What is your biggest pet peeve about being in nursing school or things that happened while you were in nursing school???
Don't you hate it when:
you study your *$$ off and still dont get an A!
when you hear nursing students say "ewww thats gross" or "it stinks in here, im gonna throw up" or "ew i cant chage a depends thats so gross" -that drives me nuts! i dont know how these students will make it in the world of nursing....
come on nursing students i know we all have something that really irks us about school (even though we all loooove it!)....
Here's a new one that just came up this past week....I had to go through a CPR class for my certs. I was paired with a girl in my class who is book smart, but very insecure about doing anything in demonstration. So, I was trying to help her with things, and MAN ALMIGHTY! This girl opens her mouth to talk and I am telling you, she could choke a goat with her breath! I have smelled some bad breath before but this was almost like rotted teeth or something. I am thinking she must have some serious dental issues. And I get stuck with her on 2 person CPR, thank god we used masks and bags, but still! I always have altoids because I am a coffee drinker, so I kept offering her mints all day...and of course she refused. I thought it might have been a one day thing for her, but she came up to talk to me yesterday and no, it wasn't. I feel bad for even venting this, but oh it was so hard to talk to her and not grimace or back away. I have been thinking about it and I am going to have to say something to her about it before long. I would not have any trouble saying anything to a pt (I worked psych for many years and most of my pts had ADL issues) but it seems to be so much harder to confront a peer with this kind of stuff. *SIGH* how do I get myself into these things?
To tell or not to tell...........That is a tough one. We have all eaten garlic and had bad breath for a day, but if it is an ongoing thing, she probably would want to know. I myself would be so afraid of hurting her feelings though, and then having to see her in class every day would be awful.
I once dated a really nice and cute guy, but he had bad breath. He would kiss me and I would subtely try to initiate some on the neck kissing. After 3 or 4 dates though, I realized that this would be an issue, and I made some excuse to stop seeing him.
See. that's the thing. I would want to know if it was me, but she is so insecure about everything, I know it will hurt her feelings. The other girls in class talk about her already, so I kind of feel sorry for her. I wonder if it would be better coming from me? I know when we get into clinicals, the instructors will say something to her, but should I just wait and let them do it or do it myself?
Alright I got to chime in here.... im a nursing student... in a diplioma program... i have worked in the ER for 5 years prior to school.... so many pet peeves...
1) Schedual Changes - We acutaly were going to get a poll going on how many times they were going to change our scheduals, and we do have people in our class that have to work, have familys... and have to rearage constantly to accomidate there changes... and thats no fair to nobody adn it pisses me off
2) the student who constantly is asking to leave early or talk about how to leave early
3) Cell phones dont bug me much... everybody has days they may forget to turn it off or on silent.. but if it happens 2 times in the same day... then im getting a little pissy...
Also if somebody has bad breath, simply tel them... hey im not trying to be mean or anything but your haveing a bad breath day... nicely... say it... thought you may want to know...
My biggest pet peeve, right now, is one of my classmate. She's ALWAYS late, even in clinicals. Last semester, she was with me in med-surg 3 clinicals and she'd arrived at the hospital at the same time as me (I arrive very early), but would still manage to arrive late on our floor, of course holding coffee and toasts. She's mean, and will argue (actually, just repeating the same few arguments again and again) just for the sake of having the last word! That girl has some serious issues.
Cell phones are also getting on my nerves, especially the ones with musical ring tones...:uhoh21:
Cell phones ringing in class, even once, is just rude and disrespectful to others. Mine goes on vibrate before i even get out of the car, and clips on the waistband of my jeans under my sweatshirt (i have to have one on because of work). Only work has called during class time, everyone else knows not to call unless a death has occured or someone has severed a limb.
I really hate our uniforms. They are ok colorwise (white top, dk blue pants), but I think our nursing instructors wanted us to be very uncomfortable during clinicals. The tops are almost double thickness as a regular scrub top and they are so hot, especially when we have to do a bath on a client, or if things get really busy on the floor. We have the same problems with our 3 different instructors teaching 3 different ways to do the same thing, then not knowing which way to do it at the hospital. I never knew so many nursing students were going through the exact same ordeal as my classmates and I am!!
Now that I'm in nursing school, I can't stand the ones who have been around the medical field and act like they know it all. People who were Army Medics or MA's or CNA's.
I'm a former Army medic and EMT. I do my best to keep my mouth totally shut during class, because I realize that I don't know "everything there is to know about nursing". I have garnered several pearls of wisdom from the instructors, and I appreciate the effort everyone makes to get through school.
However, realize that these folks you seem to disdain DO know quite a few things about medicine, and it gets REALLY old sitting in LONG lectures everyday (especially early on in classes), where MOST of the material is old hat to us. We can take BPs, qualify lung sounds, read EKGs, draw up injectable meds, chart, assess, etc. etc. ad nauseam. Consider how frustrated WE get listening to some dim bulb ask the SAME question over and over again (especially as break time nears and we desperately have to use the restroom! ).
There should be a way for schools to test out skills and didactic knowledge for people with some history, but sadly (due to $$$$ I suspect) there isn't. Also, and I don't know why it is so, but many students resent other students that are already skilled in some aspects of medical care. I mean, do you HAVE to be a 35 year nurse and a school instructor to have some knowledge and skills? So, in the meanwhile, consider that while you are stuck with us, WE are stuck with YOU.
In later nursing classes, there will be material that the medics, EMTs, MAs, CNAs, etc. have never seen or heard before; you'll then get to chuckle at their stupid questions and blank looks.
I am no longer a nursing student, I graduated last June, but I have a good story for this discussion.
I went to nursing school at a community college and there were about 60 students in my class. Most of our nursing instructors were very organized and very good teachers. There was one who was in administration and only came to teach the professional issues class (mostly legal stuff, also info about writing resumes, interviews, and stuff about unions). She was a terrible teacher, professional issues is boring enough, but she made it pure torture! She would pass out notes that looked like they were typed on a typewriter with huge words and only use one side of the paper, so there would be pages and pages of notes (talk about killing trees) and she couldn't spell to save her life! It seemed like every one of her lectures there was something wrong with the notes and she would blame her secretary. #1 How unprofessional is that, to blame someone who wasn't there and for all we knew didn't exist, #2 I'm sorry but if your secretary can't spell and can't get the right notes printed when you need them, you need to hire someone new.
Anyway, so we all hated this class, it was also at 8 am on Monday and almost always before a test or quiz. One day we were all in the classroom talking about some upcoming class thing before class started, she stood up in front of the class and cleared her throat. We had been discussing whatever was coming up, but most people stopped talking. Then she made some remark and told us how awful we were to treat her that way and she wasn't going to teach if we didn't want to listen and she stormed out of the class, I think she even slammed the door. Then she went to the nursing office and told everyone what an awful class we were, and she also told the administrators of the school how bad we were. (And she taught professional issues, no joke!)
Ok, most of the instructors could stand in front of the class like that and get our attention, but they also respected us. This instructor gave us no respect and treated us like idiots, so she didn't get much respect in return. I was sick the next class of hers and I didn't hear much about what happened, but I think she did give some sort of apology.
She also would sweat buckets in the hour that she taught and it was just disgusting! She would be as sweaty as an NBA basketball player. I know it wasn't her fault, but to see it dripping off of someone who was just standing there, eeeew!
how bout students who come unprepared to clincial then whine and cry when the either get a bad review or dont do well on their paperwork!
or those students who just dont get it...and i mean seriously dont get it...not students who need help or have questions but we have a girl who actually made this comment when she found out that her patient's (we are doing peds now) mother had 3 children (all biological) with either severe DD or MRDD...she says about the mother..."3 kids that are retarted? She must be crazy or something..."
What an absolutely awesome thread, I have been laughing my fanny off with some of these these. I graduated last year, and must say, I don't miss school. My biggest pet peeve was an instructor who thought she was seated at the right hand of the lord, and got that seat because when she went to nursing school, it was much more difficult. She would say the students of today have it easier. I felt like telling her look at your students you idiot, most were in the their 30's with children, marriages and jobs trying not to worry about paying back student loans and doing their damnest to pass. Come to find out, she went right to nursing school after high school, no tuition worries, family was wealthy Dad was a surgeon, no boyfriend (no surprise) didn't have to clean, cook, work, be a mother or wife. "Stupid is as stupid does".
...Come to find out, she went right to nursing school after high school, no tuition worries, family was wealthy Dad was a surgeon, no boyfriend (no surprise) didn't have to clean, cook, work, be a mother or wife. "Stupid is as stupid does".
Exactly!
What they also fail to tell you is that "back in the good ole days", most nursing programs were hospital-based, rather than school-based. Students could not be married, had to be under a certain age, outside relationships were STRONGLY discouraged, and for the first 6 months to a year, one NEVER left the facility! You lived there, ate there, slept there.
Add to it the amazing advancements in medicine over the last 25+ years; new drugs, treatments, etc. that today's students have to learn.
It makes me physically ill when the nursing instructors go on and on about "how much tougher WE had it in school". Bullsqueeze!
).
nursemelani
213 Posts
To tell or not to tell...........That is a tough one. We have all eaten garlic and had bad breath for a day, but if it is an ongoing thing, she probably would want to know. I myself would be so afraid of hurting her feelings though, and then having to see her in class every day would be awful.
I once dated a really nice and cute guy, but he had bad breath. He would kiss me and I would subtely try to initiate some on the neck kissing. After 3 or 4 dates though, I realized that this would be an issue, and I made some excuse to stop seeing him.