Nurses Eating Nursing Students

[Cisabel]

It was our first day stepping foot on the floor.

We were lost.

We were scared.

We've all been there. If you haven't yet, you will. Some of us were sweating. Some of us were shaking. Some of us were quiet. The one thing that we did have in common is that we were all scared. Here we are, stepping on a floor, full of patients that we needed to take care of but we knew NOTHING. "Go find your nurse" is what our instructor told us. Slowly, we strolled to the different pods and introduced ourselves.

As I approached the nurse that I was to shadow the entire day, I became increasingly relaxed. She was an older nurse that looked mothering and I believed that I was going to learn a lot that day. "Ms. Martha? Hi. I'm Charlotte. I'll be your student nurse today" I widened my eyes and mustered the best smile possible, considering it is 6:30am. I was greeted with a blank stare, followed with an up and down glance that could make a dead man's veins run cold. She finally said, "Hmmmm. I already have a student nurse that is in her last semester. I need to focus on her and help her graduate. Where's your clinical instructor? Can you just be with her? If you have questions, you can ask. I just need to focus on my other student."

Let's fast forward this day. My patient went to dialysis, meaning I will not have anything to do for 4-6 hours of my 10 hour day. Because my patient was gone, I volunteered my services for her other patients. I volunteered to empty foley bags, change bedsheets or whatever other tasks or errands that needed to be done. I asked questions. After the attempts of basically begging her to let me help her were denied, I even asked if I could just watch her and shadow her without even being acknowledged. (Mind you this was my first day. I know I sounded like a sad puppy but I had no idea of what else to do). Unsurprisingly, she shot those requests down as well. This is only a small insight to how my first day went.

This is living proof that the advice that some nurses give about why nurses eat their young and all of things to do to avoid it is all FALSE!! "Make yourself available". Did that. "Ask questions and act interested". Did that. "Make sure to not come off as a know it all". Did that. "Sometimes, nurses are very busy and teaching a student will disrupt them blah blah blah!"

If you are a nurse and do not want a nursing student, JUST SAY IT! It is very unfortunate that there are some nurses out there that do not want to teach. The cornerstone of nursing is teaching. You must teach the family and patient constantly during their visit. Also, "each one, teach one" should be taken to heart. Think about when you first became a nurse. You were frightened and scared.

Fellow nursing comrades, if this has happened to you or if this ever happens to in the future, take it with stride. It is difficult to work with and hard to not take it personally. Just remember that day and vow to never EVER treat someone that is willing to learn and help with disgrace.

[OrganizedChaos, LVN]

OK, obviously I'm erring in my communication, because I am not trying to insult anyone. So again, sorry. I believe in precepting. I was not there, but have been the recipient of such behavior and maybe that's why I believed. So I will retract anything about the nurse being impolite, because like you said, I was not there. I have obviously failed to communicate what I was thinking, judging from the response. I will not comment any further.

Thank you. Precepting *is* important and the floor nurse was doing just that. Unfortunately that day the OP got a raw deal because her CI didn't do any research as to if the floor nurse was available to precept *or* to try to get the OP with another nurse. But it all falls on the CI because s/he is the instructor & is responsible for what the students learn (or don't).

[JoannieO]

I do not know what nurse you had to mentor you, but I would have contacted my nursing instructor or at least document everything that happened that day and present it to your instructor or a higher command. I've had nursing students with me on a busy IV team and in a Visiting Nurse Service in a very busy crime city (!), and took the time to explain things to her. The behavior of the older nurse was unacceptable. Simply document your day and hopefully you will find another nurse to mentor with you. BTW, this is good practice in nursing. Not every day will be delightful with co-workers but as you get more experienced, you will learn to deal with different situations professionally and such that you do not take it personally. It is more about her than it is about you. Godspeed on your journey in nursing. Respectfully, -Joan

[NurseLauraM]

I realize the OP is already out of school but in case any students are reading this, I want to add that no clinical day has to be a waste if you're resourceful. If you have already told everyone on the floor that you're available to help and there's truly nothing you can do for them, you can...

- Practice skills with whatever tools are available to you in the hospital (for example, I used to practice priming IVs during med-surge 1). Obviously don't use too many because you'll start costing the hospital

- Study

- Visit with patients (as appropriate). Some of them would kill to have anyone to talk to, especially the ones who have been there a long time or don't have family. I found that many of the elderly patients have amazing stories and wisdom to share.

- Branch out beyond just the nurses and CNAs. See if you can shadow an MD, NP, PA, respiratory therapist, nutritionist, etc. for a consult or cool procedure

- Talk to your classmates about their patients... even if they don't need help they might've learned something useful they can share with you

- And if you really, really have nothing else to do... read the news. You can never be too up-to-date on current events!

[OrganizedChaos, LVN]

I realize the OP is already out of school but in case any students are reading this, I want to add that no clinical day has to be a waste if you're resourceful. If you have already told everyone on the floor that you're available to help and there's truly nothing you can do for them, you can...

- Practice skills with whatever tools are available to you in the hospital (for example, I used to practice priming IVs during med-surge 1). Obviously don't use too many because you'll start costing the hospital

- Study

- Visit with patients (as appropriate). Some of them would kill to have anyone to talk to, especially the ones who have been there a long time or don't have family. I found that many of the elderly patients have amazing stories and wisdom to share.

- Branch out beyond just the nurses and CNAs. See if you can shadow an MD, NP, PA, respiratory therapist, nutritionist, etc. for a consult or cool procedure

- Talk to your classmates about their patients... even if they don't need help they might've learned something useful they can share with you

- And if you really, really have nothing else to do... read the news. You can never be too up-to-date on current events!

I will definitely be using this advice when I go back to school. It is great!

[NurseLauraM]

I will definitely be using this advice when I go back to school. It is great!

So glad you found it helpful! Best of luck in your future studies :)

[OrganizedChaos, LVN]

So glad you found it helpful! Best of luck in your future studies :)

Thank you! I have a feeling I will do better (not that I didn't do well in my LVN program) in my bridge program since now I have everyone on AN.

[doodlebuttRN]

I did not mean to offend you or anyone else. The post was not about who could precept, but about it being a requirement for a professional. All of my nursing preceptors were ADN or diploma nurses. In the BSN portion it was drilled into us about nursing as a profession and the expectations. I did not really learn anything clinical doing my BSN. Perhaps this topic is more appropriate for another topic. I did not understand your comments about my obvious disdain for other levels of nurses or about my colleagues attitude towards me? What did you mean or what are you referring to? If you got the wrong impression I would have to have my posts proofread in the future.

I was referring to the insinuation you made that "if you are a BSN (therefore not applicable to ADN or LPN) you know that being a professional requires that you teach what you know." All nurses teach, precept, and educate, not just BSNs. I appreciate your response that you did not mean to offend, but I read that comment as a slight toward the rest of us without BSNs who are also professionals and do plenty of teaching.

[elkpark]

How else does a person get through clinicals. A CI cannot take responsibility for multiple patients at the same time. The patients are not assigned to her. If she has several students on the floor and more on a different floor, how does that work?

I disagreed with everything you wrote in this post, but just wanted to highlight this particular portion. My clinical instructors all the way through my nursing program supervised all of the students in clinical just fine. They stayed busy all day; they didn't spend any time sitting on their butts, chit-chatting with their friends in the hospital, as I have observed in some settings over the years -- they took responsibility for educating and supervising the students. In fact, in my experience (as a student and as an instructor in a few different nursing programs), the staff nurses were not allowed to supervise the students giving medication or doing any kind of procedure. As I said earlier on this thread (IIRC), at no point in my nursing experience as a student, or, later, as a clinical instructor myself, have the nursing staff been expected to put any time of effort into teaching nursing students. That has been the sole responsibility of the clinical instructor employed and provided by the school, and that is how I believe it should be. I have no respect whatsoever for schools that dump this responsibility on staff nurses.

[TriciaJ, RN]

I realize the OP is already out of school but in case any students are reading this, I want to add that no clinical day has to be a waste if you're resourceful. If you have already told everyone on the floor that you're available to help and there's truly nothing you can do for them, you can...

- Practice skills with whatever tools are available to you in the hospital (for example, I used to practice priming IVs during med-surge 1). Obviously don't use too many because you'll start costing the hospital

- Study

- Visit with patients (as appropriate). Some of them would kill to have anyone to talk to, especially the ones who have been there a long time or don't have family. I found that many of the elderly patients have amazing stories and wisdom to share.

- Branch out beyond just the nurses and CNAs. See if you can shadow an MD, NP, PA, respiratory therapist, nutritionist, etc. for a consult or cool procedure

- Talk to your classmates about their patients... even if they don't need help they might've learned something useful they can share with you

- And if you really, really have nothing else to do... read the news. You can never be too up-to-date on current events!

Good advice except for a couple of things. Do not use any hospital supplies for practice; they will take a dim view of wasting even a few things. Everything adds up. And do not let anyone catch you reading a newspaper or anything else not work-related. They won't know how hard you tried to find something productive to do; they'll just think you're not self-directed.

Great idea to round on the patients. Pop in and ask everyone how they're doing. Maybe they need a water refill. Maybe their IV has infiltrated and they don't want to "bother" their nurse. (If you can't fix it, they you can bother their nurse before more damage is done. And look like Johnny-on-the-spot.) Empty a laundry hamper. Go into the dirty utility room and find something to wash, before someone needs it and has to wash it on the fly.

If you can't find anything productive to do, you're either not looking hard enough, or I want to work there.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

I do not know what nurse you had to mentor you, but I would have contacted my nursing instructor or at least document everything that happened that day and present it to your instructor or a higher command. I've had nursing students with me on a busy IV team and in a Visiting Nurse Service in a very busy crime city (!), and took the time to explain things to her. The behavior of the older nurse was unacceptable. Simply document your day and hopefully you will find another nurse to mentor with you. BTW, this is good practice in nursing. Not every day will be delightful with co-workers but as you get more experienced, you will learn to deal with different situations professionally and such that you do not take it personally. It is more about her than it is about you. Godspeed on your journey in nursing. Respectfully, -Joan

We have no one's word but Cisobel's that the older nurse was rude, snarky, disrespectful or impolite. Cisobel does not seem to be a reliable reporter.

[sevensonnets]

Agreed, Ruby. If she is actually a nurse now, what's the point of bringing that story up anyway?

[RescueNinjaKy]

Nursing students need to realize this point. Even if you act all eager to learn and help, you aren't always helping. Having a nursing student "helping" me actually translates into the task being done slower than I would have done it, not to mention the time I would've have spent educating and explaining various other things. Don't get me wrong, I like to teach and I have no issue if I get a nursing student if my assignment is appropriate and only if it is one nursing student. So please, do not take it as a blow to your ego, that you were eager to help yet you were still rejected. Heck, I've precepted new employees before and they slowed me down too.

Now in your situation, the nurse had been up front with you. She already had a senior nursing student. This also means that the nursing student will have a wider scope of tasks and duties as it is their final year. Translation: the nurse is relinquishing even more control to teach this student which could mean that she's gonna be more behind. As far as not allowing you to shadow you, I honestly would not be comfortable having a student just shadow me. If they're going to be following me, I'm gonna have to explain because they would've wasted a precious clinical day otherwise. I don't care what the student wants or says, they simply deserve better, and as such if I can't provide it due to my already hectic work load with another student, I rather refuse and have them assigned to another nurse.

As far as to whether the nurse was making rude remarks or saying things that aren't true, I have no way of knowing. But I do want to say that I have seen cases in which I would never believe a person would do such a thing and then the next thing you know I see them doing it to a stranger. Some people are just really good at hiding it, and some might only be that way with certain people.