Never wanna take students again.

[remotefuse]

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.

Rant over.

[kittypants247]

It is upsetting to see posts like this. I am an FNP student and looking.... Hopelessly looking for an FNP to precept me. I feel like this feeling that students are a pain is part of what makes finding a preceptor so hard even at the MSN level. I have worked with new nurses and trained them and I had some difficult ones but worked through it but I know not everyone likes students or has the patience to deal with them all the time. I have been sending letters to prospective preceptors and making calls. I want to call them ask what their thoughts are and what are the chances they might be willing to precept me.... But I don't want to bother them too much or have them annoyed with me before I even meet them. I just want someone to take a chance on me. I guess some bad students end up ruining it for all of us....

[OCNRN63, RN]

I quit reading at "Nurses eat their young."

Whenever someone drags out the hackneyed "NETY" I not only stop reading, I consider anything s/he has to say to be NWOT. (There's one for you..."Not Worthy Of My Time.)

[NurseKizzy]

I'm a current student and an LPN & this is my very reason for not telling the nurses at the clinical sites that I am an LPN(my program isn't LPN-RN). One, I want the same amount of training my classmates receive & two I don't want anyone to expect that I've experienced everything. I understand we all can get frustrated in any job that we hold, but this is classic "nurses eating their young." You should have requested an immediate conversation with the clinical instructor right then & there. Everybody has to start somewhere. I feel sorry for those on both sides, but feel especially sorry for the nurse that wrote this post because you & others like you make students like me feel they way we do when we arrive at the clinical sites. Like garbage, so thank you 😢

[RNikkiF]

Idk what kind of students you guys get, but I have never had one act that way. And if they did, you can BET I won't be quiet about it. I also think it's important for a person to remember where they came from. Including nurses.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

I'm a current student and an LPN & this is my very reason for not telling the nurses at the clinical sites that I am an LPN(my program isn't LPN-RN). One, I want the same amount of training my classmates receive & two I don't want anyone to expect that I've experienced everything. I understand we all can get frustrated in any job that we hold, but this is classic "nurses eating their young." You should have requested an immediate conversation with the clinical instructor right then & there. Everybody has to start somewhere. I feel sorry for those on both sides, but feel especially sorry for the nurse that wrote this post because you & others like you make students like me feel they way we do when we arrive at the clinical sites. Like garbage, so thank you ������

There is no such thing as "Classic nurses eating their young," and even if there were, this would not be an example of the phenomenon. The student in this case refused to let the RN verify that the feeding pump was safely on hold (pushing buttons without being asked and not turning the pole so that the RN could see the face of the pump) or that the antibiotic was infusing as intended. Despite instructions on how the RN wanted the patient turned, she turned the patient in a different way -- she'd been an LPN for years and she knew better. But she wasn't in that hospital in that setting as an LPN; she was there as a student.

The RN was quite correct (and very brave) in taking the student out of the room and not letting her come back. How would you trust such a person that she was doing things the way you asked and not the way she felt was "better"? The student in that scenerio was in the wrong. There was no "young eating" unless you figure that the older and more experienced STUDENT was eating the new grad RN.

Wasn't it Eleanor Roosevelt who said "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."? If you're feeling like garbage when you arrive at a clinical site, you need to rethink whatever it is that you're doing to allow yourself to feel that way.