Nursing students that DON'T get report...(m)

SmilingBluEyes · Apr 22, 2007

Cannot say I have ever seen students who did not attend report with the nurses BEFORE ever beginning a shift on the unit. And I do know we had to be at report as students first, as well.

I would ask the instructors what is up. You are right to be concerned here.

meownsmile, BSN, RN · Apr 22, 2007

I would have thought your NM would have had a meeting with this clinical instructor before the students started on your unit. You need to mention to the NM that none of these students are getting report before interactions with the patients and you arent comfortable with that. I would also make the instructor go get a sign on and i would by no means co-sign anything for them. Its this instructors job to make sure she/he is set up and ready to go prior to bringing a class to the floor.

TazziRN, RN · Apr 22, 2007

Oh, that's scary.........I think I would be asking that my pts not be assigned to students when that school is on the floor.

labcat01, BSN, RN · Apr 22, 2007

I completely agree with you. I am a nursing student right now and if I missed report i'd probably get sent home. We can't pull our meds out of the accudose but we do sign our own MARs whenever we give them. If I were in your shoes i'd be talking to the NM. That school does not have their act together and I wouldn't want those students with my patients, IMHO.

crissrn27, RN · Apr 22, 2007

One day, one of these nursing students are going to go in to assess a dead pt and have the crap scared out of them when they can't find a pulse, or get a BP. If you miss report how do you know if the person is even alive? Could of died 15 min. before start of shift, KWIM? I would talk with your NM, and see what the heck is going on there.

Nursey Face · Apr 22, 2007

Our clinical group NEVER gets report from the nurses BUT we have 1 hour before we go into the patient's room to review all of their CC, HPI, PMH, meds, labs, etc., and then we have to give report to our clinical instructor, who is the CNS on that floor. She makes sure we know what we're doing and if we miss anything, she let's us know. I think for our situation, it's so busy in the nurses lounge that it would be logistically difficult to be in there. Different strokes!

megananne7 · Apr 22, 2007

I'm in nursing school still getting my RN but I have my LPN now and I have had some instructors who tell us a time to be on the floor and it causes us to miss report and then I've had other ones who want us to be there 15 min before reports even supposed to start.

And I HATE it now when I don't get report.. I often feel like I learn so much more about the patient and their condition when I get report. Sometimes the nurses who give report mention something I would've never picked up on since I'm fairly new to this stuff.

The one day this semester we had a weather delay, so we didnt get on the floor until 9:30 and I just felt SO disorganized all day long.

(By the way, we get our clinical assignments the day before clinicals... Such as MAR, PMH, Dx, etc... We have assignments to look up their Dx, Labs/Treatments for the Dx, meds if we aren't familiar with some of them, etc.)

allthingsbright · Apr 22, 2007

Hi everyone, I am a newly graduated LVN. I started working on the floor December 31st and have been on my own without my preceptor for about a month now. We have 3 nursing schools that come to our hospital, (1 rn program and 2 lvn programs) so we have students 5 days a week. It's great most of the time. But there is this one school that just seems to scare all the nurses on the floor. I am extra sensitive to the fact that they are students because I was just in their shoes. But since this particular school has been at the hospital, several complaints have been made. The biggest one that bothers me is that these students DO NOT get report from anyone before entering the patients rooms! Most of the time I won't even know that my patient has a student assigned until I enter the room after report and find them finishing up vitals, asking to pass meds etc. Now I don't know about any of you, but when I was a student I was told to NEVER touch a patient until I got report from the night nurse or if I missed report from the night nurse, from the day nurse taking over care. I guess at best, they print out a kardex and go from there. The other 2 nursing schools that come wait and get report with us from night shift. I don't know, call me crazy, but it BUGS me when I go into a room and they have already seen my patient and begin telling me their assessment. I realize they have to assess. Its just bothersome. Also they are now giving meds, which is scary too. They have one instructor and he doesn't even have full access to the accu dose or E-mar! We end up having to co-sign things for them because none of the students have sign on id's! When I was a student at this hospital, we all had our own ID's and our instructor co-signed for us. Am I right to be a bit nervous, or is it just that I am still so new?!

That is a HUGE no-no at my school-if we did that we would be seriously reprimanded. I think you should be worried and something should be said the the instructors of those students!

Even if you miss report time for the unit, you should go to the nurse caring for your patient, introduce yourself and get some kind of report on the pt.

PsychRN-Kris · Apr 23, 2007

During my second year of the nursing program I had clinical in the evenings at a neighboring hospital and we were not allowed to attend report! That's right. We were not allowed! I asked my clinical instructor several times and was told "that is the arrangement we have". Okkkaaaaay?!

That quarter of school was my worst quarter EVER for clinical. I hated it. The nurses seemed annnoyed to have students and I struggled each evening jumping in without report. I remember feeling physically ill when I drove there and gloriously relieved at the end of each shift.

DarciaMoonz, LPN · Apr 23, 2007

Wow it is interesting to see all of the difference in how things are done by different schools. When I was in school, and we did our med-surg. rotation, we had to get report before we could touch the patient. There were many times when the patient was being d/c'ed, or something changed that was too much for us to take on. As far as meds go the only person who had access to the pixys, was our instuctor. We didn't even have a code for the Omni-Cell to get basic supplies. I think it is important for everyone to know, esp. if it is your patient, who is going to be responsible for that patient during your shift. Getting report can be seen as a learning experience because you get to see how the shift coming on interacts with the shift leaving, and you get a picture of not only your patient, but his/her room mate. Now I know the room mate thing may seem insignificant, but I ran into a situation as a student where the room mate need immediate help, and I was able to at least know how to move that person. Now back to meds. How does the instructor know that the student has a basic understanding of what they are giving. Even nurses who have been nurses for years still make mistakes. Does this person trust his/her students that much, are they not worried about losing the license they have worked so hard for. I have rambled on enough, but you get the gist of my concerns. I would definitely do what the others recommended and speak with your NM STAT, esp. since there is the possibility of harm that can be done to your patients.

Roy Fokker, BSN, RN · Apr 23, 2007

When I was a student - we had clinicals Q Wednesday and Thursday.

Instructor would make assignments on Tuesday by noon.

By 5 PM, we were expected to go to the floor ourselves, pick up assignments, go over the charts, jot down the meds and make med cards, write a small paper about the primary diagnoses and other nursing notes.

Not only were we expected to do this, but we were also expected to show up early for report (i.e. before the day shift floor nurses got to the floor).

I cannot imagine picking up a patient without getting report!