Nurses with stank attitudes.

NurseforPreggers · Sep 21, 2005

I just wanted to say that the title of your thread made me LOL. :roll

PickMePlze · Sep 21, 2005

I just wanted to say that the title of your thread made me LOL. :roll

I know its crazy, but that the first adjective that came to mind :rotfl: I was thinking today if I had a dollar for every hateful nurse I'll probably come across as a student nurse, I could probably pay off my tuition. Just thought I'd add I have had a few great nurses that went out of their way to help us learn but they are few and far between.

NurseforPreggers · Sep 22, 2005

Those stank attitudes don't go away once you aren't a student anymore. There will always be aids, secretaries, housekeepers, nurses, charge nurses, managers, and doctors with stank attitudes. Don't let those people stand in the way of your success.

ZASHAGALKA, RN · Sep 22, 2005

OK. Let me play devil's advocate. This is an edited version of a post I made on a similar thread. For the record, no comments are made about anybody here since this is essentially an old post:

Let me be controversial:

I remember going through some of that in nursing school. I remember one nurse telling me to my face that us 'd&% men' didn't get into nursing until there was money to be made and she'd have none of the getting the gravy without paying the dues.

My advice: welcome to nursing, now grow a thicker skin.

What you fail to understand is that all these mean, grouchy nurses aren't your paid clinical instructors. They get no benefit from teaching you and certainly aren't paid more for it. And every question you ask, every interaction that sidetracks them from their 6-7 patients and 15 things that they have prioritized to do - every one of those stolen minutes can be taken as an affront to the time away from their patients; time they already regret not having enough to spend because being a 'light speed soldier' wasn't what they envisioned when they started.

Every minute spent with you is a minute not spent with a patient that needs their attention; it's a minute not getting Mr. Jones his morphine or making sure Mrs. Smith isn't climbing over the bedrails, again!

You have 2 clinical patients; "your" nurse has 3 times that. And maybe just maybe, she considers himself to be the nurse for "her" 6 patients, not your personal tutor. In fact, there is somebody right their for you during your rotations that is actually paid for that function.

In alot of places, the trenches are ugly. It's all nice and well to talk about how they should know where you're coming from and be nice for the welfare of the profession, yada yada yada.

In reality, many nurses just want to get through their shifts. It's great to be an idealist, but there are many things about nursing that can make you jaded over time. Is it right? I'm not saying that it is.

I don't think that it's quite fair to impose your point of view on somebody who's point of view you haven't had the experience to comment upon.

(but as another side point, many - not most - but many students ask questions designed to show how smart they are or how appalled they are that we don't do things 'by the book' in the trenches. --- you want to annoy someone's who attention is already in 30 places by the time you expect them to cater to your learning experience? Just ask questions that don't actually seek knowledge but instead attempt to show what a great student you are.)

There, I said it. I don't share the point of view that students are an annoyance, but I can certainly understand it when you are already completely overburden just trying to find the glimpses here and there that remind you that you are, in fact, trying to be a so-called 'angel' and not a moral punching bag for others.

You might not be the cause, but when "your" nurse was overwhelmed 4 burdens ago, it's completely reasonable to see the next burden, and the next, and finally you students, yet another burden (and any distraction, however noble, by that point is a burden) as more than can be dealt with. If being short with you intimidates you so that "your" nurse feel she has the time to be "thier" (her 6-7 patients) nurse, then, oh well.

Yes, you are there to get an education but that doesn't 'entitle' you to command the precious time and empathy from somebody that is already stretched to the limits on both.

~faith,

Timothy.

(edit: let me add rereading this that there is a 'tone' here that was a response to a like tone. It's hard to edit out a 'tone' even though it's not intended here. So evaluate the comments but try to ignore that tone- - it wasn't intended, here.).

Roy Fokker, BSN, RN · Sep 22, 2005

I worked with 2 nurses so far. One was kinda non-existant (in that I never got to see her... wasn't exactly her fault, it was a horrible day for all concerned). The other was a male nurse - who seemed markedly.... cool. As in cold and reserved

I just shruged my shoulders and went at it the best I could.

I usually don't go to the nurse unless it is something I feel I really need to let them know about my patient or if pt. requests pain med etc. etc.

I sure as heck bug the hell out of my instructor though

In a way, I'm kinda happy being let loose on my own - to tell you the truth. The only questions I ask the nurses are : 1. charting proceedures. 2. Disposal proceedures. 3. labeling proceedures. For questions on where I can get stuff, I ask the aides or the secretaries. For literally any and all other quetions - I ask my instructor (I figure it's her job to be there for us so might as well use her).

Granted - no amount of job stress should give you the right to be an ogre to someone else. But it's easy enough to dismiss what they might be going through.

I'm not saying that your sentiments are inappropriate or wrong - just offering my perspective :)

PickMePlze · Sep 22, 2005

OK. Let me play devil's advocate. This is an edited version of a post I made on a similar thread. For the record, no comments are made about anybody here since this is essentially an old post:
Let me be controversial:
I remember going through some of that in nursing school. I remember one nurse telling me to my face that us 'd&% men' didn't get into nursing until there was money to be made and she'd have none of the getting the gravy without paying the dues.
My advice: welcome to nursing, now grow a thicker skin.
What you fail to understand is that all these mean, grouchy nurses aren't your paid clinical instructors. They get no benefit from teaching you and certainly aren't paid more for it. And every question you ask, every interaction that sidetracks them from their 6-7 patients and 15 things that they have prioritized to do - every one of those stolen minutes can be taken as an affront to the time away from their patients; time they already regret not having enough to spend because being a 'light speed soldier' wasn't what they envisioned when they started.
Every minute spent with you is a minute not spent with a patient that needs their attention; it's a minute not getting Mr. Jones his morphine or making sure Mrs. Smith isn't climbing over the bedrails, again!
You have 2 clinical patients; "your" nurse has 3 times that. And maybe just maybe, she considers himself to be the nurse for "her" 6 patients, not your personal tutor. In fact, there is somebody right their for you during your rotations that is actually paid for that function.
In alot of places, the trenches are ugly. It's all nice and well to talk about how they should know where you're coming from and be nice for the welfare of the profession, yada yada yada.
In reality, many nurses just want to get through their shifts. It's great to be an idealist, but there are many things about nursing that can make you jaded over time. Is it right? I'm not saying that it is.
I don't think that it's quite fair to impose your point of view on somebody who's point of view you haven't had the experience to comment upon.
(but as another side point, many - not most - but many students ask questions designed to show how smart they are or how appalled they are that we don't do things 'by the book' in the trenches. --- you want to annoy someone's who attention is already in 30 places by the time you expect them to cater to your learning experience? Just ask questions that don't actually seek knowledge but instead attempt to show what a great student you are.)
There, I said it. I don't share the point of view that students are an annoyance, but I can certainly understand it when you are already completely overburden just trying to find the glimpses here and there that remind you that you are, in fact, trying to be a so-called 'angel' and not a moral punching bag for others.
You might not be the cause, but when "your" nurse was overwhelmed 4 burdens ago, it's completely reasonable to see the next burden, and the next, and finally you students, yet another burden (and any distraction, however noble, by that point is a burden) as more than can be dealt with. If being short with you intimidates you so that "your" nurse feel she has the time to be "thier" (her 6-7 patients) nurse, then, oh well.
Yes, you are there to get an education but that doesn't 'entitle' you to command the precious time and empathy from somebody that is already stretched to the limits on both.
~faith,
Timothy.
(edit: let me add rereading this that there is a 'tone' here that was a response to a like tone. It's hard to edit out a 'tone' even though it's not intended here. So evaluate the comments but try to ignore that tone- - it wasn't intended, here.).

I understand your post, but the nurses we work with are not expected to hold our hand and baby us the entire clinical day. I know they don't owe me a cotton picking thing. I know they have a job to do, common sense tells me that. All we do is observe their first assessment and that's about it. Really no further contact. All of our teaching and interaction comes from our instructor, the way it should be, IMO because that's what I'm paying my tuition for. I don't understand how that can be considered a burden on a nurse considering they have one less patient to worry about while we are there. The nurse I worked with today even admitted at the end of the day that I helped her out a lot because she had so many patients to tend to. Now how that warrants a nasty attitude, I don't know.

I am a 29 year old woman with plenty of work experience with the public and I know people will have different personalities. It just amazes me sometimes how cold some people can be, because that is not a part of my personality. I'd rather a nurse just say, " I don't want to nursing student today" and leave it at that than for them to be bitter and nasty for the rest of the day.

elizabells, BSN, RN · Sep 22, 2005

I had a bit of an epiphany today re impatient nurses: I've actually had v good experiences so far, but I was flushing a line today w/ the nurse watching, and I realized that it probably took me at least three times longer than it would have taken if she had just done it herself. I felt awful, even though she was really nice about it. On the other hand, I also do things like ambulate pts, change beds, and a lot of other stuff totally on my own that would take up nurses or aids' time. So I think it's a balance.

And, for the second time both this week and EVER, I agree with Z up there. Wow, Tim, I think the tide is turning! :chuckle

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · Sep 22, 2005

Alright, i'm going to post this here, and i'll probably post it on another separate thread as well.

I've said, since i started this job, that i have a real problem with a student scrubbing in on case(s) in the OR even with their instructor present. Well, decided today to make a partial exception. Student wanted to scrub in, instructor wanted her to. Ok, well, asked the instructor "are you going to be here during this case?" and she said "oh, of course." Ok, student and instructor both scrub, get dressed, etc. While the pt. was getting draped (had my back turned toward the door, but my eye on the student and the back table), the instructor had quietly slipped out the door. I find that out after i turned around. Was not thrilled to be lied to. But thought "ok, i'll just keep a sharp eye out."

To make a long story short, i had told the student over and over what could be touched, what couldn't be, etc (i was nice, FTR). Contaminated herself 4 times (twice touching her hat, twice scratching her face on the mask), luckily the field was fine, pt. was fine. And luckily this was a short case. I don't blame the student at all. It was my fault for allowing this, and the instructor's for lying to me.(as i speak i'm working on a letter to the school about that stunt.)

But i will NEVER again do that!!!!! Wasn't fair to everyone in the room. We had enough to do without watching another person like a hawk. Not to mention to do my job and watch what she did was a BIG distraction, which can annoy the surgeon really fast.

So it's not fair to make a rule for all because of the actions of one? That's just too bad. I can't risk pt. safety like that in the future again. It shouldn't have been done in the first place for that very reason.

And i say this, as a graduate of 2004, still a new nurse. I turned down the offer to scrub in on my OR rotation for the reasons i already stated.

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · Sep 22, 2005

I don't understand how that can be considered a burden on a nurse considering they have one less patient to worry about while we are there.

Technically it can be, since that was their pt. before the instructor took them on. The nurse typically had to double check to make sure that what that pt. need got done before her shift is up, or it's her butt.

fergus51 · Sep 22, 2005

No offense, but that kind of attitude is why my home hospital couldn't recruit into the OR. I wouldn't expect students to scrub in, but I would hope they would at least be welcomed to observe and participate in ways that are safe. I hope a blanket ban isn't the answer to your bad student.

Personally, I don't think there is any excuse for staff nurses to be rude to students. Yes, I'm a staff nurse and there are days that I am stressed and running around like a fool. But, I haven't forgotten that I was once a student too and if we aren't welcoming to them as students they sure aren't going to apply to work with us as nurses. That just makes the shortage worse.

HeartsOpenWide, RN · Sep 22, 2005

ZASHAGALKA

you write very well. I do not look forward to being in that position. I KNOW that you can not go into for the money because you are not paid nearly as much as your worth...but all these young people in my class are "going in for it for the money" but will not admit it Yet, one says she wants to work med surg becaus she does not like people and at least they will be asleep...And they will not know what hit them when they get there. I am not a nurse yet but I have worked in the medical field for over three years and I kinda know how it is.

"Oh, we can not pay you for the cost of living, and your in deep trouble if you get over time, but I gotta drive off in my porsh..." Not to say that doctors are not under paid, but it is and insult. KWIM