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.
Who, me? Not at all, merely a simple statement of fact. An awful lot of student nurses seem to believe that they make the RN's job easier in clinical, which is just not the case.
I take the student with me with no problem. I remember what it is like. I take u on a tour of my ER Trauma center. Introduce u to my friends. Most of the students r happy. Because we know u need to get your feet wet starting IV,foleys etc... Even go in a code and do compressions
I love having students too but it's different in the ed. Students don't care for my patients and i teach about how we assess & manage our patients in our unique environment.
As a new nurse, I can recall what it was like to be a student nurse, but can also empathize with the craziness of being a nurse now responsible for the patients in my care. As a student nurse, our instructors worked very hard to locate nurses that liked to teach and have student nurses. They were wise, knowing that not everyone is wired to teach. This usually worked out, however there were always a few mismatches and the best thing a student can do in that situation is make the most of it. Take ownership of your own learning experience. I recall one clinical shift being with a newer nurse, who was clearly overwhelmed with her patient load + having a student nurse. I decided to help her in anyway I could for that day...perform ADL's, help the CNA's with their work etc...I don't see that as a waste of time at all! It was a great lesson in the importance of teamwork and collaboration, which is extremely important to the nursing profession. As I was assisting with ADL's, I performed/fine tuned my assessment skills-practiced doing assessments while performing tasks. It was a great experience. So be open to having a different focus than you went in expecting-I was still able to do my care plan, goals, etc.. for the day.
As a new nurse, I haven't had the opportunity to have a student nurse follow me. At this point it would be extremely inappropriate, but I do hope to after gaining some additional experience. I CAN tell you that my mind constantly has a list of 10+ things in it I am trying to keep track of and as I work on prioritization and organization of my assignments, there are times that it is very hard for me to even carry on a conversation with my patient's family (which is frustrating to me because talking with patient and family is so important). So I can only imagine why some nurses might come across disinterested or rude to a questioning student nurse. Just remember that you cannot see the activity and craziness that they are dealing with in their own mind while taking care of their patients. Conversation can throw off the whole mental flow, and things can get overlooked or forgotten as a result. The nurse you are with knows her limitations and the student needs to respect that. Worse case scenario, you are placed with a nurse who truly hates students and are treated bad for a shift-good lesson in dealing with difficult co-workers. We all have to deal with those-best to learn to let it roll off your back. It will become a good answer in a future interview question: "tell me about a time when..." :)
Specializes in Flight Nursing, Emergency, Forensics, SANE, Trauma.
Again: I feel like it needs reiterated, nurses don't purposefully mistreat students. We don't start our day with hurting feelings in mind. And just because some may not want a student nurse, doesn't make them a bad nurse or person, and it certainly doesn't make them mean or unprofessional. Some nurses know how much they can handle and sometimes putting a student on top of a full assignment does add more stress.
In my very brief tenure as a nurse so far, I've seen all possible sides to this coin, and honestly, no side wins completely.
Earliest clinical experiences, we were NOT wanted. I even had a nurse hunt me down to retract details in my charting that had triggered a q2h vitals and neurovascular assessment protocol. What's worse is, in a moment when the instructor really should have stated to me privately that I should ALWAYS chart my OWN observations, she backed up the nurse and told me to change my charting. My assessment was accurate, and she literally asked me to falsify documentation.
My last clinical experience was the total opposite. Very welcoming, except for one specific nurse who would turn out to later be my preceptor when I was hired to that floor. The rest of the nurses went out of their way to give me a great experience, which blows my mind even now because some of those days were just outright INSANE. But, on the other side of that... I made it a point to make their days easier. I helped the techs. I wanted hands on, but I could also sense when it was time to simply be a fly on the wall. I was respectful of their space, and they welcomed me into it. This is actually why I applied to this unit, and only this unit initially. I knew it would be "home" for me. In a good number of ways, the whole hospital has been.
The contrasting quality of clinical experience led to me making entire career decisions. It taught me how much I can learn from a great, inclusive experience. It taught me how to RECIPROCATE in that experience. People appreciate HELP, not someone under their heels all day long. They appreciate a person who knows when to go away.
As a nurse now, I respect the student's fresh and thorough eyes, and (like in that first scenario) if they notice something I missed, I reassess, chart my own findings, and mention something positive and grateful to the instructor if the student was right. If the student was wrong by my own observation, I ask the student what they meant (gently and supportively, while saying CLEARLY, "never change your charting if you know it's right because I might be the one who is wrong," and, "please always remember that it is possible you are the first person to observe a change in the patient's status!"). If there is a knowledge deficit the instructor might need to address, I might privately approach her. After that, I did my part. Not my circus, not my monkeys. :)
If my patient group is gentle, I welcome student nurses. If it's not, it's hard enough to clock out on time WITHOUT students. We have one instructor from the main school we get students from who has been on our unit for years. She knows I love students, but she still always asks first. She KNOWS! My unit is horrible when it's bad, and she wants to give her students and our nurses what we all mutually need (the ability to care for a patient safely, for us, and a good clinical experience without a pissed off nurse for them).
As much as I love students, though, I have limits beyond the too busy shift.
Don't tell me you're doing something, then skip doing it. Especially on my critical patients. This means a delay in care that *I* am responsible for, and I have to track YOU down to find out what happened, because maybe there was a legit reason why the intervention wasn't done.
Don't disappear. Seriously. In my clinicals, if I wasn't engaged in patient care all day, I had points deducted. Not only that, but if you were hanging out with my anxious little old lady, I still think you're in there and I'm spending my time elsewhere. When LOL falls or rips out her IV, or any of that, *I* am the one cleaning up that mess.
The things I am responsible for, yes, I wont complain to you if something goes wrong because I do recognize that I foolishly put trust in another person in a way that didn't turn out right. I might say something to you, I might not. But, know that I wont trust you with my patients again. It'll be a long semester for both of us.
And for the love of gods, old and new... If you see I'm in the middle of horrific morning chaos, walk away. Don't ask me for report. I have my phone ringing non-stop, call-lights going off while my patients' tech is stuck in a room toileting someone, case management wants to give me updates, meds are due, and oh, look, the hospitalists are ready for rounds now. If you can see and respect when it's a bad time to walk up to me asking for things, I will give you everything you want when I catch up.
she is a STUDENT..a rookie, with no experience! She should stick to her texting. Develop your people skills, and get some experience before shooting your grammar off.
As a student nurse, our instructors worked very hard to locate nurses that liked to teach and have student nurses. They were wise, knowing that not everyone is wired to teach.
I wonder why they didn't simply "work very hard" to teach their students themselves. They presumably took a teaching position because they were interested in and "wired to" teach, and providing your clinical education was the job they took and what they were getting paid to do.
Specializes in Critical Care, Med-Surg, Psych, Geri, LTC, Tele,.
I guess I want to say THANK YOU to the nurses who tolerated us students. You are truly appreciated for allowing us to learn, in spite of the fact that we slow you down.
floridaRN38
186 Posts
Nurses eating their young on social media sites.