pet peeves when nursing students arrive

mazy · Aug 11, 2011

A little off topic. I had a group of students come through once, I knew the clinical instructor very well. She had worked PRN at another facility I worked at, we had sent her home because she came in to work drunk. After she left we found several narcotics missing. Unfortunately, that was a facility that didn't care about stuff like that and no one ever followed up on it so she was free to go out and about and do her thing.

Sigh.

Ruby Vee, BSN · Aug 11, 2011

oh and how come y'all so hostile to people that could be your potential coworkers one day?
y'all know we don't know **** so why would some of you still try and undermine what little skill we have period? how else we supposed to learn nursing if the people we look up to and learn from dont' even want us there because it's "more work?" for all that, you're just progressing backwards. it ain't that hard for me to say that i don't know and am willing to learn but it is hard for me to accept the fact that the people i am learning from don't want to teach me or develop me into a good nurse.

i haven't said -- nor do i think anyone on this thread has said -- that we don't want students around. yes, we have said that students are more work -- because they are -- in response to a post from a student who said something to the effect of "nurses should be glad we're their to help them and to do their job for free." if i didn't want to teach students, i suppose i could slough some of the tasky things off on them. it would be lazy and poor nursing, care, but i suppose some nurses actually do do that. instead, i try very hard to give them a learning experience -- and that is not only more work, it takes more time. it would be nice if the student understood that they're really not "helping us" or "doing our job for free", but instead we're doing two or three times as much work to try to teach them something. and we're doing it without any extra compensation or consideration.

i think what we nurses are trying to get across the the students in this thread is that we're glad to be able to teach them -- but please understand this is more work, not less, for us. and it would be nice if some of the students were a bit grateful for the extra work we do on their behalf.

Spikey9001, BSN, RN · Aug 11, 2011

Good point and I'm ALL for iPods and electronics being used in the clinical setting. It's 2011, we're in the age of information, not the dark ages. Why make your job more difficult when you can make a lot of aspects of your job easier by having a handy database/calculator right in your iPod/tablet?

If charting and all that other jazz is going digital, everyone else should follow suit.

kids · Aug 11, 2011

If you're doing a rotation in the ER and are told a patent is 'off limits' it means exactly that, accept it and move on.

If you're told a patient has specified no nursing students, respect that, even if the patient is herself, a nurse.

butterfly134 · Aug 11, 2011

Im a student straight out of highschool. I dont know it all. I'm always offering to help out. I ask lots of questions. Im eager and willing to learn. I like to get to know the patients and tbh I much prefer patient care than going to see how scans are done or watching high tech procedures. If Im unsure I consult the nurse Im assigned to because patient safety is most important. I've gotten on my hands and knees and cleaned beds without having to be asked just because it needed to be done and I could see that no one else would do it. I sat and held a patients hand for over an hour because this patient had dementia and was scared and wouldn't stop screaming and I enjoyed doing this because I love the caring side of nursing. Generally I had a good relationship with the nursing staff and they were happy to teach me, some took me under there wing and really really cared. A few nurses however gave me the cold shoulder and were generally just unsociable and plain nasty for no reason. Im only saying this because students differ in attitudes, so do the nurses themselves. Its just the way the world is today, sometimes it doesnt matter how hard you try sometimes other people just don't acknowledge your efforts.

Callisonanne · Aug 11, 2011

I graduated from school in May but in my maternity clinicals last summer the nurses told us we were the only class to do work. I was like "well did they just not ask to help?" She said they would ask the students to get vitals and they would just say "No". I cannot even imagine saying that to someone who is a mentor/professional/possible future coworker. I had a nurse tell me to go get a temp on a post surgical patient by any means necessary. You best believe I did all things possible to get a daggom temp on that patient. There is always one rotten egg I guess.

xtxrn, ASN, RN · Aug 11, 2011

Good point and I'm ALL for iPods and electronics being used in the clinical setting. It's 2011, we're in the age of information, not the dark ages. Why make your job more difficult when you can make a lot of aspects of your job easier by having a handy database/calculator right in your iPod/tablet?
If charting and all that other jazz is going digital, everyone else should follow suit.

But you have to know the information- not just have fast fingers :) That's one of the points... it's not about the "dark ages" and being anti-technology- it's about people needing to put forth enough effort to know something without dragging out some object instead of their own brain Are you going to take boards with an iPod? You'd be booted out in a heartbeat. Know the information; use the iPod (if it is permitted at your facility) to check and confirm things- not use it instead of actually doing any work :)

KimberlyRN89, BSN, RN · Aug 11, 2011

Today was my first day of clinical for Med-Surg..and it was great! I got to give meds via G-Tube, and I did some injections too :) (Forgive me for being so excited..last semester we only got to give PO meds lol). The nurse and the gna were so awesome & helpful ! If I needed help with something, they were there. And my clinical instructor too lol. I think if you go into clinicals with an open mind & eager to learn, the experience will be that much greater. I'm looking forward to the rest of the semester! :yeah: :redbeathe:nurse:

xtxrn, ASN, RN · Aug 12, 2011

Today was my first day of clinical for Med-Surg..and it was great! I got to give meds via G-Tube, and I did some injections too :) (Forgive me for being so excited..last semester we only got to give PO meds lol). The nurse and the gna were so awesome & helpful ! If I needed help with something, they were there. And my clinical instructor too lol. I think if you go into clinicals with an open mind & eager to learn, the experience will be that much greater. I'm looking forward to the rest of the semester! :redbeathe:nurse:

It sounds like a great day :) I'm happy you had a good experience ! :up: :heartbeat

CrazierThanYou · Aug 14, 2011

a little off topic but you know what i don't like???
when new grad nurses who were students a few months ago treating student nurses badly. i don't get it!

Yes! This! I've encountered a lot of indifferent nurses but only one who might be called mean. She was just nasty all the way around. I was standing at the med counter preparing to give some IV antibiotics to a baby. She walked up and pretty much shoved me out of the way, saying "I need to get in here". Well okay. I didn't realize there was a cabinet there but I would gladly have moved out of the way.

Back to the new grads. I spent several days working in the special care nursery during last semester's clinicals. I was stoked about working with the babies and it was a great learning experience except for the presence of this one nurse. She was incredibly rude to me and my classmate. She wouldn't let us do any of the things we had been told to do by our instructor and the staff nurse. In fact, not only did she not let us participate, she would turn her back to us and try to sort of curl up around whatever baby she was doing something with like she didn't even want us to watch. The staff nurse was totally oblivious, standing at another isolette going on and on about what a great nurse the other girl was and how she didn't need to watch her, etc.

Believe me, she needed to watch her. She was throwing the babies around and not supporting their heads. She gave a newborn a hep vaccine. She just grabbed his leg and punched the needle in. Later, she was preparing another shot when she dropped the syringe, caught it by the needle, and went on to use the contaminated needle on the baby. Later, a classmate joined me in the nursery and the nurse brought in another newborn and told my classmate that the baby was "hers" to care for. The instant the nurse walked out of the room, the new grad walked over and snatched the baby away from my classmate. She was rude to us and completely ignored us, even when we asked questions. While performing care, my classmate asked her about something she was doing and her answer was that they had 'always done it this way'. We found out later that she had been employed there as a nurse for a whopping one week.

Surely she hadn't forgotten already what it was like to be a student nurse! She was just extra nasty for no reason at all. When we reported to our instructor what was going on, her response was simply that the girl was really 'territorial'.

xtxrn, ASN, RN · Aug 14, 2011

CrazierThan You-- I'm so sorry you had to go through that :heartbeat

CrazierThanYou · Aug 14, 2011

CrazierThan You-- I'm so sorry you had to go through that :heartbeat

Thanks. Its sort of funny now, looking back on it. I wish she could see how ridiculous she looked. The bad thing was, we couldn't get away from her! Everywhere we went, there she was! One day, I was back in the special care nursery and there she came, dressed in street clothes. She just came to "hang out, see what's going on". I guess my instructor was right, she was definitely territorial! :lol2: