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
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.
I wasn't speaking about all nurses. I was speaking directly about the OP. Like I said the nurses I have worked with were great, very helpful even when they were busy . I made sure to appreciate them when ever I could. This was a specific statement directed to the OP. And since you're not the OP it wasn't for you
Specializes in Peds, School Nurse, clinical instructor.
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.
Actually, nothing I read appeared to express distain, I think she gave some good, honest advice. Instead of being upset, take what she wrote and use it to your advantage.
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.
I so much agree! Did we forget? Where you some "magical" student who knew it all??? Interesting...
Episteme: Many schools can no longer afford instructors at every clinical site, especially the online programs. Staff nurses are being asked to precept the students, but they really do not have time or ability in some cases. Students are in our house. They need to be led. If the nurse would consider them as an ally and assistant, not a burden, then perhaps the process would run more smoothly. Meanwhile, there are a lot of inequities, such as not being paid to precept. A local hospital is considering charging students to be in clinicals there, just for that reason. YIKES
Yeah I appreciate the advice but I don't think these are the majority of students. My clinical experience was great because of the nurses who helped us and allowed us to pick their brains. On the same hand my class was always answering call lights, assisting the nurses when we were able, and we wern't even allowed on the computers so that was not a problem.
These may be concerns that you address with your facility or the clinical insturctor. I am confident if any nurse went to our instructor and reported this kind of behavior we would have never heard the end of it and it wouldn't happen again.
But I agree, you are still a new nurse yourself probably shadowing or just got finished shadowing an experienced nurse. Go easy on the students, you were just one yourself. :)
Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
Episteme: Many schools can no longer afford instructors at every clinical site, especially the online programs. Staff nurses are being asked to precept the students, but they really do not have time or ability in some cases. Students are in our house. They need to be led. If the nurse would consider them as an ally and assistant, not a burden, then perhaps the process would run more smoothly. Meanwhile, there are a lot of inequities, such as not being paid to precept. A local hospital is considering charging students to be in clinicals there, just for that reason. YIKES
There are actually students on the floor without instructors? What the heck?
Once again I am rendered speechless.
No wonder some nurses have become so aggressive......what a rotten shame for those poor students who pay good money for lab time to have no instructor to guide and teach them.
I am disappointed in where this is all heading and we as nurses have allowed it. I know I can't be an instructor anymore because I don't have a masters. It is a dirty rotten shame what is happening.
Go back to school you say? Not a chance I have one child entering college in the fall and another next fall. After teaching nursing for, Oh I don't know, 25 years I am suddenly not qualified? Okay.....
To all of you students who jumped on the OP. She hasn't forgotten what it is like to be a student. She is sharing how it feels being the nurse and over whelmed by students and how to navigate around the obstacles...having been there recently herself.
Many many times I watch students post in the beginning of their journey and I watch their shock, horror, and indignation about the realities of nursing. I watch their transition to the place of understanding then on to the realization of just how over whelming nursing really is on the floor. They finally cone to the realization that nurses aren't bad they are just overwhelmed and over burdened. I have also seen how some of the students who complain the most about the nurses when they are students return to complain bitterly about the students when the graduate and are on the floor. Maybe they just like to complain.
I think that schools can handle the students better. Whatever happened to the extra mile? I would go and ask for the volunteers who wanted students. I would check the schedule or ask the schedule to be arranged so the students got the nurses who wanted them. I would visit the facility and "in service" the staff on how to best direct the students and for the students I would do the same. I would ask that a report sheet be written for the students for them to review then ask questions.
Of course there were always last minute things that would go awry but as nurses we adapt. rethink. Develop a new plan and move forward.
But before we jump on others suggestions on how to better navigate a flawed system....remember...
My general hours are 0730-1630 but today I was here at 0500 to talk in a staff meeting about playing nice with students. Schools say they cannot afford instructors. Hospitals do not pay preceptors extra (around here) and even if they did, I feel it is not their job. I feel the students are getting the short end of the stick --- until the new grads come to work and are not able to do anything. It is a catch-22
Ok, I've been a nurse since 2012 and I would have no problem with a student asking me WHY the patient is in the hospital. Or, asking me when to use CPR. It is a valid question and some nervous student may want to know. That's kind of strange that it irritates you, because we always had to get a "rundown" from our nurse in school on the patients. I have NOT forgotten what it is like to be a student yet.
However, hogging computers and gossiping while doing so is very annoying. I would've never done that as a student and I always gave up a chair, even to the janitor, because that is their workplace and I was only a visitor.
I think the nursing programs run a huge risk of liability if a group of students does not have an instructor. That's just crazy.
Nursing school for me was only 19 years ago (wow, writing that down amazed me!) . . . . we had to have an instructor there.
We were never allowed to sit or stand against a wall. We got report at the same time the nurses did but we were there an hour earlier and got a run-down from our instructor too.
My thought about this is this is the nursing school's issue. Not the nurses on staff. To just dump students into a hospital without supervision BESIDES the nurses is wrong.
Someone else said it . . . nurses and nurses-to-be need to stand up for themselves and if the students are getting shoddy training/eduction, speak up!!
I have a hybrid group of 1st semester nursing students assigned to my unit for clinicals 2x per week. There are 16 students to 1 instructor. First off, that is way too many students assigned to 1 instructor to be responsible for; I feel bad for the guy. Then I read about situations like those listed above where there are students on the floor without the instructor and I just shake my head. Anyway, this particular instructor has actually implemented a rule where if there is a call bell going off, a student is not permitted to enter the room unless that is his/her assigned patient. Reason for this being that students in the past have been quick to run into a room with a call bell going off and unintentionally caused harm to the pt: giving water to a pt with an NG tube, assisting a pt to the restroom without using a gait belt and resulting in a fall, removing an abductor pillow from a fresh post op and resulting in the pts fresh hip to pop out of place... these situations are unfortunate and it's easy for someone to be quick and blame the student but again they are 1st semester students who only get 1 classroom day per week and the ratio of students to instructors is 16:1.
Lol, I must admit, while I always know why the patient was admitted to the hospital, it's not always 100% clear why that patient is still in the hospital, since it seems like their chief complaint has been resolved. I ask that question all the time during report.
Anyway. I've never understood why the students have to be at the hospital so early. They might get a little more attention from the nurses if they were there during the absolute busiest part of the day. I had a couple clinicals on Saturdays, also, and the nurses had more time for us. Way less going on. Maybe some schools should think about modifying their schedules, or doing some night clinicals.
Isn't it kind of backwards to have someone who has been a licensed RN for only 2 months assigned to students? OP is still learning herself and is probably a bit overwhelmed a lot of the time. I'm graduating next May and I sincerely hope I have at least close to a years experience before they start expecting me to help students. Especially since all we hear is that school teaches us to pass the NCLEX not how to be a nurse in the real world, and that it takes at least a full year of work to even begin to comprehend the full demands and skills of the profession. I'd be annoyed with every student too if I had two months to learn everything and reteach it to them.
What the heck? 
...what a rotten shame for those poor students who pay good money for lab time to have no instructor to guide and teach them. 
.
Kandy83
161 Posts
I wasn't speaking about all nurses. I was speaking directly about the OP. Like I said the nurses I have worked with were great, very helpful even when they were busy . I made sure to appreciate them when ever I could. This was a specific statement directed to the OP. And since you're not the OP it wasn't for you