Nurses see us coming for clinical and RUN away from us. Irritating!

Published

I swear every week when we go to our floor for clinicals the nurses pratically run away from us. The charge nurse on the floor tell us to just get with someone and last week every nurse I went to said they didn't want a student. I ran out of people to ask and I went in the breakroom and sat down until finally a nurse who doesn't like students took me. It was horrible. I watched the clock all day. To me this is the worst part of nursing school to me.

Its as if no one remembers when they were in nursing school and the way nurses either made you feel welcomed or like crap. Last semester the charge nurses had us assigned and had reports printed for us. It was great but this semester.. negative. 1 more semester after this, Cant wait to be done!!!!

Where is your clinical instructor in this scenario? What is her/his role?

she is spit between two floors some with ten of us, she must have said something to the charge because i ended up with a nurse, she gave me one of her patients and i did do everything for my patient however the day started out rough and that bothers me, im over it, 1 more clinical rotation

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in GYN/GON/Med-Surg/Oncology/Tele.

Our clinical instructor assigns us patients. We're put with whatever nurse has that assignment. I can't stand it when nurses act as if they were never students themselves. I'm not a big fan of training someone but I remember that I was once the trainee and take on the task anyway! It takes away from your clinical experience when you don't have receptive nurses! I swear some of them need to get off of their pedestals and stop eating their young!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Operating Room.

Just finished my clinical on a geriatric floor and the staff was at times very nasty and rude to us. Some of them plain and simple were burnt out, but often times they just didn't want to help or acted as if we were bothering them. Maybe it was because we were students and they saw us as being in the way, and I learned right away who to ask help from and who not to. I was more than happy when those six weeks ended, and as the saying goes "nurses eat their young" and I don't understand why some of them are just so nasty and won't help.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Sorry to hear you had such a bad experience. We have had the opposite experience for our rotations which may or may not be due to the fact that it's a teaching hospital. All of the nurses, docs etc expect to have students around and so far everybody I've met has been more than accommodating. We go in the day before to pick our own patients and gather information on them (when our rotation takes us somewhere like the medical or surgical floors, obviously we can't do write-ups the day before in ER or OR rotations) and then do a write-up that night on the patho, procedures and all medications that are used. This means that we usually know more about our patient than our nurse, and so far I haven't had a nurse that has had an obvious problem with having a student. More nurses than not have been happy to have us around because it means we can answer the call lights for those needy patients while they were getting their charting done. That means they have more time to spend teaching us how to perform those foleys, enemas etc.

I find it interesting that so many nurses here have complaints about students not wanting to do procedures because they've already done it once, or because it's 'icky'. As students, we get a free pass when we make mistakes (unless it's a major one), and this is the time to practice practice practice! It doesn't matter if you've performed a procedure once, the more you practice it the faster you'll get, which is essential once you're thrown to the wolves as a new grad and starting to figure out just how much you really don't know! I completely understand a nurse getting frustrated with a student taking 3x as long for something they see as mundane, but students shouldn't give them any other reason to be frustrated. We're there to learn, and need to take advantage of every learning experience that we can, even if that experience is just honing our skills!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

As a student we ran into this in the beginning but after about 3 clinicals the nurses saw we were serious and willing to do whatever needed done no matter how dirty the job. We emptied laundry bags, made beds, cleaned patients, fed patients and proved that we wanted to be there and were willing to learn. Now as we approach our last week of clinicals on this particular floor, the nurses have said they are going to miss us. They have let us shadow them and offer to let us do things whenever the opportunity arises. It took time to prove ourselves and in their defense it's their job on the line if anything goes wrong with their patient, so they just needed to build some trust and once they did it's been absolutely wonderful and we are so grateful for all of the learning opportunities we have had....................

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med/Surg.
I'll tell you why I don't like being "partnered" with a random nursing student - even though I do enjoy teaching students.

1. We are not given any information about the student - weaknesses, strengths, experience. Just this is Jane. She is going to be partnered with you today.

2. We are not given any information about what the student can/cannot do. As this varies from college to college and university to university, it does not help me to say "1st year School A" because what School A lets their students do and what school B lets their students do is differet and I can't remember who can do what.

3. Students slow me down. I know this is not their fault, but I still have to get all my work done, student or not. If I let the student do a procedure it will take 3 times as long - and this takes time away from my other patients.

4. I am never asked for my feedback at the end of my time with the student. What is the point of me noticing that the student did not know the med I was supervising them giving if I can't pass this info along?

I also dislike it when I tell a student that I have a pt that needs a foley, enema whatever, and they are not interested because "I've done one" or "enemas are gross".

I think students should be assigned pts based on their educational needs, and the instuctor should supervise them.

I wish my clinicals went this way! I just finished up my first semester clinicals a few weeks ago, so we are allowed to perform foleys, enemas, injections and NG tubes and I was disappointed that the only nursing act I was given the chance to do was a blood sugar test, as well as passing meds. If I had a nurse who had a task to offer to me, I'd jump on it without a second thought!

I would love for our nurses to give us feedback at the end, and I think it would be great if the nurses were given some background info on us before we started working with them.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Dementia.

Well, I dont think its every facility thats like that..... Each workplace has different moods and attutudes whether students are there or not... It depends on alot of things. Look at it this way; Now you know where NOT to apply for a job when you pass nclex. I wouldnt wanna work there.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Im in first semster and we are assigned a patient with a nurse. Our instructor keeps tabs on all procedures that need to be performed and meds. If we have any questions we text her and she is there. She also has 10+ students. It definately helps if the nurses are willing to teach, but I have found that they are really happy to have us there taking care of the patients. The school Im at we cannot give meds, insert Foley, DC foley....anything without our instructor. So the nurses are not responsible.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med Surg - Renal.
Where is your clinical instructor in this scenario? What is her/his role?

Exactly. This is a problem with your instructor and school.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

It's always been this way unfortunately! When I trained, '86-89' students worked on the wards as members of staff before the degree route took over &, as so many people feel, the standard of nursing declined.

The RNs treated us like slaves, at best & ignored us at worst! Many spent all day in the office & we never saw them! If we asked questions we were treated as being an irritation!

We started with, I think, 4 weeks in school then onto the wards for 8 week 'placements', covering all specialities, with a week in school between. We worked full-time, days, nights, weekends. We also had all our course work and assignments to complete as well as studying for our end of course exams which were tough!

We were the staff on the ward!! There would be 1, or 2 if you were very lucky, RNs & the rest of the staff were students! Some 1st year, some 2nd year & some 3rd. We had to do everything! I was changing catheters, doing complex dressings, passing NG tubes, giving enemas, suppositories etc., removing drains, sutures, clips, and whatever else I was asked to do, within a few weeks!

As I was 34 when I started my course RNs tended to think that I could do everything! I did what I could but only, obviously, if I knew how to do it & was confident that I could do it safely. Perhaps, being older, I had more confidence than some of the younger students & would always ask, if a new task, procedure etc. needed doing, if I could try it, no matter how much I did not want to!

Not all students had even basic common sense &, thinking back, I'm surprised that all our patients survived, but they did, in spite of us!

I worry now how students learn to do all the procedures. Some come out of training having done very little & have to start learning when qualified. If you are the only RN on the unit this could, obviously, cause problems.

The only way that you can learn is by doing things. If the RNs cannot or will not support you they should not be working in a training facility! If this happens you must speak to your tutor immediately, ask for support or ask to be moved. It won't make you popular but it will preserve your sanity & ensure that you get the help you need.

Be pleasant, offer to help, show that you are eager & willing to learn. If this does not work your placement will be a torment & a waste of time. As you, rightly, say some RNs seem to forget what it's like to be a student.

I wish you well for the future. You will get there in the end! Let me know what happens!! xxxx

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Im a student nurse (almost done!) from america living in the netherlands for my nursing school. Its pretty hardcore here when it comes to instructing students. First, instructors are required to as part of their job to instruct students. This is usually for a period of 20 weeks (we have 3 internships during the 4 year program, each being about 20 weeks long). Besides explaining things to students, theyre expected to give feedback and evaluate with the student every day and evaluate twice every period with their university teacher about how the student is doing. Instructors are also expected to check assignments of the students and correct these as well. Whats crazy is that students even have to prepare themselves to be instrctors in the future by taking other students and instructing them for a day. (As my friend jokingly said, even our interns have interns!)

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Thank you for posting this, I couldn't relate to you more. My experience in clinical has really been a rude awakening to the career/field that I feel so passionate about and love so much. This aspect at clinicals has surely sent me questioning what I am signed up for.

In my program there are a group of us split between two floors, and our clinical instructor does her best to attend to all of us running back and forth between the two levels. While we are technically "shadowing" a nurse, we are also independent in that our instructor takes time to go through a lot of the skills/check-offs with us when it is needed. Nonetheless, nothing is more disheartening and discouraging than to start my clinical round with a nurse who is rolling her eyes and brushing me off. In my experience I believe this attitude has something to do with leadership perpetuated on a particular level of the hospital. I have spent most of my time on a floor where the charge nurse be-littles us and often puts us on the spot in front of everyone by asking us rhetorical questions that feel more like judgements than teaching. (Which I heard is often done to her employees as well). On the other hand, my experience on another floor was quite the opposite. The nurses were still busy, but there was more of an air of welcome just walking up to the nurse station. The nurses are smiling and saying hello, and when we are on our shift, they approach us with "cool" skills to pass along. In a casual conversation with that floor's charge nurse one day, she told me that she loved nursing school and had the most fun in her clinical experiences. This is completely obvious by the attitude that is rampant among the nurses on that floor. Perhaps here is the correlation to the nurses who are more helpful, and the ones who want to run and hide?

While I certainly understand these nurses are working hard, and aren't asked if they wanted a student or not - nor do I know when/if they do get a break from students, as this hospital serves quite a few schools in the area. I would have no problem with a nurse clearly stating to me that she was too busy to teach; however, there is a "nice" way to go about this and then there is the eye rolling, sighs, ignoring, belittling, etc. I feel adamantly that a nurse has every right to protect her license and her job as a priority over teaching students, but I am also left wondering how her clinical experiences were when this communication is practiced in a superficial manner. We are all in a career that requires compassion and understanding on all levels, and if this negative light is constantly shed on teaching students then where is the future of nursing going to be? How can I be faithful that the way a nurse acts towards me isn't exactly the same way that she will be acting towards her patients? This is a vicious cycle. While I have felt a bit battered and bruised from a few less than favorable conversations, I am taking away a positive aspect - a promise to myself to always share the same smile and passion I have for taking care of my patients to the scared, nervous nursing students waiting for a nurse to take him/her under her wings and guide her into this great profession. Nursing does not stop after the bedside.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion