New grads on the Floor.

[LVN2010M]

ok well i hear that alot of nurses do not like to mentor the new grads.

is it because we are new and dont have much experience and nurses get annoyed with us? or are we simply a drag. while doing my clinical hours i have encountered alot of good and bad mentors.but mostly bad its as if we are bugging them i tyr to stay out of the way and just take notes on what they do but even that buggs some of the nurse why is this? is it because they do not remember what it was like being a new grad or a student?

i would like to get some feedback thank yout so much. and what can i do to try and be a charming new grad/student on the floor. =]

:nuke:

[traumaQN]

Ruby Vee- I couldn't have said it better myself. No really, I couldn't. I have thought for a few days now I nice way of responding to this post, but failed miserably. Kudos to you.

[traumaQN]

And I am not a total hag and hate all students and a crab ass. But I am continually frustrated with students such as Ally0981 who seem to think they know everything and are "too good" to wipe poop off the floor.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

ruby vee- i couldn't have said it better myself. no really, i couldn't. i have thought for a few days now i nice way of responding to this post, but failed miserably. kudos to you.

thanks! i really tried -- but i was sure i'd get slammed for lacking compassion for newbies and forgetting what it was like to be one myself!

[Christen, ANP]

I am a clinical instructor for the school I graduated from. I am fortunate enough to work in a teaching hospital which means that the staff has pretty much accepted the role of the Nurse as an Educator.

I've found that the floors or units that students work on who don't welcome students are generally a unit you wouldn't want to work on when you get out of school anyway. At my facility we look at the students as an opportunity for recruitement and while they are exhausting we appreciate getting to try them out before we sign them on, so to speak.

As a student, remember that you're there as a guest and try to not step on any toes. But also remember that you are there to learn and that teaching is exhausting. My first few weeks of teaching my students I went home immediately and fell right asleep. The added energy needed to teach can be a bit much for some nurses. When you get a nurse who you can tell doesn't want you to be there and switching nurses isn't an option, just try to learn what you can - be it her method of organization by observing her, trying to figure out how she's making her plan of care for her patients, or just how not to act when you're in her shoes! There's always something to learn.

[Susan9608]

I like having nursing students. It's fun for me to have someone to talk to (the way my ICU is set up makes us all rather isolated), and I generally love to talk about nursing, so it's great to have a captive audience.

Often times, though, I find that students in my unit tend to pick patients (they usually have to pick their patients by themselves, with no assistance from an instructor) who have been on the unit for a long time. I think this is because these patients are generally off their vents and such, and therefore seem less intimidating to the students. But, this backfires in a way, because they have so much more information to wade through and often times spend their whole clinical day trying to get me to help them finish their paperwork. That I find frustrating, not because I don't want to help, but because the information is there and I just don't have time. Also, with the patients who have been on the unit for a long time and are improving, they generally don't have much "exciting" going on ... no inotropic drips, no major dressing changes, no major lab work, etc. So then students complain to me about being "bored." I think this whole situation could be greatly improved if the instructors would assist them in choosing their patients.

When it comes to new grads, I've only precepted one, and I was absolutely terrified the whole time. I kept thinking I was setting the foundation for this person's whole nursing practice - she was going to pick up all of my bad habits and bad attitude and so on and so forth. Every day, I had to wrack my brain to make sure I was doing the best job for her, to provide her with appropriate patients and assignments, to intervene on her behalf when people treated her like an aide, to run interference for her with the doctors who don't like new grads in the ICU, etc. And I was terrified of failing.

It's a big responsibility, training someone, and knowing that if you don't do a good job, then perhaps that individual's nursing career won't be as good.

I don't know if I'll precept new grads again ... not because I didn't like doing it or because I resent new grads or whatever ... but because I'm afraid I can't give them the best experience possible. My facility currently allows me this choice, but I know some don't. And can you imagine being forced to be a preceptor, knowing you aren't any good at it? I think that might account for some of the "attitude" new grads say they encounter.