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.

[sallyrnrrt, ADN, RN]

We are working at our positions in the real world, per contract and getting paid...... The fact that our facility allows clinicals with nursing students is a blessing for you and your school.....but my first priority is me meeting my patients needs, if you can come along, observe, participated , without compromising my professional and legal responsibility.....I will help you with all my almost 45 yrs experience can give, if you can not observe, participate and interact without distraction, student, hang on cause we gonna roll. ....

[chacha82, ADN, BSN]

"I was making myself available to do the tasks that I believed that would help" - OP

This is part of the problem. Maybe you meant well but it's up to the host nurse to determine what your role will be. This attitude is what exhausts host nurses. Some students have a perception that floor nursing is "easy, what I really want is ICU" and how do you think that makes us floor nurses feel? To them if we're not slamming Narcan then "we're not doing anything." In our MICU rotation one of my classmates told me "There is nothing to do here." I looked at her like she had two heads. There is no shortage of tasks. But it is the host nurse's call what the students get to do and NOT up to the students to say "I need to give xyz meds today and also do an IV insert!"

[JadedCPN, BSN, RN]

I will say this. Maybe using the term "NETY" is too harsh but I will not excuse her attitude and behavior.... It's hard to not take something personally when you see the same person waving and smiling with everyone including the other student but snap at you with every word out your mouth...

It isn't that the term was too harsh, it is that the term was completely inaccurate for the situation that you described.

And it really shouldn't be that hard to not take something like that personal considering it is someone/something that should have little relevance on the big picture in your life. Maybe you did something to offend her without even realizing it. Or maybe she just dislikes you for no reason - either way, it shouldn't be something to stress about.

[Julius Seizure]

To address some of the questions, yes it was optional for her to say she didn't want a student because her coworker did. No, it was not optional for me to say that I wasn't going to be with her. I could not reassign myself and I do not believe she should've found me another assignement either.

OP, out of curiosity, do you know what the coworker's recourse was for refusing having a student? Like, did she tell the charge nurse that? Or call the student's clinical instructor? Or just tell the student to go away? Wondering how it worked there. Some places make it really difficult to decline taking a student.

[Aunt Slappy]

Seems to me it's the clinical instructor who completely failed in this situation.

[la_chica_suerte85, BSN, RN]

I appreciate your point of view but this was not the case. I teamed up with the MA that was helping with her patients. I didn't know at the time. She was perfectly fine with me cleaning up her patients and changing their linen. At first I questioned myself but after returning to that same floor and my other classmates experiencing the same thing. I wish shoe would just say that she did not want a student nurse. She gave conflicting emotions because she acted the way she did but also would say "If you have any questions, let me know!" I told my instructor and I just went around helping other people that wanted to be helped. My whole point is not to believe the other posts. They don't always work. I don't care about the nurse. I will just remember the way it was this day for me. If I am too busy I will let their instructor know.

None of the day should have gone this way. Either your instructor or the charge nurse could have assigned you to another nurse -- no nurse should have 2 students unless she/he has an exceptionally boring assignment. I've had this happen to me, too, especially in the beginning quarters where all we are really allowed to do is just do CNA stuff (which is incredibly important).

So, basically, you did all the stuff you should have been doing for a different nurse but you failed to get yourself assigned to a different nurse.

I'm sorry, but I do not see any evidence of any eating.

[la_chica_suerte85, BSN, RN]

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.

Your situation sounds more like you got a nasty bit of culture shock. Nothing happened the way you expected or the way you prepared for. That's lesson 1 in nursing: you can be the best prepared person out there but there's still something that is going to completely throw you off your game. It's so frustrating but you just gotta roll with it and remember that you can't make any assumptions about anything. Just because someone is a nurse does not mean that they have the ability to teach. Just because you perceive yourself to be a well-mannered, well-prepared eager nursing student, it doesn't mean that every nurse will be ready and able to take you under their wing. Assignments get messed up all the time, especially when there are multiple schools on the floor on the same days (which the units totally love, by the way). Nursing can be really messy, nursing school is even messier. Just do the best you can.

[la_chica_suerte85, BSN, RN]

I once had three students, and I was floating to that floor (for the first time)! Apparently every other nurse must have said that they didn't want a student that day

[Palliative Care, DNP]

You have received honest answers. I guess the question becomes do you want to be right or happy? Somewhere in these pages I think I read that you are now a new grad RN. So my advice to you is since you know better then do better. What I am saying is that you clearly feel that you were mistreated in clinical and lacked the appropriate opportunities. So what you need to do when the time comes is to offer all that you found lacking once you have students. Use this experience to pay it forward in a manner that you feel would benefit students.

[vanilla bean]

oops. reading comprehension problem. carry on.

[Sour Lemon]

Including the unearned credential of BSN after your username makes everything else you say suspect. It also suspiciously resembles ineffective communication and a sense of entitlement.

I think she's trying to say that people have insinuated (or outright said) that she does not have a BSN ...the wording is just very awkward.

[Aunt Slappy]

I do not have a BSN

Putting a credential after your name that you haven't earned violates the terms of service.

Why are you lying about having a degree you don't have?