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
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.
As soon as you're off orientation, you can be assigned students.
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.
Not a thought in the world is given to who the nurse caring for the patient will be when the clinical instructor chooses the patient for their students. They pick patients who are willing to have a student and who they think will be interesting for the student. When I worked in the hospital, the instructors often came in the day before and selected the patients for their students, way before the patient had been assigned to the nurse on the floor for that shift. And the charge nurse didn't assign the nurse based on if that patient would have a student, she assigned the nurse who was most appropriate for that patient. I had students working with my patients when I was still on orientation.
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.
For my med-surg clinical this semester our instructor told us we were not, under any circumstances to answer call lights for patients that weren't ours. Something about our school's insurance or the hospital insurance not covering us if something were to happen...I thought it was kind of odd, and I felt really bad not answering other patients call lights...but I'm not about to go against my instructor and get in trouble and possibly fail the clinical because of it. Just so you know..you need to be aware of what the instructor has told the students to do and not do.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
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.
Or perhaps, given her new perspective, she's trying to give some advice to students that could possibly help them and believes that it will be better received because she DOES remember what it's like to be a student. Believe it or not, even those of us who were students four decades ago haven't forgotten what it's like!
Do all of you students busting on the OP really think the advice is bad?
No I don't think all the advice is bad. And I agree that the students shouldn't be hanging out at the nurses station or sitting at the computers. But we also have rules as students like not entering a room until we've gotten report. We can help if asked but we also can't just answer any call light. We don't know the patient, their situation, or any restrictions they may have. Just because students aren't running to answer call lights doesn't always mean we are lazy, it may just mean we aren't allowed to.
It is SO different when you're on the other side. As a student I felt like I annoyed the nurses, but now I understand WHY! I agree with so many things you have said, and I wish I had heeded them better as a student. If you are not looking up something relevant to your patient, please DO NOT take our computers/mobile computers. My computer dies once a day as is, I don't need to be unable to find another computer to pass my meds. If you are not that patient's student nurse, please at least answer the call light anyway and direct it to the appropriate person. If you are pulling meds, please take them away from the med cabinet and at that point go through them with your instructor instead of standing right in front of it with the drawer open for like 15 minutes. If you don't understand a certain type of precautions/protocol at least make an attempt to look it up on our hospital network. If you still don't, I am happy to chat with you about it. Do not just hang out in the halls in big groups - it just clogs the halls and is annoying when there's a call light going on nearby and not one student is even acknowledging/answering it. Do not try and latch on to a nurse who already has an orientee - as the one being the orientee it can be annoying when week after week we have to tell the same clinical group that they need to find another nurse as one person to teach is enough for a preceptor. Don't just stand there and stare at me like I'm an alien - it is REALLY awkward. Please try not to ask me 100 questions while I'm pulling/passing meds - The medication rights still apply to us and it makes it easier to make an error if you are grilling me while I'm in the middle of med pass.
While I completely understand that students have to learn, and I appreciate when students really help, I never realized how much they can also slow things down. Most of all - if you're not doing anything, look for something to help with! I love when a student comes to me and asks if they could help a patient to the bathroom for me or whatnot. That makes you stick out in my mind and make me want to go out of my way let you know I'm seeing something neat (and possibly something I haven't seen - since I'm an orientee) or unusual that you could learn from.
No I don't think all the advice is bad. And I agree that the students shouldn't be hanging out at the nurses station or sitting at the computers. But we also have rules as students like not entering a room until we've gotten report. We can help if asked but we also can't just answer any call light. We don't know the patient, their situation, or any restrictions they may have. Just because students aren't running to answer call lights doesn't always mean we are lazy, it may just mean we aren't allowed to.
Is it really a rule that you can't answer the call light and let the appropriate staff member know what the patient needs? Often our patients will call because they can't reach something, they want pain medication, or a number of other things. I agree with that you shouldn't get them up without knowing what is going on with them/what help they need, but it's easy enough to let them know you're gonna find help or let their aid/nurse know and the patients/staff really appreciate it.
About the answering call lights thing, at work and clinical I answer call lights even if I don't know what is going on to the patient. If they ask for something and I can't figure out what is appropriate I will find the nurse or tech working with the patient and ask them how I am supposed to help the patient. I hear a lot of people say that they don't want to answer call lights because they don't know the patient but that seems like a simple solution to me.
It's really a shame when students aren't present for hand off. They miss out on so much this way, not only about the patient, but how to pass a patient on to the next nurse, and how to receive change of shift report, which IS a skill in and of itself.
We had 8 students per instructor, which still had the instructor running all over the hospital, I cannot IMAGINE 16!
I was able to observe other schools during my preceptorship, which was very eye-opening. I could really see why each school in the area has a different reputation. One of the schools in particular had students that were guilty of everything the OP mentioned. It was super frustrating when they were busy sitting at the nurse's station gossiping. Even as a preceptee I tried to rope them in to something I was doing that was interesting or teach them about something they may not know or offered tips about what works for me for task X. Sometimes they just blew me off (maybe it was the student thing, but I will be working on this unit). The nurses complained SO much about the students from this school. Their instructor was even a staff member at this hospital! I'm not sure what the root of the problem was, but obviously, there was something.
The other school in the area (that was not mine) seemed to have much more motivated students, and I never saw this from them. They generally FOUND something to do, or were rooting through their patient's chart or SOMETHING. That school has a much better reputation in the area.
To those mentioning new nurses having students, this is becoming a common practice, actually. The thinking is that these nurses can teach things in a way that a brand new nurse needs, one that is still fresh, that was recently a student, etc. They can offer a different (not necessarily better or worse) perspective than a nurse who's been in practice for 20 years. It's great working with a variety of nurses, because you learn something different from each one, including the newer ones.
The call lights, I can see both sides. If I knew enough about the patient, I would attend to their needs, but I generally answered the call lights. If I didn't know the patient, and wasn't 100% sure I could do whatever the patient was asking (like refilling their water if they might be on fluid restriction or NPO, for example), I would say, "Let me check in with your nurse." Easy peasy. But sometimes it really was something very simple. Other times not, but at least the need was able to communicated with the RN or the charge if the RN was too busy.
Classicdame: Seems like you are talking about maybe ADN nurses who have licenses, going back to school for their BSN... would that be the case?
I have never been in that position when I was working at the bedside... only worked with generic nurslings. It would seem to me that if the school wanted the hospital nurse to precept an ADN-BSN student, there should be some input from the institution and the preceptors into what the students are there to learn.
I think the OP was speaking about beginning nursing students. And the behavior she described is not acceptable. I honestly hope that the staff who are working with my students would give me a heads up if my students were doing those things in my absence. Because the next week, those students would see a lot more of me.
We are really strict. If a student makes a butt out of him/herself... the school hears about it. And if the school hears about it, that student is on an Action Plan.
Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN
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