precepting a student with a bad reputation.....

[HappyNurse2005, RN]

I volunteered to be a mentor to a nursing student for several weeks this summer, as part of a hospital program. I like to teach students. Thought it would be fun to share what i love to do with a student eager to learn (the students were all in hte program by choice, and had to have a certain gpa to do it)(these are rising senior nursing students)

the student, whom I'll call SN (student nurse ) was with another nurse in another part of the hospital for several weeks before getting ready to come to me (NS will be with me soon, but isn't yet).

the other nurse (ON from here on out) called me the other day. I don't know her. ON was telling me about how SN started out eager and really liked the program. Soon, SN was disappearing off the floor for an hour at a time, and rolling her eyes at ON when ON asked her where she'd been. SN wanted to study/do homework while on the clock b/c she was bored. did things her own way, not how she was told. Wanted to leave hospital for lunch-was told she'd have to clock out-again, rolled her eyes when told this. ON tried to give SN other observational experiences, from which she'd disappear. when ON had to be off on certian days, SN refused to work with other nurses on teh unit. ON told SN she was disappointed in her. When SN talked to me, she had always given me the impression that she was having a great time, no sign of trouble at all.

of course, i know SN thru a friend of a friend who goes to school with her, who told me "i'm sorry" when I told her that SN was the nursing studnet I would be with this summer.

My manager got word of this, and said that if she pulled this crap on our floor,s he'd be fired, but that we'll start with a clean slate.

so, i guess i'm up for a challenge. I can, of course, start out with no expectations of poor behavior. i wont let the others opinions cloud my judgement, but will be smart and keep an eye out for potential problems to nip in the bud. of course, it figures that assertiveness is not a strength of mine. guess i have to bone up on that, lol.

anyone else have student nurses/preceptees who had poor attitudes/poor work ethic and how did you handle it?

[llg, PhD, RN]

The key is not to take it personally if this student needs to be disciplined and/or fired. Be pleasant, but set up clear, reasonable expectations. If the student fails to meet those expectations, it is the student who fails, not you.

Maintain good communication with your boss and document everything appropriately. Give the student clear, no-nonsense feedback -- especially in cases where his behavior was questionable.

Then, if he chooses not to behave appropriately and/or take your guidance to heart .... cut him loose. He'll either learn a valuable from the experience or not -- but simply passing him along to the next person or next unit would be doing a disservice to nursing.

Good luck! Keep us posted.

llg

[Bala Shark]

I graduated in May in nursing school..To tell you the truth, when I was at my last semester of clinicals, my instructor gave me a bad rating...The next clinical instructor took note of that and considered me also, a student with problems..But you have to realize that the first instructor did not like me at all so he wrote me up and said a lot of negative things about me..

You have to have an open mind and let yourself be the judge of the person and not let others think for you..If my second instructor did that in just hearing what was being said about me, then I would not have graduated..

[glenwood]

Keep an open mind. Give the student a chance.When and if there is a problem you may be able to confront the student inteligently about it and cut through all the nonsense. Ask what the problem is, why does she want to do this, is she not getting what she wants out of the situation? Tell her that 50% of being a nurse is working well with other people, it's not all skills. You may be able to wake her up and show her how she looks to the staff she works with. That would be a great peice of teaching. If the problem is she is bored give her more chalenge. If she is having a hard time emotionally with dealing with sick peole make her talk about it. A good preceptor can have a big impact on a student in trouble.