"Graduating & Not Ready"

Nurses Safety

Published

Please tell me if I'm crazy, but my class will be graduating in two weeks and I am frustrated with a couple of people who are just not ready. They bug me all day at clinicals for help and are truely not ready for Safe patient care. One actually asked me today (while reading her drug book) "what benzodiazapine is". I mean really? We graduate in 14 days and you don't know? I follow her around all day trying to make sure she doesn't hurt anyone. Today I heard her telling her patiet to stop moving because her IV was going to come out. I go into the room and find the patient wraped in the IV tubing. I'm helping her get the pt untangled when "lil miss" "I'm not ready to graduate either" walks into the room (Great, now I stuck in there with two incompetent students) The phone begins to ring just as she walked through the door, she looks at me like I'm crazy and say's "aren't you going to answer the phone". I returned the look and nicely said NO. When all fails and you have no idea of what to say or do when you enter a patients room, always always fall back on the nursing process. ASSESS the situation, priority #1, get the poor little patient untangled from the IV tubing before you answer the phone. I MEAN REALLY?

Sorry for rambling I just can't believe these are the people I'm about to graduate with.

Specializes in PICU now, Peds and med-surg in the past.
Not to be rude, but you certainly seem a little on your "high horse". I don't think it is up to you to determine whether or not people are "ready" for nursing in the real world.

Remember, you are about to be a new grad RN....and with that should come a lot of humility. And by humility, I mean you should be very humble, because believe me, you have a lot ahead of you. At least those girls are humble enough to ask questions instead of just assume they know because they dont' want to be humble and look stupid in front of other nurses. Humility is what safe practice is all about.

Sound like you have a lot to learn.

And I think you meant to say..."do you know what A benzodiazepine is"

I think, as far as I'm concerned, I'm more worried about the new nurse who feels they don't have to/shouldn't ask questions then I am about the nurse who asks a ton. That nurse will learn and likely be successful while the other may likely make a serious mistake because they are too confident too soon. :eek:

Specializes in Psych/CD/Medical/Emp Hlth/Staff ED.

The safest new grads are the ones who realize at the end of nursing school how much they don't know.

Seriously? If there is one thing that can be said about me it's that I've never had a high horse to sit on. I sold everything I own including my car to pay for this program. I don't think for one minute that I have it all figured out. What I do know though is that students who flunk out and overdose their patients should not be secretly given a retest and allowed to stay in the program. But I guess that's what happens when you're the Nursing Directors neice. What I didn't say in my earlier post is that an hour before the IV tubing incident I entered our patients room to find her crying, I assessed her pain at a # 8 and informed the student nurse who was responsible for her meds. I found her an hour later discussing the situation with the instructor. She had never went in to see the patient to assess her for herself and she told the instructor that the patient was crying and requested ativan. I am a true patient advocate, that poor women had been in pain for over an hour and her student nurse didn't have the common sense needed to at least go in and check on her. There is no excuse for that. That upset me, it also upset the clinical instructor. 3 people found out yesterday that they would not be pinned with us and I'm happy to say that she was one of them. It was no surprise to find out that her pharm grade was only a 69. This is a years's worth of frustration, from finding her patient under 2 blankets, unbathed, sitting in hours worth of urine, right after she documented bathing, to her doing false assessments so that she could make it to the cafeteria before they stopped serving breakfast. Trust me, in my evaluations the one thing that my instructor always tells me is that she loves how I am never afraid to say "I don't know". She wasn't making "New Grad" mistakes yall, She was intentionally incompetent and neglectful. Sorry if that upset some of you.

In the mean time, graduation is only a couple of weeks away, woooohoooo!!!

Not to be rude, but you certainly seem a little on your "high horse". I don't think it is up to you to determine whether or not people are "ready" for nursing in the real world.

Remember, you are about to be a new grad RN....and with that should come a lot of humility. And by humility, I mean you should be very humble, because believe me, you have a lot ahead of you. At least those girls are humble enough to ask questions instead of just assume they know because they dont' want to be humble and look stupid in front of other nurses. Humility is what safe practice is all about.

Sound like you have a lot to learn.

And I think you meant to say..."do you know what A benzodiazepine is"

No, she asked "what IS benzodiazepine". Not here nor there though. She spent all day yesterday crying I'm sure because she found out that the final exam can't pull her pharm grade up enough to pass. And rightfully so. I completely understand the type of person you think I am, I have some of them in my class now, But I was not speaking of "everyday mistakes" that all nursing students make, myself included. I'm was speaking of a young lady who falsely documented care, overdosed patients, and who was intentionally neglectful. I agree with you about humility and being humble, I learned that lesson a long time ago.

Specializes in Nursing Eduator.

The first “venting” might have come across a little strong and maybe a little harsh. However, you are the only one that truly knows the situation. We are not here to judge anyone in life. I am a relatively new nurse myself and yes there were some student in my class that needed more help than others. But, and I say BUT, they had other qualities to contribute to the nursing field that are also very important..Compassion, humility, advocacy, integrity things that cannot be just learned in nursing school. It is not up to you or anyone else besides the Instructor and the patients that are under her care to decide and NCLEX as well. You will find that when you walk out on to the floor to start your first RN job, you truly only know the basics. Every day I look things up and every day I ask questions and every day I learn something new. It will be this way for the rest of anyone’s nursing career. I dare say the day that I know EVERYTHING is the day that I will be dead(and maybe not even then)… It is the responsibility of the nurse to learn, ask questions, practice safely and with compassion and in the best interest of the patient/client. I am sure you know this already! On a side note; sometimes those that need the most help turn out to be those that help the most…..Congrats on your graduation! and Good luck in your career!

Specializes in PACU, OR.

OP, from your second vent it appears that you have some very valid concerns regarding your fellow student's choice of career, but as some of the excellent replies have pointed out, she is not your concern; you and your graduation are your concern.

Hopefully the young lady you describe will either get a wake-up call and improve her performance, or be weeded out before she permanently harms a patient.

That said, I encountered many nurses who were shocking at theory, but did fine in practical. One RN I know seems to be so dim I often wonder how she made it through theory. Yet for twenty years now, she has been an excellent Surgical ward unit manager. Maybe there's hope for your classmate!

Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

Like the others have said definitely worry about yourself and let your classmates muddle through on their own. Next year you will have to worry about a few new grads that hit your floor and clearly should not have gotten through nursing school. :down: I have worked the floors with some new graduates that were not even remotely competent even after months of "extended orientation" and others that were clearly going to shine from day one. Sadly NCLEX does not weed out for lack of gut instincts or clinical incompetence, imo.

Specializes in Geriatric Nursing.

The licensure exams will determine if your ready or not..... Ready or not you are entering the nursing profession...

If there is one thing that scares me in a nurse... it's a know it all not someone who asks their fellow students a question to clarify a drug

Specializes in Geriatric.

Wow...u reminded me of one of my classmate...but it's up to the instructor to evaluate that..but of course if u see there is really something wrong, then of course interrupt other than that, leave them alone...I am a new grad, just had my license last 3 weeks ago & will be on the floor next week. I was confident during clinicals, but now I feel totally different since everything I will do is under my license & not the instructor's.

Specializes in Management, Emergency, Psych, Med Surg.

I had a few classmates like that. Some were really book smart but could not do anything at the bedside. Some were just stupid. But they were weeded out on their board exams. One guy in my class got the lowest recorded score on a nursing exam in the State of Texas at that time (33 years ago). He was never able to pass the board exam. It is probably too late to do much about this. If the instructors have not caught these issues by now, they probably won't in 14 days... but I would tell them anyway. It is a matter of patient safety.

Specializes in Pediatrics, Geriatrics, LTC.

No one is ready when they graduate. That's why you will be a graduate nurse and not an LPN or RN until you pass the NCLEX. Why worry about other people? It's a bad recipe on the floor once you really start working. CYOA and leave other people out of it. They will either pass the NCLEX or not. I graduated with 14 people and only four of us are actually working as nurses! The ones who goofed around and just didn't 'get it ' in school are still doing what they did before school. I'd say watch what you say as well, because the nursing world is somewhat small and you never know who you might work with one day or who might be able to get you a job!

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