New Nurses Poorly Educated

CEN35 · Aug 10, 2001

Well students are asigned to nurses......and they are supposed to help them, and observe them do procedures. I for one don't mind........I try to teach students that come to the ER, everything I can (when I have time).

When I have time? hmmmmmm there is the problem...... we all know some procedures on patients can take way longer than others......then when you piled up with stuff to do, it gets worse. Then you need to get caaught up which sometimes never happens. So they get a limited experience.

I always tell them ahead of time..........we don't want to be slow........but we dont want to be jam packed fill the halls up, and endless codes...........you want it in the middle or your time down here tonight will suck.

The other thing also.........I know our school didnt let students do IV's, or bloood draws..........because of alleged insurance issues r/t aids/hiv/hepatitits stuff.

So yeah they are going to come through...............with less and less experience......and the worse the nursing drought is.......the worse their experiences will be.

Just my 2 cents

nurseleigh · Aug 10, 2001

This is so sad. I am a student and am scared enough going into college, much less getting to go to work.

I hear stories of nurses that don't want to help out the "student nurse" or "new hire." These are usually the same nurses that sit around whining about low staffing levels and mandatory overtime. :eek: How do you plan on getting better staffing levels if you don't want to help train the newbee?????

Also, as a student I don't feel I should have to go out of my way to make sure that I am properly trained(though i will). It seems to me that they are trying to push us through school to get us into the workplace.

I think it is great that you all feel so highly about helping out the new and student nurses. Keep up the good work. I only hope that i get a nurse as understanding assigned to me when i join the ranks of nurses!:)

PhantomRN · Aug 10, 2001

There are few career feilds that school teaches all the skills needed to perform the job. Nursing is not unigue it is normal. I have a sister getting her BS in programming and she has already been told that she will need a solid year to become proficient in her field....sound familiar?

Yes, I realize that programmers do not deal with life and death issues it was just an example. We are like others when we get out of school we have a head full of theory that is supposed to quide us in our decision making processes.

Each hospital is different. They each have their own policy and procedures and when you get out you will learn how to do things THEIR way. Yes, the basics of putting in a foley is the same no matter where you work, but each hospital will go through the process of showing you their procedure to memorize. They will have there own little ways about things- like the type used, how long it stays in, where they are located etc.

Do I feel like I learned enough to venture out on my own after graduation. NO, but that is what orientation is for to learn the techie stuff and to ASK questions about anything you are unsure of.

Michelle_nurse · Aug 10, 2001

Hi

I just graduated and I feel like there are some skills that I got short changed on, in school.

I have never inserted an IV or hung a bag (besides in the lab), never done trach care, never removed clips, never inserted an NG (yet took care of one pt /c one).

I did millions of injections, drsgs, po meds, 1 catheter on a woman, a few suctions, VS, assessments, 1 bld drawing attempt. , seen many surgeries (3 days in the OR) plus many C sections, a craniotomy, many deliveries, and general tests, scans etc.

The point is students are expected to be "nurses", yet are only treated like nurses at the convenient time, like when something went wrong....very often the student is the first to be blamed. In my experience there are some good nurses who show the ropes like it is, and there are some that could not be bothered, think of the student as a burden, or take advantage.......and let the student do EVERYTHING!!!

We are shown text book style and not always like it is. We have so many papers, presentations, journals etc. that less focus is on the pratical part. They skipped the bld transfusion lab!! Some teachers are more concerned /c if we have earrings in or if a strand of hair fell down from our bun!

I have been working for 2 months as a nurse pending licence (wrote the Canadian exam 2 days ago), and I have learned a lot....but when you start as a new grad, there are a lot of expectations, and we look stupid when we don't know what to do. I have enough stress starting a new job title (now nurse, instead of nurses aid), on a floor where I know no one, where everyone is french except me (french is my second language).....the last thing I need is the stress of "how do I do this???"

Everyone talks behind everyones back, and as soon as a nurse doesn't know something, it appears to everyone as though the nurse is incompetent. Hanging an IV is not that difficult!!!

Some teachers in school are wonderful, and some aren't. Sometimes experiences are not there, geriatrics and psychiatry did not help us practice our manual nursing skills at all. (not that I disliked the rotations).

I think sometimes the nurses don't want to show a procedure is because they don't have the time or patience, or forget what it is like...Reminder...We do not wake up one morning with every nursing procedure mastered!

I love my job, but it really takes some getting used to, I work on a floor when everyone is old enough to be my parent and I am the only new grad, it can be discouraging at times, everyone does their work, and I sometimes feel like the young looking, English new grad burden.

I am sorry...I just realized I was venting! I seems like all this bothers me, more than I thought.

Teachers and nurses.....HELP NURSING STUDENTS.....IT WILL SAVE TIME LATER!!!!!!

Michelle:confused:

NicuGal, MSN, RN · Aug 10, 2001

I have to say...the new girls we are getting aren't well prepared clinically! I graduated 15 years ago and most of the workforce came from diploma grads who had tons of clinical....now it seems that we are getting the BSN prepared girls and they have hardly had any clinical! They have never put in an IV, given med, dropped an NG, etc. That is a bit scary! When we were in school we were sent to the holding room at the OR for our IV skills...and we put in IV's all day for about 2 days. We spent 6-9 weeks in ICU and CCU...we spent just as much time on the other services. We started clinicals 3 months into starting nursing school....and we jumped in with both feet. We had to do every procedure on our patients with our instructers assistance. The other thing that I don't like is that the nursing students are left with the staff...where are the instructers? We were put on a few floors and the instructors floated about. The nurses would let us know if something needed done and offer us the opportunity to do it. We would call the instuctor and they came and did it with us. Now, they expect the nurses to be responsible for it. I am not an instructor and that is not my place. And I really feel that way. What if something happens...then who is liable...me.

I think that the nursing schools need to better prepare these people for the real world. The new girls we get are so disillusioned when we get them. They can't believe we don't get lunch or breaks if we are busy. I feel bad for anyone coming into the nursing profession at this time! I am very thankful for the rough and rigid nursing school I went to!!!!!!

RNinMay · Aug 10, 2001

I just graduated this past May. When I was in school, clinicals were one instructior to twelve students. Most of the time the instructors spent all day pulling meds out of the Pyxis system instead of teaching anybody anything. We were told the staff nurses could do procedures with us IF THEY FELT COMFORTABLE DOING SO. If not then we called the instructor and hoped the nurse didn't get tired of waiting for them to show up and do it themselves. These nurses were slammed with too many patients, and I understand that they didn't have the time or the patience to go slow and show a student everything, plus answer all their questions. Let's try to see it from thier point of view. As much as they may love to help a student, the fact is that they are there to do a job, and they barely have time to do it without having to look after a student.

I think the best thing a nursing student can do is to work as a PCT, nurse's aide, whatever they call it where you live. I worked every weekend while I was in school, and the nurses showed me all kinds of things. I got much more experience and learned so much more than I did in school. It also helps you with time management and prioritizing because you have to organize your day in order to get everything done.

AND------I went right into the ICU. I know some RNs don't think new grads should go straight to a specialty, but I personally think I am getting a BETTER orientation there than I would on the med surg floor. I have a 6 month orientation, complete with critical care class for 10 weeks and my own preceptor. I have been there a month, and am loving every minute! The staff on my unit is WONDERFUL!!! THey are happy that I want to work there, and even though lots of them are veteran RNs (like 20 years), they know that when you graduate from school you don't know jack! They don't expect me to come out knowing everything. I am so lucky.

In addition to a shortage of bedside nurses, there appears to be a shortage of nursing instructors as well. Some of my teachers taught 2 classes and had 2 clinical groups. Not to mention part-time jobs to keep up their nursing skills! They were as worn out as we were!!

nursedarlene · Aug 11, 2001

I just graduated in May this year, and my experience in clinicals was that there were so many of us ( 10-12) assigned to 1 clinical instructor. We had the oppprtunity to do many procedures, but our instructor had to be with us B4 we could do it. Being that there was so many of us it was hard for us to get to do anything. By the time she would finish up with one student, the nurse would already have done the procedure herself, because she didnt have time to wait. I am a new nurse, and I am very scared in the REAL world. So many things are different in the real world than what you learn in school. Because I never got to do many things in clinical I am unsure of myself. I always get another nurse to go in with me if I am doing something that I have never done B4, and they dont mind it one bit. I work with a great group of understanding people!!

melissa_i · Aug 22, 2001

hi everyone! let me introduce myself, as this is my first post EVER. i am a medical secretary in LDRP and am taking A & P this fall as a precursor to nursing school in 2002. i read this thread with interest as i am anticipating what clinicals will be like. i have watched our nurses, many of them with 20+ years, training the student nurses and one thing, over all, has been impressed on me. RN's LOVE students who are eager and ask to do or observe procedures. so, if i am to take anything away from my "on-the-floor" experience, it is don't be afraid to bug the heck out of the nurses you are working with.

also, i would suggest if you receive any negative feedback from the nurses you are training with, don't be afraid to talk to your teacher or supervisor for resolution.

MRed94 · Aug 23, 2001

I am going to second or third the notion that "if you don't open your mouth and TELL somebody that you want to learn or do, it won't happen!"

I bet I put in every foley in the hospital while I was on rotations there, cause I let somebody know that I wanted to!

Not quite 600, but a few, I meant.....But, I got really, really good at it.

All the nurses where I work know that I usually get it in without a bit of fuss, and they leave me notes to let me know when they need them done.

They, in turn, help me out with the procedures that I don't do as well, this way.

I had opportunities to do and see many, many things while in school, and wouldn't have if I hadn't said anything.

I graduated having a lot of hands on skills, but ONLY because I didn't settle for less.

Make it happen!

imaRN · Aug 23, 2001

It is sooooo sad that many new nurses don't get the "hands on" experience that they and their patients deserve!

The best advice I got from an instructor was "Don't wait to be asked, if you hear of something going on ...Get In There, if they Really don't want you there they will ask/tell you to leave"

I personally never realized that I would be "teaching" I never wanted to be a teacher, and now I am on my unit, like all the other Staff Nurses. BUT... Students don't want the classroom version, they want the "Real World" the "down and dirty" version, and that I am always willing to dish out....imaRN

Stormy · Aug 23, 2001

The med/surg floors in my hospital hired several undergrads for extra help during the summer. It has been a terrific benefit for the staff as well as the students. They were able to obtain a lot of extra experience that they wouldn't otherwise have gotten. They will be much better prepared when they graduate in a years time.

puzzler · Aug 23, 2001

One thing that I have noticed in the last few years is that the students are being shown/taught to do procedures by the floor nurses. It takes a lot longer to show someone how to do something or to watch a new person do something than it does to do it yourself.

The nurses are usually short staffed as it is and really do not have the extra time it takes to do the teaching of students. Where are the nursing instructors?? :confused: When I was doing clinicals our instructors were responsible for teaching us not the staff nurse.

I work in a teaching hospital and we have students the majority of the time. Some instructors are there and help their students, other instructors are nowhere to be found when a student wants to do a procedure.

All I can really say is if we want the new grads to have good skills we have to take the time to teach them at some point, either as students or new grad employees.

Hope you all have a good shift