Nursing student asks nurses the question..

[2bNurseDR.T]

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.

[bekabsn]

Elkpark: Not sure how that is supposed to look. 1 clinical instructor, 10 students parading around a unit taking care of a patient...? Have you seen that where you work? Our good clinical instructors did teach, but they can only be one place at a time and the hospital spread the students across several units. The good instructors would round on us students, spend time with us and our patients and observe us/help us get signed off on skills. The bad instructors sat in the cafeteria working on their own assignments for their MSN program, and utilized the time for their own benefit. So elkpark, describe your clinical experience? Did you have a 1:1 clinical instructor all to yourself for 12 hours that would follow you while you followed a nurse? Your response is illogical. Thankfully, our instructors (the good ones) knew how to develop good report with the staff, and locate nurses that would assist in our learning experience. This does not mean that the clinical instructor isn't teaching us. However, finding a nurse to pair the students with is part of the job description of being a clinical instructor. I have a great deal of respect for those nurses that let us follow them for the day, and while it may not be for you, that doesn't make the entire practice of clinical rotations and nurse/student pairing wrong. That is basically what you are suggesting isn't it? That there be one clinical instructor with a group of students that ..what...tour a hospital together while the instructor "teaches"? The only way to have patient contact and get a small feel of what nursing is would be to follow a nurse on duty right? It sounds like you have seen your fair share of poor examples of clinical instructors, and so have I. However there are good ones, and finding nurses for their students is part of their job.

The entire point I was trying to make in the comment you picked out to respond to was the instructor was aware that not everyone wants a student and tried to find nurses for us that actually wanted one. Personally, I think that is a thoughtful approach don't you think? Finding those nurses was not difficult, as there were plenty that cared about the next generation of nurses coming in.

[Zombiologist]

Dear ns responding. Still not the staff nurses job to teach you. It's your schools responsibility. I graduated less than 3 years ago. I passed all meds with my instructor. My teacher would find out things that were happening on the unit like dressing changes and or ivs that needed to be started and teach all us. Not have a staff nurse teach us. As its not the staff nurses job to teach nursing students. Guess I went to a great adn program.

And please. We do care about the next generation of nurses. But it's still your school's responsibility to teach you. Not the staff nurses.

And I love to teach. Teaching my patients and their families about their illnesses is the thing I love most about my job. And I love to precept new nurses.

But as a student you should have higher expectations of your school and its teachers and not some random nurse you are paired up with for the day.

[bekabsn]

Dear ns responding. Still not the staff nurses job to teach you. It's your schools responsibility. I graduated less than 3 years ago. I passed all meds with my instructor. My teacher would find out things that were happening on the unit like dressing changes and or ivs that needed to be started and teach all us. Not have a staff nurse teach us. As its not the staff nurses job to teach nursing students. Guess I went to a great adn program.

And please. We do care about the next generation of nurses. But it's still your school's responsibility to teach you. Not a staff nurses.

And I love to teach. Teaching my patients and their families about their illnesses is the thing I love most about my job. And I love to precept new nurses.

But as a student you should have higher expectations of your school and its teachers and not some random nurse you are paired up with for the day.

First of all I am not a student. Second, I completely agree. Show me where I laid the responsibility of teaching on the staff nurses shoulders. I wouldn't even suggest it. But some nurses have a passion to teach which works to everyones advantage when it works out that way. Third, like I previously stated, I had good clinical instructors and bad ones, not by choice. The good instructors far outweighed the bad. Those that were good did as you described experiencing from your instructors. However, if you go back and read my original post in this thread, my intent had nothing to do with suggesting teaching is the staff nurses responsibility. Poor choice of words maybe...but my point was my instructors tried to find RN's that wanted a student (i.e.enjoyed teaching) for everyone's sake; the student and the staff nurses. The good instructors didn't do this so that they didn't have to teach, they did this to supplement the entire experience for us.

Please go back and read my original post. My point was that the student needs to take ownership of their own learning experience regardless of their clinical experiences (good or bad). I have nothing against nurses that don't want students, as clearly laid out in my original post. The person who replied to a quote from my first post pulled a random comment out of context and responded.

I have no doubt that you had a wonderful program, there a lot of good ones out there. Kudos.

[Zombiologist]

Great. My charge nurse gives me students over the nurses that hate nursing students because I will teach them a little bit. But guess what. The CI that pops in and says you ok every four hours is still more responsible for the students' learning than both me and the student.

Granted the CL cannot make the student learn. I fail to understand why you are letting them (the CI) off the hook.

[ixchel]

Great. My charge nurse gives me students over the nurses that hate nursing students because I will teach them a little bit. But guess what. The CI that pops in and says you ok every four hours is still more responsible for the students' learning than both me and the student.

Granted the CL cannot make the student learn. I fail to understand why you are letting them (the CI) off the hook.

I disagree with only one thing - the STUDENT is the most responsible for their own learning.

[kbrn2002, ADN, RN]

I disagree with only one thing - the STUDENT is the most responsible for their own learning.

I agree to a point. While it is the student that is the most responsible to ensure that they get what they need to succeed it is also the instructors responsibility to teach the students the necessary material.

Students pay a lot of money for their education. They should be able to say to say with some confidence that they got their money's worth at the end.

[CelticGoddess, BSN, RN]

Some nurses are very disrespectful to students, they see us as extra work. I would take this as a lesson to not be like them in the future. Granted I understand why they were mad at us, our clinical instructor sat in the break room the whole entire time.

You are extra work, no matter what you think. Even if you assess the patient, pass meds, do treatment, I, as the primary nurse, still have to assess my patients (I don't have 1, I have 5 to 6), make sure all meds were given, reassess as necessary make sure treatment was done correctly, etc. I also have to go behind you and make sure charting is done properly. I have to make sure all this is done because I am ultimately responsible for that patient, not the student. If something happens to my patient, because of something that was missed by a student, it's not the student who gets to appear before risk, it's the nurse.

I love teaching. I don't mind precepting, teaching, orienting, etc. I am going back to school to become a nursing instructor. No matter how much I love teaching though, it doesn't change the fact that students do increase the workload.

None of this is said to be disrespectful, it's just a fact.

[sammiesmom]

I did a stint on a med-surg tele floor for a short time and nurses will refuse students. First, the nurses are overworked and students slows the nurse down. I was crying the 3rd month I was there and I am probably one of the most patient, efficient and fast nurse you can get. I can do 3 admits and still clock out on time but this place I was clocking out at 830pm. That is a nightmare. So I guess what I'm saying is the place can be a nightmare to the current nurse so they don't want students. I like getting students myself. :)

[sailornurse]

Former factulty here, locally between the BSN programs (traditional and ABSN, the ADN program & an LPN program) students are there every day of the week except Sunday at 2 hospitals. So-students are there 6 days a day a week. The nurses can not wait for Winter Break & Summer so they can go to work and be nurses without having students there. And as for precepting students in the last semester, usually the managers would give us the list of names, not sure if the nurses were even asked if they wanted a student. I precepted one student after I moved here, it was a ton of work. I was getting out late 1 .5 hours every day he was there. I only reaped the benefit his last week.

[Kooky Korky, BSN, RN]

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.

Students are told by their Instructor when to arrive, they don't randomly arrive at just any time, do they? When I was in school, we met for pre-Clinical conference at 0700, arrived on the floor by 0745. Our assignments were already posted so that the techs and nurses which student had which patients and they left it for us to do VS, meds, treatments, etc. It was primarily our Instructors who taught us, but the nurse for our pt was, I'm afraid, expected to also show us new things, give us opportunities to do new things. The Instructor could not be everywhere at once.

Today, nurses have too many patients to do much besides give the necessary care at a breakneck pace. Don't expect them to have much time for students. It's tremendously frustrating for them and for students. Some nurses do like to teach but their workload doesn't permit much.

[FolksBtrippin, BSN, RN]

I read 116 posts. There's lots more, but I think it's time for me to stop.

I'm an older student. It is really hard to know when to stay out of the nurse's way and when to follow her around. There is a mix of expectations. Basically, it's a hot mess.

Of course I never speak rudely, clog up the nurses' space and anytime they ask me to do anything I say yes.

I want to thank the nurses here who have posted practical advice for students on a unit. That has helped me.

I also want to thank the nurses here who have given me their perspective on what it's like to have students. The analogies of the cashier and the teeth brushing were especially enlightening.

If I could send a message to the nurses I would say: Ask me to do stuff to help out. It doesn't matter if you're "my" nurse. If you see me, I am available to you. If you have a patient who needs to be walked, bed changed, toileted, bathed, adult garments, empty foley, whatever it is, ask me to do it. If that is not an option maybe I can go pick up that thing you left in the other room, talk to the patient who seems lonely. Hopefully this will take some of the burden off you. As terrible it is to have a burden, it is twice as bad to be that burden.

[JVLims]

At the risk of sounding old school...students have changed a lot as a group. There is a sense of entitlement and an undeserved superiority complex that sometimes comes across. When we were students, we recognized and respected that the nurses teaching us were at work and we were visitors in their world. Sometimes it's the little things....like taking up every computer in the nurses' station or every table in the cafeteria so we can't chart or sit down for a hurried lunch. Sometimes it's hearing you speak with derision about our professional preparation. Sometimes it's hearing you complain about what you will or won't stand for at your first job when we knew we would start out on the worst shift, with the worst schedule, at the lowest pay. Sometimes it's reading this blog and hearing you all complain about our great profession before you have even made it out of school. Sometimes for me it's hearing my ADN preparation disparaged when it seems to have propelled me into a great place in my chosen field (please note: I earned other degrees but NONE of them prepared me for real life nursing like my particular ADN program). Sorry but you asked. I would welcome you if you were at our hospital-but immature behaviors often wear out your collective welcomes quickly.