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.
The last student I had was a surprise. After report the instructor came over with him and asked if I would take a student...yes. She said "he's in his third semester" and that was it regarding his skills and preparation.
That is so inappropriate. Just unbelievable, really. My instructor would have told you what I was allowed to do or not, would have informed you which meds I'd be giving, and she would have been at the bedside supervising me as we gave the meds or any treatment beyond ADLs. For that matter, if I didn't know the basic nursing math, I never would have made it to 3rd semester.
I work with a wonderful group of nurses and I've never had/seen this issue. But I do know many employees within the hospital system in various job fields that would agree that many nurses eat their young and are not as compassionate or just plain rude to their coworkers, that one nurse tries to be superior to the other coworkers when working their unit but display a different professional happy compassionate attitude once they walk into a patient's room, leaving a few to comment that behind the hospital doors many nurses turn into competitive mean and jealous women to their coworkers. Although I do not agree at all with these coworkers that make the statements I described, it is common talk at the hospital about lack of compassion among some nurses that an individual not working in healthcare field would be shocked to learn about in a occupation they thought was only about compassion.
I work with a wonderful group of nurses and I've never had/seen this issue. But I do know many employees within the hospital system in various job fields that would agree that many nurses eat their young and are not as compassionate or just plain rude to their coworkers, that one nurse tries to be superior to the other coworkers when working their unit but display a different professional happy compassionate attitude once they walk into a patient's room, leaving a few to comment that behind the hospital doors many nurses turn into competitive mean and jealous women to their coworkers. Although I do not agree at all with these coworkers that make the statements I described, it is common talk at the hospital about lack of compassion among some nurses that an individual not working in healthcare field would be shocked to learn about in a occupation they thought was only about compassion.
I would argue that anyone who believes nursing is "an occupation ... only about compassion" is an idiot. Nurses are human beings like everyone else. There are nice nurses and nasty nurses, just as in every other occupation.
Students aren't held to the same standards as in the past. I've seen poorly prepared students show up frequently. Look up the med change instead of questioning the nurse. You will retain the info better if you delve into it yourself.
I'd like to give an instructor's perspective as many have said 'where's your instructor'?
I used to teach clinicals for an ADN program. I would usually have a group of 11 to 12 students..a few 2d year students along with 1rst year. The first year students were given over to the 2d year students because it was the senior students leadership training.
My 2d year students who weren't doing leadership would have a team of 6 patients after a couple of weeks. They no longer did aide work because they had that down pat and were going to be graduating. so their team leaders, the staff nurses, had a little more time to work with them and explain things. It was far more appropriate to have the patients' nurse look at the charting because they knew the patients..I didn't. And it would have been unlikely I could assess 20 patients or more that morning along with pulling the students' meds for them since they didn't have access to the med machine. Not to mention overseeing the first year students' charting after the 2d year ones reviewed it, and doing evaluations, as well as preparing a post conference dosage test, which was required for every clinical. I did my best to put students with nurses who didn't mind having them but it wasn't always possible.
I'd like to give an instructor's perspective as many have said 'where's your instructor'?
.
I sympathize with you, BadwomanM, but you should not have tolerated that situation. What you are describing is NOT representative of "good" nursing education -- and college instructors should not be condoning such poor educational practices. Going along with such poor educational practices allows them to continue -- which further exacerbates problems within our profession.
We need to all speak up against such practices if we are ever going improve the situation.
I'll probably get a message from the Moderators about being too harsh in this post, but someone's gotta say it. Those types of situations are bad -- but they continue because people allow them to continue.
I'd like to give an instructor's perspective as many have said 'where's your instructor'?
I used to teach clinicals for an ADN program. I would usually have a group of 11 to 12 students..a few 2d year students along with 1rst year. The first year students were given over to the 2d year students because it was the senior students leadership training.
My 2d year students who weren't doing leadership would have a team of 6 patients after a couple of weeks. They no longer did aide work because they had that down pat and were going to be graduating. so their team leaders, the staff nurses, had a little more time to work with them and explain things. It was far more appropriate to have the patients' nurse look at the charting because they knew the patients..I didn't. And it would have been unlikely I could assess 20 patients or more that morning along with pulling the students' meds for them since they didn't have access to the med machine. Not to mention overseeing the first year students' charting after the 2d year ones reviewed it, and doing evaluations, as well as preparing a post conference dosage test, which was required for every clinical. I did my best to put students with nurses who didn't mind having them but it wasn't always possible.
12 students to one instructor is completely inappropriate. My clinical group was no bigger than 5. However, it's not the floor nurses fault your institution overloaded you with a huge clinic group that was impossible to follow. No mere human could keep track of all of those students but the bottom line is YOU were the one getting paid to instruct and because your school bogged you down with too many students you expect the floor nurses to pick up the slack? Sorry, not buying it. Why is everything always the fault of the floor nurses? I'm not blaming you directly, the primary fault lies with the schools that assign too many students for one instructor to handle, but your post seems to imply that you think it's perfectly acceptable to expect other people to do the job for which you are being paid (albeit poorly-educator salaries are despicable). Don't get me wrong...I understand what you're saying but having floor nurses be the primary clinical educators is just not the answer.
I totally agree with you. I guess they like to eat their young. They once been in our position as students. Theses instructors should be able to relate.
I totally agree with you. I guess they like to eat their young. They once been in our position as students. Theses instructors should be able to relate.
They are staff nurses, not "instructors." There is more to teaching than possessing knowledge or skills. Otherwise there would be no such thing as an education degree or majors intended to produce good teachers. All anyone would have to do is get the content degree, and voila! A teacher they are!
Some (I would postulate "many") are just not cut out to teach. Combine that with a poor nurse to patient ratio, and the nursing student assignment (particularly when it is not voluntary, and even more so when the CI is either uncommunicative, stretched too thin, or even not present at all) is bound to fail.
.thumb.jpg.c55b7897acd81994906cc3c41841dd43.jpg){kind=small}
Horseshoe, BSN, RN
5,879 Posts
That is so inappropriate. Just unbelievable, really. My instructor would have told you what I was allowed to do or not, would have informed you which meds I'd be giving, and she would have been at the bedside supervising me as we gave the meds or any treatment beyond ADLs. For that matter, if I didn't know the basic nursing math, I never would have made it to 3rd semester.