pet peeves when nursing students arrive

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I was reading the pet peeves thread and decided to start this one and see if I could get any advice for what TO DO and NOT TO DO in clinicals.

So...

What pet peeves do you have about nursing students?

What are things you wish ns would do?

sandan rnstudent

Specializes in Paramedic 15 years, RN now.

I love students....I suggest the student say things like "what can I help you with" "Give me something to do" I remember my first months on the floor and you are lost, feel stupid, feel like you are in the way....but if u just be aggressive, the RN will remember you and appreciate you.

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, PACU.

I agree...if you have checked if off on your list, it doesn't mean you shouldn't do it again! When you get out in the real world you are going to wish you had put in 100 foleys and 100 ngs and did 100 dressing and 100 trach cares. This is the stuff that is going to stick in your head! And when you get on orientation, you will be doing 100 of those things until you get it right lol So if you can prove your competency at your new job in 2 attempts, you will move on quicker!

I can't stand the ones that come in, and want us to do their work and careplans....really? I will give you hints along the way. I know we are specialized, but formulating a careplan is easy if you are paying attention while we do our assessment and care. That irritates me lol Be willing to look stuff up before you get to us, even if you are with us for a day!

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Specializes in Emergency/Cath Lab.

I love having students. I wish we had more on night shift.

However if I see you sitting around doing nothing and I offer for you to do something, the only answer out of your mouth should be "Yes, I will do that".

Im not doing that because I am lazy and want to pawn off my work. When I was in school I appreciated every chance the nurses gave me to practice the skills that I learned and I want to pass that on. So next time I ask if you want to start an IV, you better have the supplies n hand and beating me to the room for the chance.

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Another comment on the iPod debate this thread has turned into, lol. I'm a first semester student, and had to buy the iPod touch because it's required for clinicals, but they're making us sign a form saying we will only use it in break rooms so as to avoid the appearance of personal use/unprofessionalism. I totally agree with this. The iPod will have an app on it that includes Taber's and some other useful resources, but someone (patient, family, nurse, whoever) seeing a student fooling with their iPod wouldn't know what they were doing on it, and honestly, most students probably wouldn't be able to resist pretending to be looking up something while in reality be checking Facebook or playing angry birds!

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I'm not a nurse yet but working in the Lab I can tell you two things,

1) LABEL THE PATIENTS TUBES!!! - Cannot tell you how many times I have had to discard blood sent down on patients because the student nurse did not know to put the labels on and just sent it down. Nurses tend to hate this.

2) Don't come down to the lab with specimens and complain about the nurse you are working under... The ladies in my Lab pretty much know every nurse on the floor and word always gets back around.

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This is what I have learned so far as a nursing student, that my preceptor nurses expect of me:

To keep track of anything I do, vitals, accuchecks, wound checks, drain emptying, cath care etc. They expect me to read the patient/s chart(in my program we have 4 patients after the 3rd week) and to understand their plan of care. I am expected to know medications I will be administering and the 5 rights- as well as any potential side effects and pt teaching. I should know all assessment data as well as history and physicians orders(diet, positioning, etc)

Each preceptor is different because they are ultimately responsible for the patient and they need to know you are competent(some take more convincing than others:yeah::nurse::nurse:)The best way to show this is to be knowledgable and showing eagerness to learn. The nurses I have been assigned to have always responded well to me and shown me a lot of awesome things which I truly appreciated. I always made sure to Thank the nurses and the patients at the end of my shift.

I bought a clinical handbook which explains procedures, tools needed, side effects, interventions, safety practices & pt teaching It comes in very handy when I know I will be performing a skill( it has everything from major surgeries and nursing responsibilities to clinical procedures) I can read up on the procedure and make sure I have everything while I am waiting for my instructor or nurse(they are always doing something and you have to be ready when they come!) this way it is fresh in my mind especially if it is a newer skill. The book is just a general clinical handbook for med surg. From Amazon.

Just try to HELP your nurse/es, offer yourself for everything and ANYTHING!! The nurses like to see us enjoying learning. It reminds them of when they were a student nurse and everything was new for them-- and usually they will be more inclined to come get you when something is going on. I am now in OB and my nurse ran to get me when another nurses patient was going in for an emergency c section. She could have left me in the room making baby bags but she did not and that c section was exciting. Everyone went into overdrive and had the baby out in 52 seconds!

Enjoy clinicals and soak up as much as you can!! Try not to make a mistake by knowing what ur doing and why and practicing in simulation or skills labs! If u do make a mistake, NEVER make the same mistake again. And above all else respect the nurses and the facility!

-Julie

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just try to help your nurse/es, offer yourself for everything and anything!! the nurses like to see us enjoying learning. it reminds them of when they were a student nurse and everything was new for them-- and usually they will be more inclined to come get you when something is going on. i am now in ob and my nurse ran to get me when another nurses patient was going in for an emergency c section. she could have left me in the room making baby bags but she did not and that c section was exciting. everyone went into overdrive and had the baby out in 52 seconds!

enjoy clinicals and soak up as much as you can!! try not to make a mistake by knowing what ur doing and why and practicing in simulation or skills labs! if u do make a mistake, never make the same mistake again. and above all else respect the nurses and the facility!

-julie

y e s

:yeah:

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Another comment on the iPod debate this thread has turned into, lol. I'm a first semester student, and had to buy the iPod touch because it's required for clinicals, but they're making us sign a form saying we will only use it in break rooms so as to avoid the appearance of personal use/unprofessionalism. I totally agree with this. The iPod will have an app on it that includes Taber's and some other useful resources, but someone (patient, family, nurse, whoever) seeing a student fooling with their iPod wouldn't know what they were doing on it, and honestly, most students probably wouldn't be able to resist pretending to be looking up something while in reality be checking Facebook or playing angry birds!

Even an old fart can find this a good thing :D

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Specializes in Surgical, quality,management.

I really enjoy precepting students but as a senior nurse in a team of 5 ward nurses on a day that there is 2 bank (pool) staff who for obvious reasons cannot precept as they only work PRN and are often unfamiliar with the cases, a graduate who is in her GNP and by policy cannot take a student as she is still learning and another nurse.

2 students 2 ward nurses. You know you will have a student but you also know that you have the man who had a Whipples procedure yesterday with a PCA epidural chest tube NGT drains catheter central line TPN and a history of HTN!! The epidural is not working he is in severe pain & I seem to be on the phone call the pain team all shift to come & review him.

pt 2 had emergency surgery in the early hours of the morning for a perforated diverticulum and had Hartmanns procedure and stoma formed. She speaks no English and her family cannot be contacted. She is agitated and in pain because she does not understand how to use her PCA!

Pt 3 is 3 days post op doing well but needs TLC and loads of encouragement to DB+C and mobilse. Needs complex discharge planning for home on Day 5

Pt 4 is your 10AM discharge needs education on wound care and post op recovery at home. Your manager is telling you ED is jam packed and we need to get a small bowel obstruction up to the ward ASAP.

4 pt seems easy right................No HCA/aide to do washes or obs. Just the RN. So by the time we have got out of handover at 7.30 I have explained to you what the pt surgeries are and what everything is 8 AM. You want to do meds on 2 pt. at least 40 for you to draw up all the IVs and then another 10 while you do your 7 Rights on the pt between each med???? when you haven't moved away from the bedside.

with that workload I could not cope with a student that day and I said straight out to my manager. I would not of been able to give them the time that I like to give to them explaining things and asking them questions as well as teaching them how to care for the pt with all of skills required. that day NO WAY.

So another pt was going to have an ERCP. I sent her off for 4 hours and when she came back at midday I had pain in pt 1 under control and was about to insert a NGT on the new small bowel obstruction and had done my midday meds except for one pt. i had the quality time then to spend teaching instead of looking at the clock at 10 AM and realising that pt 3 had had no urine output for 3 hours and fighting with an idiot intern on the fact that I could NOT bolus the bag of fluid she had running as it had 40mmol KCL in it.

Where I work it is the senior nurses that get the students and the sicker pts. so there is a double whammy. Unstable pts that you on your own could multi task but you cannot do that with a student that is keen to learn. I want to give the best possible placement on my ward but some days it is impossible!

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Specializes in Critical Care-Neuro/Trauma ICU.

I work night shift so I typically don't work with many students unless they are shadowing or about to graduate and are in a preceptorship role. However, I have pet peeves all the same.

When you arrive in the morning, PLEASE do not crowd into the nurses station. We understand that you need to receive report from your nurse and that you would like to hear us report off to each other (as well you should), but please wait until we begin to walk rounds on the patients. I am ready to leave and I need to be able to get to a computer to chart, etc. and if you are just sitting there chatting with your friends you're really in my way. When I was a student, the instructors at my school would have had a cow if we had ever gotten in the way of the nurses, doctors, PCAs, case managers, etc.

Also, please tone down your makeup, hair and jewelry. We understand that not all nursing programs are teaching you to look as professional as possible, but this is just my personal advice to you. Would you want a sloppy looking nurse with bright pink eyeshadow and huge earrings clanking around your ears taking care of you? Or someone who is well put together and professional looking?

At the end of the day we do love having students. We are all teachers or else we wouldn't be nurses. Just try to remember that while you get to "chart" and perform duties during your clinical, we are ultimately responsible for our REAL work so we have to get our jobs done. Try not to take things personally when you are in the clinical setting. It wasn't that long ago that most of us were there and we still feel your pain. But it won't be that long before you are where we are you will begin to fell ours.

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Specializes in med-surg, ID, #, ED.

I think the best is to be useful.

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Specializes in -.

Don't stand around talking when there are tasks you can do !

I have met 2nd Year RN students who will not shower a pt or do obs because they "arent sure how" or "not confident".

What the ? I was doing those tasks on my first week on clinicals 2 months after I started LPN school...?

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