Other Side of the "Clinicals" Coin

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I'm a new grad (graduated in December) and have been working as a nurse now for 2 months. I just wanted to post some my thoughts on some of the students who come into my unit for clinicals

Please answer call lights, even if it's not 'your' patient. It may not be a big deal to you but it makes a big deal to me and may save me a few minutes.

Don't 'sit' at the computers if you're not working on them. If you're looking things up on the patients, that's one thing but to sit there because you don't have anything to do and take up a computer I need to use is not cool.

Try looking up answers to your questions before asking us. Google is your friend at times. I recently had a 1st year student ask me what "full code" meant then didn't understand what CPR was and when you use it. I also had a student recently ask me for a "rundown" on why my patients were here. I don't have time for a "rundown". I'm really happy to answer questions if you can't find the info but please do your homework first.

Don't sit at the nurses station and gossip. Especially if you're sitting in front of a computer.

Ask me if there is something you can do. I will almost always say yes :) and I will be more willing to show you things, grab you when something interesting is going on, etc if you actually want to be there

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I think that this is great information. I have always been the one to not be able to sit still especially during my field work. I would much rather learn "new" things by observing someone who I aspire to be in their shoes than sit and be chatty. Love the don't get caught up in the gossip comment because what I have learned is that if you are in the same vicinity, and you make a sound or anything then you just set your self up for you know so and so agreed, or so and so thought the same thing.

No I am not a nurse but a clinical therapist working in the hospital setting and I see these things all to often.

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Specializes in Psych, LTC/SNF, Rehab, Corrections.
I recently had a 1st year student ask me what "full code" meant then didn't understand what CPR was and when you use it. I also had a student recently ask me for a "rundown" on why my patients were here. I don't have time for a "rundown".

LOL

A 'run-down'? It even irritates me when I have to stop what I'm doing to take a phone call!

Nurses and student nurses have been placed in an impossible position. A fair amount of nurses 'don't have time' for anything and are rude as hell because of it. Most student nurses don't fully 'get' what nursing entails. Some really don't know that they're acting as a barrier to the workflow with time-wasting behavior or irrelevant (not to them) questions.

Honestly, the student who asked for the run-down probably thought that they were being a 'self-starting and diligent student'. Glad that you didn't completely rip their head off (though, I'm not prepared to judge you if you did). I can understand being intensely bothered with the 'hogging up the computer space' thing or 'gossiping in the nurse's station' situation. In fact, I would've easily won the Most Hated Nurse ribbon, with not a single 'damn' given!

But, the students with the questions? Well, at least, they were trying to do well.

This topic is a good one, I think. A little communication goes a long way.

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I also had a student recently ask me for a "rundown" on why my patients were here. I don't have time for a "rundown". I'm really happy to answer questions if you can't find the info but please do your homework first.

Maybe the student was actually asking you for report on the patient she/he had for the clinical day? I know in my clinicals we have to get a report from the primary nurse on our patient first thing in the morning.

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2 months out and it like you've already forgotten what it's like to be a student. I agree that the students shouldn't sit at the nurses station. We aren't allowed to even if we are in the chart. But come on. Are you really complaining about a student asking for a run down on a patient they will be helping care for? I know in my clinicals, we aren't allowed in a patients room until we have report from the primary nurse. And we aren't allowed to use our phone or the computers so how are we supposed to Google something? Just think back two months and try to remember what it was like being a student.

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Specializes in public health, women's health, reproductive health.

We are required to get report. But we are supposed to get it at the same time as the nurse is getting report from the previous shift. On occasion, the report will actually just be an update because the nurse already had the patient the day before. In that case I have to ask for a full report or I will be in big trouble with my clinical instructor who REQUIRES it. I find it rather awkward at times and don't like bothering the nurses because they are already swamped. But I also don't want to fail clinical. Honestly, the whole situation is pretty awful and I won't miss being a student nurse one bit when this is over. It seems we can't win. Most of us really do try to do the right thing and not be in the way. There are many sides to this kind of story. As for hogging computers or hanging out at the nurse's station, my clinical group isn't allowed to do any such thing, nor would we want to. Our clinical instructor runs a tight ship and will give us a full hour bashing at the end of the day if she catches us so much as momentarily leaning against a wall somewhere. I'm kind of sick of people complaining about student nurses and thankful that I have personally never been the target of such complaints, at least not to my face. I do the best I can, but there are probably ways I am being bothersome just by my very presence.

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Specializes in Neuro Intensive Care.

I have been blessed that I have worked with a lot of amazing nurses that love their job and love to take the time to answer my questions. I learn more picking the minds of experienced nurses than I ever do in the classroom. It's one thing to read about it on google and hear a real life take on a situation. I can understand how overwhelmed a new graduate must feel, to have students in the mix of things when you are still learning the ground work yourself. My ultimate goal is to teach, so I have promised myself (and my maternal/child instructor has also stressed the point) to remember how it was when I was a student.

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2 months out and it like you've already forgotten what it's like to be a student. I agree that the students shouldn't sit at the nurses station. We aren't allowed to even if we are in the chart. But come on. Are you really complaining about a student asking for a run down on a patient they will be helping care for? I know in my clinicals, we aren't allowed in a patients room until we have report from the primary nurse. And we aren't allowed to use our phone or the computers so how are we supposed to Google something? Just think back two months and try to remember what it was like being a student.

Agree. First of all - there is no googling - we're not allowed to use our cell phones for ANYTHING, so the suggestion that the students look things up (at that very moment in time) is really not feasible since the resource that she clearly is referring to is not available. Secondly, the rules of etiquette depend on the instructor. I'm in my second semester clinical and it was only this semester where our clinical instructor told us to listen for the call bells - which for a student nurse, is mixed in with all the other beepings that are happening - so we weren't attuned to it at all; it's not that we were ignoring it, we weren't cognizant of it. As any nursing student knows, picking what to do vs. what not to do in this stage is tricky. For example, I had a client ask for something simple as a tissue. I go into the utility room, grabbed a tissue box, and handed it to the client. Simple, right? An aide saw me, she said we charge for those things. These are hospital policies, not nursing school policies, so they were not taught to us. it's simple things like this that makes the student second guess everything. And then to have nurses like the OP express such disdain is just peaches.

New nurses like OP are the bane of nursing students. And I sincerely hope karma bites her when she runs into a more senior nurse who treats her with the same expectations.

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Perhaps she remembers being a student nurse (since it was only a couple months ago) and is trying to give you advice. Perhaps the students here jumping on OP have forgotten what it's like to be a nurse? Oh wait, they don't know because they haven't been there yet. I can guarantee OP knows both sides of the coin better than those that have only been on one side.

There's good advice. Students are guests on the unit. Not hogging seats/computers just makes good sense. Look up stuff on your patients before trying to make the nurse do YOUR work for you. Try to be helpful. All good advice. If it's offensive to you, then it's not OP that needs to remember what it's like to be a student, but YOU that needs to lose the entitlement and learn how to be a good student and GUEST on the unit.

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Specializes in Education, research, neuro.

1. Sitting at the computers for no good reason

2. Not answering call lights

3. Never heard of CPR (the hospital allows these students into their facility?)

Where is their instructor?

I've been the unit nurse who was assigned to have a student... I'm an instructor now. My practice when my student introduced him/herself to me was to ask... "what are your learning objectives today?" and "what limitations are you operating under."

After than I would try to bring the student up on what the goals for the day for that patient were, then cut her lose (except for meds).

I guess I'm wondering why you are not talking to the students about these things... Not "get out of my chair, creep"... but just, something like... "I medicated Mrs. B with some dilaudid. Why don't you go assess her pain now and tell me what you think. Then you can chart the assessment."

Just keep them off their butts and keep them moving. At the same time find ways to challenge them to think. AND... when you see a student put him/herself out for a patient, make a big to do over it.

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I agree with most of what the OP says. But I have to get a "rundown" from nurses. Sometimes I'm not even able to touch the patient's chart because the nurse misplaced it in the med-room. Or is taking the chart with them. So I have to follow the nurse around while they do report with the other nurses. Where is the thanks for helping with the blood sugar level, or thank you for taking the patient's, b/p again right before their blood pressure med. Or thank you for the checking on my patient and helping me with the extra few minutes we give you to rest your feet a little. I'm happy that most of the nurses I worked with had patience with me being a nursing student. I never sat down to take a break but constantly was doing or asking to do something.

Congrats on the job straight out of nursing school:up:

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Where is the thanks for ...

Whatever you may think, nothing you do saves the nurse more time than they lose dealing with you. It's WAY faster to do something myself than to check and see if someone else did it right.

Don't expect a thank you for being in the way, even if it feels like you're being helpful.

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