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.

[AvaRose]

This sounds a lot like most of my clinicals. The difference was that we as students had to sign a form that stated we were not allowed to change assignments no matter what. So if we were assigned a nurse that hated students (and there were more of these than nurses who liked to have students or even tolerated them) we were stuck with the assignment and often left floating around bringing water to patients because we were told to stay out of the way and don't touch anything (especially in Peds...I think I did direct care once on a CPS case because my nurse didn't want to be bothered with staying in the room to feed the baby and put him back under the bili light). Anyway, I got good at circumventing the don't change assignments rule and "helping" my fellow students who had nurses who were more tolerant of teaching or at least letting us observe procedures. Still when I took my first nursing job I felt rather behind in skills because there were many things (PEG tube feedings, Foley insertion, and even IV starts) that I had either never seen or done or just barely had a chance to try for myself. However thanks to my own efforts I did get to change the dressing on a chest tube, assist in a code (compressions), and see 3 births during L&D clinical. So the OP isn't entirely to blame but could have worked around the situation better and the nurse perhaps shouldn't be on the rotation for having students without a discussion of some kind with the CI.

[jvelasq89, ADN, BSN, CNA, EMT-B]

I love to teach students in the ICU however sometimes things can become very busy and the patient always takes priority in that situation. I have no doubt that some nurses truly do not like to teach and that is okay, but the majority love to and are more than willing to if the workload permits.

[Horseshoe, BSN, RN]

So the OP isn't entirely to blame but could have worked around the situation better and the nurse perhaps shouldn't be on the rotation for having students without a discussion of some kind with the CI.

The staff nurse apparently was FINE to be on the rotation for taking students. She just didn't want two of them, especially since she was already supervising a senior nursing student in her last semester.

[AvaRose]

Perhaps she should have spoken up to the CI then and said that and/or the CI should have escorted the student to the nurse to make introductions and would have heard from the nurse's mouth that she had a senior student already and could have figured something out. It never worked this way during my clinical rotations because the stupid paper my school made us sign but it likely would have worked better for the OP. That or perhaps the schools should cultivate relationships with the floor nurses to make sure they are good with having students even knowing that sometimes they will have more than one student at a time. Clinical time is very limited and students are at a HUGE disadvantage when they don't have someone to work with them on skills they will have to be able to perform when they start working. I'm still trying to catch up to where I should have been after clinicals (working at a crappy SNF isn't helping that much though...time to start the job hunt again as a last resort to giving up nursing completely). There has to be a better way to handle clinical students.

[Horseshoe, BSN, RN]

Perhaps she should have spoken up to the CI then and said that and/or the CI should have escorted the student to the nurse to make introductions and would have heard from the nurse's mouth that she had a senior student already and could have figured something out. It never worked this way during my clinical rotations because the stupid paper my school made us sign but it likely would have worked better for the OP. That or perhaps the schools should cultivate relationships with the floor nurses to make sure they are good with having students even knowing that sometimes they will have more than one student at a time. Clinical time is very limited and students are at a HUGE disadvantage when they don't have someone to work with them on skills they will have to be able to perform when they start working. I'm still trying to catch up to where I should have been after clinicals (working at a crappy SNF isn't helping that much though...time to start the job hunt again as a last resort to giving up nursing completely). There has to be a better way to handle clinical students.

The burden for assuring that the student gets a proper assignment should NEVER lie with the staff nurse. It should ALWAYS fall at the feet of the CI. That is who is being paid by the school to teach, that is the person with the affiliation with the school. Of COURSE the CI should have made the introductions, and OF COURSE the CI should have asked the nurse personally in advance if she would be willing to take on a student. Why is this even something to wonder about?

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

Perhaps she should have spoken up to the CI then and said that and/or the CI should have escorted the student to the nurse to make introductions and would have heard from the nurse's mouth that she had a senior student already and could have figured something out. It never worked this way during my clinical rotations because the stupid paper my school made us sign but it likely would have worked better for the OP. That or perhaps the schools should cultivate relationships with the floor nurses to make sure they are good with having students even knowing that sometimes they will have more than one student at a time. Clinical time is very limited and students are at a HUGE disadvantage when they don't have someone to work with them on skills they will have to be able to perform when they start working. I'm still trying to catch up to where I should have been after clinicals (working at a crappy SNF isn't helping that much though...time to start the job hunt again as a last resort to giving up nursing completely). There has to be a better way to handle clinical students.

You don't seem to understand that it isn't all about the student. The patients are the ones it's all about. Floor nurses should absolutely not have to take more than one student at a time, ESPECIALLY if they haven't agreed to it in advance and have a special plan for the day. It doesn't matter how HUGE of a disadvantage to the student if they don't have someone to work with -- the instructor should have verified that her assignments were were possible, and the OP should have contacted the instructor as soon as she was told that her assignment was not possible. The floor nurse is in no way to blame. Cisobel and the clinical instructor were at fault.

[rlrncde1969]

Having been a nurse for 46 years, this concept of nurses "eating their young" has disgusted me. The attitude the experienced nurse in the above situation exhibited says a lot about the kind of nurse she would be, lack of empathy, lack of ability to expand one's horizons a little and take care of any contingency. If she cannot even allow a student nurse to tag along and watch, maybe she should get into another line of work. We are all student nurses at some point, and if we want competent, caring nurses to come along and replace us when we retire, we have a responsibility to nourish them and show them how to do it right. Treating them with such disdain is not how to do that. As I raised my children, one of the joys I found was introducing the world around us to them and seeing how excited they would get with each new discovery they made exploring. It is the same with helping student nurses and new nurses. Showing them how joyful and fulfilling, and hard, nursing can be and how to truly care for their patients, how to do procedures right, easier and faster opens your own eyes to see what a wonderful blessing it is to be a nurse.

[Wuzzie]

Having been a nurse for 46 years, this concept of nurses "eating their young" has disgusted me. The attitude the experienced nurse in the above situation exhibited says a lot about the kind of nurse she would be, lack of empathy, lack of ability to expand one's horizons a little and take care of any contingency. If she cannot even allow a student nurse to tag along and watch, maybe she should get into another line of work. We are all student nurses at some point, and if we want competent, caring nurses to come along and replace us when we retire, we have a responsibility to nourish them and show them how to do it right. Treating them with such disdain is not how to do that. As I raised my children, one of the joys I found was introducing the world around us to them and seeing how excited they would get with each new discovery they made exploring. It is the same with helping student nurses and new nurses. Showing them how joyful and fulfilling, and hard, nursing can be and how to truly care for their patients, how to do procedures right, easier and faster opens your own eyes to see what a wonderful blessing it is to be a nurse.

Have you read any of the posts? She already HAD a student and a senior one at that. She let the student know that she was going to have to focus on the senior student and her needs which are entirely different from a first year student. She did the right thing. She asked the student to let her CI know about the situation. The student chose not to. If she had taken BOTH of them neither student would have had the joyful and fulfilling experience they deserved.

[rlrncde1969]

Yes I read the posts and there were many times that I had multiple students following me. It isn't that big of a problem to get them helping and explain things to them. It actually would be a lot of fun, even if a little more complicated. And indeed is is joyful, if your attitude is right.

[heron, ASN, RN]

Yes I read the posts and there were many times that I had multiple students following me. It isn't that big of a problem to get them helping and explain things to them. It actually would be a lot of fun, even if a little more complicated. And indeed is is joyful, if your attitude is right.

You being the arbiter of what constitutes the "right" attitude, of course.

[Wuzzie]

Yes I read the posts and there were many times that I had multiple students following me. It isn't that big of a problem to get them helping and explain things to them. It actually would be a lot of fun, even if a little more complicated. And indeed is is joyful, if your attitude is right.

But the needs of the senior student are significantly different than the needs of a first clinic student so it would have been extremely unfair to one of them for that nurse to have taken both of them. And you implied that the nurse refused to take any students which is not even the least bit true. She knew her limitations and was well within her right to state she did not want a second student. You have no idea what her assignment was like nor do you know how she really communicated her position yet you are accusing her of having a bad attitude. Having multiple students is a mess and a disaster waiting to happen. I can't imagine what it would be like for the patient. Rounds are bad enough without that circus continuing all day long.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

Yes I read the posts and there were many times that I had multiple students following me. It isn't that big of a problem to get them helping and explain things to them. It actually would be a lot of fun, even if a little more complicated. And indeed is is joyful, if your attitude is right.

It is one thing to have multiple students at about the same level following you and quite another to have a senior student preparing to graduate and another student on her very first day of clinical. For one thing, most of the time when I've been partnered with a senior student for their capstone course, part of the agreement is that I not precept new employees or other nursing students at the same time my senior student is on the unit. That expectation is taken seriously, both by our manager and by the clinical instructor of the senior student. For another, the senior student may not wish to be followed by a more junior student but may instead wish to have the privacy to ask "stupid questions". For another, the more junior student (as would appear to be the case with the OP) may not just "follow" quietly, but may pre-empt the senior student's time with the nurse.

As far as "joyful" and "right attitude", I suppose you would be the one to decide if the situation would be joyful for all concerned and/or if the attitude is "right"? Because others are saying that it would be very difficult for them. MANY others are saying that. Most of the posters, in fact. While I hesitate to refer to your posts as malarky, I am tempted.