Nurses Eating Nursing Students

Nurses Relations

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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.

Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho, ASC.
I remember my clinicals - I was assigned to 1 nurse who glared at me every time I offered to help make a bed, empty something. I spent 10 hrs with my mouth shut & watched, taking all the notes I could because I'd be writing care plans on those patients for my grade. Sometimes it is the luck of the draw who you are assigned to. Some are incredible teachers, some are not & some just don't want to teach you for whatever reason. I would had thought it would had been a perfect opportunity to have the last semester student doing teach back under supervision of RN & you learning.... But hey,,, maybe she was just having one of those crappy days & didn't have the decorum. You should have reported immediately to your Clinical Supervisor & ask for reassignment.

Soooo, a nurse with a (presumably) full assignment should not only accept 2 students, but arrange little threesomes throughout the shift in order to facilitate learning for the 2 students (for which the nurse is not compensated either in $$ or in lessening of her patient load).

I'm sorry, but until students/new grads have been there/done that, your opinions do not reflect reality. I mean that in the nicest way possible. You cannot possibly "get" it until you have had the experience.

And please - again: the floor nurse is not your instructor. Teaching nursing students is not remotely his/her responsibility. I cannot emphasize that strongly enough. You have an instructor who should be on the floor, assisting/tutoring the students. Don't say it can't be done: My CI did it with one hand tied behind her back.

Wow! These responses to this young nurses post is proof of how nasty nurses can be! I don't know if it's our culture or the fact that our career is made up of mostly women but I have never seen anything more catty!

I never took her post as looking for pity but perhaps as a new graduate she was reflecting back on her own experience in nursing school and possibly giving a forewarning to new nursing students who may experience or will very likely experience a Nurse Nasty. Those of you offended by her post should ask yourself why you were so offended? I hit dog will holler ....

And please - again: the floor nurse is not your instructor. Teaching nursing students is not remotely his/her responsibility. I cannot emphasize that strongly enough. You have an instructor who should be on the floor, assisting/tutoring the students. Don't say it can't be done: My CI did it with one hand tied behind her back.

^^ This, a hundred times.

In none of my clinical experiences or, later, as a clinical instructor, were the staff nurses ever expected to take any responsibility or put any time or effort into teaching the nursing students. This phenomenon of dumping nursing students on the staff and expecting them to do the clinical instructor's job is fairly recent and, guess what? Lots of staff nurses don't like it.

Specializes in ED, psych.
Wow! These responses to this young nurses post is proof of how nasty nurses can be! I don't know if it's our culture or the fact that our career is made up of mostly women but I have never seen anything more catty!

I never took her post as looking for pity but perhaps as a new graduate she was reflecting back on her own experience in nursing school and possibly giving a forewarning to new nursing students who may experience or will very likely experience a Nurse Nasty. Those of you offended by her post should ask yourself why you were so offended? I hit dog will holler ....

Awww. Here's the "reliable" friend! One post, just joined?

I think the only one offended? The OP... and you.

Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.
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 did not "volunteer my services" as you're trying to put it.

I did not volunteer my services or was begging for attention.

Goes back to the whole "communication" thing. You said something in your OP that other people addressed, then you said "I never said that."

That really doesn't sound like "eating their young" type behavior to me. I was flat out bullied by a nurse when I was a student. It was so bad that my school transferred me to a different hospital for that clinical rotation. That story sounds like a busy nurse who already had a student to teach that day. I would take it up with my clinical instructor.

Ya know? It's funny to me that after sharing my experience, I've been deemed as entitled, a bad communicator, I do not have a BSN (that's not offensive at all to those that don't), I need to tougher skin, I'm a cry baby and etc BUT what people don't seem to understand is that there's a way to communicate your point of view as well. Seasoned nurses should have the wisdom and intelligence to guide young nurses instead of attacking them. We are all different and will always have different stand points but being able to communicate that or changing someone's point of view will not change if you attack them. I can evaluate an opposing thought but accusing me of finger pointing and etc but then turn around do the same to me and anyone that agrees or see anything from my point of you is humorous.

Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho, ASC.
Awww. Here's the "reliable" friend! One post, just joined?

I think the only one offended? The OP... and you.

I actually think the OP is doing ok handling this.

Specializes in M/S, LTC, Corrections, PDN & drug rehab.

There was no NETY. You are just being selfish & self centered. Also, since you are currently in school you cannot have BSN following your name since you haven't earned it.

If these posts are any indication of how you are in real life, I could see how you rubbed the nurse the wrong way.

Specializes in M/S, LTC, Corrections, PDN & drug rehab.
Wow! These responses to this young nurses post is proof of how nasty nurses can be! I don't know if it's our culture or the fact that our career is made up of mostly women but I have never seen anything more catty!

I never took her post as looking for pity but perhaps as a new graduate she was reflecting back on her own experience in nursing school and possibly giving a forewarning to new nursing students who may experience or will very likely experience a Nurse Nasty. Those of you offended by her post should ask yourself why you were so offended? I hit dog will holler ....

Really? My mom has been treated worse by her former boss than this student was (my mom is not a nurse). In fact, the OP wasn't treated terribly at all. Did the OP make a second account? That's against the TOS.

I think some of the newer nurses are astounded (or don't really believe) that most of us who came down the pike more than a few years ago had clinical instructors that took full responsibility for teaching their students.

I was NEVER supposed to rely on the staff nurse to teach me. I had to report things I'd done or let her know about changes in her patient's status. I know she went over the MARs behind me (her responsibility to her patient didn't go away just because I was there) to make sure everything got done. Occasionally she'd offer me pearls of wisdom if we happened to cross paths. But she was NOT responsible for teaching me. Why would she be? That would be incredibly crass of my university to try to use staff nurses as FREE labor, all the while charging ME tuition for...INSTRUCTION.

My CIs were on site every minute. They were there to teach us nursing. They NEVER threw us onto the floor nurses and disappeared. It's only recently I guess that schools are pulling this on hospitals. How great is it for them that they can take on too many students, charge them out the wazoo for tuition, inflict the students on the staff nurses, then try to make the nurses feel GUILTY for not wanting to provide free services for them, all the while giving the students the impression that that staff nurses (who have absolutely zero affiliation with the school) have some kind of noble obligation to take on students with no compensation or reduction of patient load? You know, because those nurses were students once, too. Not only that, the student nurses go into the situation believing that they are somehow lessening the work load of the staff nurse, not adding to it. And apparently they graduate still believing that!

It boggles the mind that this is apparently becoming SOP now.

Wow!

I never took her post as looking for pity but perhaps as a new graduate she was reflecting back on her own experience in nursing school and possibly giving a forewarning to new nursing students who may experience or will very likely experience a Nurse Nasty.

Exactly what is the point of scaring the crap out of new nursing students with absolutely no suggestions on how to handle it? That's right...there is no point. Using an inflammatory title to open a post that was more about hurt feelings than anything else serves little purpose. And then to devalue the suggestions given by other posters on other threads because they didn't work for her on that particular day was odious. FTR, just because posters here did not agree with the OP doesn't make them nasty. Yes the precepting nurse was disagreeable, and no I don't treat my orientees like that but we are only hearing one side of the story.

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