Nursing student asks nurses the question..

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Specializes in ICU/ Trauma/ Med-Surg.

So as a third semester nursing student, myself and many of my fellow colleagues often wonder the same thing. Why is it that when we go to clinical, about 75% of the nurses act snobby and like it's some huge ordeal that we are there in "their space"? They were all nursing students at some point as well, students who wanted to learn skills and gain experience while at their clinicals. I often dread clinical due to feeling as I am in the way or that I am annoying a "seasoned" nurse. One would think, that as a nurse you'd want future nurses to gain as much experience and knowledge as they can while they're in school. So the point of this post, I would like to and I'm sure many other nursing students would like to know; why is it necessary to be rude and someone who doesn't want to help students learn or why is it necessary to not explain stuff to the student when they ask? I'm not trying to be conniving, I honestly just want to know, so that maybe I can understand.

P.S. I'm not saying this is true for ALL nurse's, as there are some that are amazing and share their knowledge and expertise.

Thank you.

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First of all I suggest you do a search of this site. This question has been asked many times before and there are some particularly good threads with very comprehensive answers to you question. Secondly, I suggest you re-read your post and find the extremely inflammatory and rude sentence that is going to get you burned to a crisp when more people respond. Or get your flame-proof undies on because it's going to get real for you very fast.

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Specializes in ICU/ Trauma/ Med-Surg.
First of all I suggest you do a search of this site. This question has been asked many times before and there are some particularly good threads with very comprehensive answers to you question. Secondly, I suggest you re-read your post and find the extremely inflammatory and rude sentence that is going to get you burned to a crisp when more people respond. Or get your flame-proof undies on because it's going to get real for you very fast.

I was not trying to be rude, I'm just asking a question that a lot of nursing students wonder. It's not that I'm trying to be disrespectful, this is honestly just the vibe that I myself and classmates get when we are at clinical and ask for assistance or an explanation regarding something wrong with our patient. It makes myself and many others question why nursing is known to be a field full of compassion, when that's not the case. Thank you for the tip on the other threads, I wasn't aware that you could search post on here.

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:) should be fun :)

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Being responsible for a student nurse is sometimes considered "extra work" by the nurses. If they have heavy assignments and/or their pt's status is very unstable, they won't have time to guide and explain every little steps to the student. Don't take offense when they refuse a student nurse. They don't get paid extra for taking a student.

And for your own good, cut off the accusatory tone and attitude in the future.

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Specializes in SIV/VMER Nurse [Portugal], SubAcute [US].

They are busy and your teacher should teach.

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Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.

First, I have never witness a nurse being mean (patronizing, etc.) to a nursing student--even if said student was not up to standard.

It does go both ways. I got to work, got report on my patients. Started the routine of assessing/medicating my patients. A group of students strolled onto the unit at 0755. One came up to me and said "I have Mrs. Smith in room 2" (name changed to protect the innocent). I replied "OK, well she has a history of A fib. She is here after cardioversion." The student replies to me "well, how about a real report." I wanted to tell her "well, that happened an hour ago," but I held my tongue and did give her more of a report. (I don't know about anyone else, but when I was in school, we always arrived before shift change and listened to report...that does not seem to be the standard now.)

Yes, it's a shame that nurses aren't always appropriate in their treatment of students; however, it can be a stressful experience for an overworked nurse to have a student come to him/her and demand that the nurse stop everything to "explain stuff" when other things need to be completed ASAP.

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The student replies to me "well, how about a real report."
:wideyed:

Wow. WOW. When I was in school, I had to go to the unit the night before and research my patient and was expected to know all about them, including their scheduled meds, by the time I arrived bright and early 1 hour before shift change. The *only* exception to this was L&D.

Interesting. Things sure have changed.

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Specializes in ICU/ Trauma/ Med-Surg.
Being responsible for a student nurse is sometimes considered "extra work" by the nurses. If they have heavy assignments and/or their pt's status is very unstable, they won't have time to guide and explain every little steps to the student. Don't take offense when they refuse a student nurse. They don't get paid extra for taking a student.

And for your own good, cut off the accusatory tone and attitude in the future.

I understand during heavy assignments it's not likely for a nurse to explain everything to me. But when I am in the room for example, and the nurse comes in and changes the IV rate or gives some medication that wasn't on the eMAR a little while ago and I ask "could you tell me why you changed the rate or gave that med" and their response is "because the doctor ordered it" and leaves it at that, I feel like that's not asking much of someone. Or when I assess the patient and find a S3 gallop and tell my nurse and she just looks at me like I'm insane and does nothing about it, even though it's never been charted on. Like I understand you have a job to do, but if I tell you I found something abnormal or ask a simple question, it should be recognized at least. Or another example my patient had a potassium level of 3.0 the day before, but never had another K drawn and wasn't on a potassium protocol, so I told the nurse and she laughed and said "that seems low, but I can't remember the normal value, I'm sure the Doc will see it", like that's not okay and I'm just trying to do best for my patient and I get careless remarks or just straight up rude comments. That sets a bad example for nursing students.

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Specializes in ICU/ Trauma/ Med-Surg.
:wideyed:

Wow. WOW. When I was in school, I had to go to the unit the night before and research my patient and was expected to know all about them, including their scheduled meds, by the time I arrived bright and early 1 hour before shift change. The *only* exception to this was L&D.

Interesting. Things sure have changed.

My school goes to preplan the night before and gets to the hospital an hour before shift change to discuss our patient with the instructor and then we go get report with the nurse.

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In your specific examples, I agree that the nurse could have explained a little more or recognized your concerns. You'll run into these kind of nurses as preceptors, coworkers, or even charge nurses. I've been in my new grad position for only 7 months now, so I can see from both perspectives. I remembered being rejected by a nurse on my first day of clinical because she didn't want to take a student. Learn from them and don't repeat their attitudes/mistakes. After all it's your own license that's on the line.

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