wan to take students EVER!
Granted, I've been on the floor around 9 months, and shouldn't even take students, the students are assigned to individual pts and not the nurse.
I had a LPN in a LPN-RN program. Within 5 mins, she shares that she has been a nurse for 20 years and doesn't see the point of being here. She helped me do a dressing change on a pt with an stage 4 ulcer on the coccyx. While lifting her, I tell her not to pull on the bottom, but from the shoulders and knees, she scoffs and continues. I ask her to step away. Pt was on tube feeding and I had paused it before starting the dressing change, but I had also spiked a bag of antibiotics and wanted to be sure it was running before I continued and asked her to turn the pole towards me so I can be sure. She presses buttons on the feeding pump and IV pump and the tells me the feeding is off. Im in the middle of the dressing change and say, I need to see it (the iv pump and now feeding pump) and asks again for her to turn the pole and she insists that it is off. I stop in the middle of my dressing change and go to look at the pump. Take her aside and tell her not to come back in my pts room.
This isn't the first time have worked with students like this. I once had a guy nurse that just knew EVERYTHING there was to know about nursing. It was painful talking to him.
I just can't believe how obnoxious some of these students are. I totally get why so many nurses can't stand taking students. We do have awesome students every now and then, but it seems most of them take up space and talk all day.
There is no reason to pause tube feeds when laying a patient flat, it's an old myth that never really had any good supporting rationale and has been thoroughly debunked for some time now, is this something you were taught in a nursing program recently?
Gastric volumes of around 200ml are typical, if you don't pause the tube feeding they could have about 200mls in their stomach, if you do pause the tube feeding they will still have the same amount. Pausing the tube feeding doesn't somehow remove all the volume from their stomach and has no real effect on the amount, so there is no known benefit to this practice. Studies have shown however that patients miss typically 1-2 hours worth of tube feeding, mostly due to delays in turning the feeding back on, and they are also at much higher risk for severe hypoglycemic episodes. So basically, there is no potential benefit, only potential harm to this practice.
Not to mention the latest research suggests that gastric volumes of less than 500ml's is nothing of concern. Another study even suggested that checking residuals is an antiquated practice, at least in ventilated patients. Either way, pausing tube feedings is an old practice that is perpetuated by a lack of critical thinking, and as seen on here, a lambasting culture that those who don't get along are "killing" people.
As a nursing student, I was very disheartened in reading this. I think this is a two-sided fence. I graduate in May, and during my clinical time I have got to share experiences and learn from great/fabulous nurses, but also ones that were very questionable. I have always tried my best to be respectful and helpful to the nurses on the floor. I think that people often forget students are still learning and that they are bound to make a mistake. Rather than lose your cool and embarrass a student, why not make it a learning opportunity and mold them into what you are expecting?
For those that forget what it was like to be a student, I reference the phrase, "Nurses eat their young." I remember multiple times hearing fellow colleagues talking about the awful things their nurses said to them or made them feel simply because they misunderstood or weren't sure. Yes, this job is stressful and you are trying to provide the most competent care possible, but you have to remember as a preceptor/model for a student, that you are representing the industry, not just yourself. Those students will remember you, maybe not your name, but they will remember their experience with you and whether it was a positive or negative one. Don't be the nurse that students remember as "the nurse they don't want to be like."
I can see both sides and the reasons for frustration, yet I think it is unfair to immediately say that you don't want students anymore when you were one not so long ago. I also don't think that it is fair to say the last comment that you did, as it is can come across as very offensive to students that can read these posts. I hope you have better luck and experiences in the future with students.
As has been said in many, many threads here, staff nurses are rarely asked if they will take a student. Students just show up and we have to deal. And just as students are subject to good and bad nurses, nurses are subject to good and bad students. (And we are expected to roll out the red carpet. Great, awesome, we can do that, but if a student makes an error because they weren't listening to the nurse and a patient is injured, who gets in trouble? The staff nurse.)
NETY? Oh no, nowhere near that.
The OP had an issue with a student who disobeyed direct orders and continued to not follow the OP's instructions. There are consequences to that - in this case, the student wasn't allowed near the OP's patients again. Frankly, the student was lucky that was all that happened - I've seen students dismissed from a clinical site because of issues like that.
And as has also been said in many, many threads here, including this one, it's a rare nurse who forgets everything about their time as a student nurse. However, the only person who knows what it is like to be a RN is...another RN.
Oh, and in regards to the whole stopping/not stopping tube feedings - EBP says one thing, but what do hospital protocols say? Goodness knows that mine don't always keep up with the research!
As a current student nurse approaching the end of my training reading this coming from a nurse 9 months post qualification this makes me angry!! Not all students behave in this fashion in fact most of us love working with our mentors and value the learning experience!! Rather than damn us all what she should have done is take her to one side and explain that her behaviour is both unprofessional and unacceptable. Then she should have contacted the school for guidance.
As a student nurse we have domains we have to achieve and a big one is being professional, many students have failed clinicals for this reason because part of being professional is not only about how you treat the patient but also you're fellow colleagues!!!
I think what annoys me is how quickly some change the colour of their uniform and they get power crazy!!! Not all students are the same some of us like myself work, and have families so before sweeping statements are made about having students remember it wasn't so long since you were one yourself!! Somebody gave you a chance we are NOT all the same !
As a current student nurse approaching the end of my training reading this coming from a nurse 9 months post qualification this makes me angry!! Not all students behave in this fashion in fact most of us love working with our mentors and value the learning experience!! Rather than damn us all what she should have done is take her to one side and explain that her behaviour is both unprofessional and unacceptable. Then she should have contacted the school for guidance.
As a student nurse we have domains we have to achieve and a big one is being professional, many students have failed clinicals for this reason because part of being professional is not only about how you treat the patient but also you're fellow colleagues!!!
I think what annoys me is how quickly some change the colour of their uniform and they get power crazy!!! Not all students are the same some of us like myself work, and have families so before sweeping statements are made about having students remember it wasn't so long since you were one yourself!! Somebody gave you a chance we are NOT all the same !
So true! And we don't become the same when we graduate, either ... so why are you demanding the same level of teaching expertise and support from someone barely off orientation herself as you do from masters-prepared experienced clinical instructors?
Rather than damn us all what she should have done is take her to one side and explain that her behaviour is both unprofessional and unacceptable. Then she should have contacted the school for guidance.
Most of us barely have time to use the bathroom, much less chase down the proper school authority for guidance.
Rather than damn us all what she should have done is take her to one side and explain that her behaviour is both unprofessional and unacceptable. Then she should have contacted the school for guidance.
Why is any of that the staff nurse's responsibility???
Wow !!! Nursing in the US must be different in the UK we are assigned mentors who we have to work Alongside during our clinicals, these nurses are responsible for signing us off at the end of each placement. However if they are not around we find a nurse or member of the team to muck in with. My nurse education in the US needs to change and the way I see it you are shaping future nurses and just remember how you are can make us or break us .
Wow !!! Nursing in the US must be different in the UK we are assigned mentors who we have to work Alongside during our clinicals, these nurses are responsible for signing us off at the end of each placement. However if they are not around we find a nurse or member of the team to muck in with. My nurse education in the US needs to change and the way I see it you are shaping future nurses and just remember how you are can make us or break us .
Yes, very different than the way you describe. Here, we have s clinical instructor who is supposed to provide that support
Wow !!! Nursing in the US must be different in the UK we are assigned mentors who we have to work Alongside during our clinicals, these nurses are responsible for signing us off at the end of each placement. However if they are not around we find a nurse or member of the team to muck in with. My nurse education in the US needs to change and the way I see it you are shaping future nurses and just remember how you are can make us or break us .
I must respectfully disagree ... In my opinion, you make or break yourself. Nurses simply cannot be responsible for everything that happens to anyone, anywhere.
That said, I understand what you're saying ... That a bad experience early on in your career certainly can be damaging, depending on how you respond to it and you do have a choice about that.
You have no voice in the way your clinicals are organized by your school. The nurse has no voice in being forced to teach, regardless of her ability to do so.
I was once told by an instructor that nursing is the only profession where we eat our own young. That statement is very true. Although training someone can be very frustrating, please remember you didn't spring from nursing school knowing everything either. You were a student once, and someone took the time to teach you although they were busy and probably annoyed with you as well. Nursing is a very cut throat, judgemental profession. I don't know why everyone is so miserable, but it's very disheartening to be a student, eager to learn and be helpful and not get in the way; and the person chosen to instruct you treats you like a smudge on the bottom of their shoe. I understand some students are ignorant as well, but not everyone is. Report the student to their instructor and move on. And yes, I have been both the student and the instructor, and I still remember what is like.
As many of us try to point out, NO, it was not a staff nurse who instructed us. It was our clinical instructor, who is being paid to teach. This new trend of nursing schools throwing students onto working staff nurses and making it seem like it is their responsibility to do the job the students are paying tuition to the school for is indefensible. Absolutely indefensible.
airborneinf82, BSN
184 Posts
Not to mention the latest research suggests that gastric volumes of less than 500ml's is nothing of concern. Another study even suggested that checking residuals is an antiquated practice, at least in ventilated patients. Either way, pausing tube feedings is an old practice that is perpetuated by a lack of critical thinking, and as seen on here, a lambasting culture that those who don't get along are "killing" people.