for preceptors.

meownsmile, BSN, RN · Mar 12, 2006

Im sure you will be a very good nurse. I guess it maybe was in how it was presented and the staff at the clinical site perceived it. Actions speak louder than words and if it was a matter of you telling them about ALL your experience before you had proven it that might have been the problem. You cant tell someone how "good" you are, you have to show them. ACTING like a stupid student isnt going to work because thoses you are working with are smart enough to know the difference. Maybe a little humble pie for breakfast that day would have worked better for you.

Also, not everything is done exactly the same way on every unit. So if your skills werent quite what or how they carry out a procedure it may have made more sense for you to let them demonstrate first then take the initiative. Im sure the staff wouldnt have taken well to "oh I do it this way where i work". Remember that is NOT where you work. Maybe the same facility but not that unit.

Dont feel it was personal, as a preceptor and seeing a lot of students coming through our unit we can usually tell who does and doesnt have the confidence in themselves to accept constructive critisism and a little guidance. The ones who think they know everything already usually dont and are more likely to be challenged to embarressment or just plain ignored.

And always remember, you are still a STUDENT. You are there to learn something, even if you are already very confident and skilled. You dont EVER know it all.

Tweety, BSN, RN · Mar 12, 2006

I love a confident student, but not an arrogant one. I love a scared stiff student as well.

I wouldn't worry to much about what the staff thinks. Perhaps, like me, they've had some experience with student "know it alls" who don't seem open to instruction, thinking they are just here passing time and could teach us a thing or two, are arrogant and put themselves above their fellow students, and they are unfairly judging you.

I would take an honest look at yourself and your actions. Look at yourself objectively through their eyes. This might be a learning experience for you. But otherwise, in the long run it's how you feel about yourself, that you're true and honest in being yourself, and more importantly how your instructor grades you.

nurse_clown · Mar 12, 2006

i love a confident student, but not an arrogant one. i love a scared stiff student as well.

i was just wondering why you love a scared stiff student? i used to be a scared stiff student. i thought i was having a heart attack every time i had to go to clinical.

when i did my consolidation, i was given to a very arrogant preceptor. she didn't help me. she always seemed to "disappear" when i needed her. it didn't work out because i was really scared and i needed her. i guess she wanted a more independant student. so i got another preceptor. she wasn't arrogant and literally threw me to the wolves. she made me do everything on my own. it was very scarey but i always knew she was around. i was too chicken to do much but she made me. i think she knew how scared i was and really pushed me. she defended me to the other rn's who complained about me all the time. when i finished my med pass, she was behind me making sure i did it right. when i had to do a dressing, she didn't come in but made sure i was prepared and told me remember what to look for. if an i.v. had to be restarted, she made me stand with her while she did it. most of my consolidation was done during the day which was horrible. but i really liked her. she seemed to just know the answers to my questions and knew how to calm me down and get a grip when i got scared. yes. i admit that i am a chicken when it comes to learning new things.

so, tweety i just wondered why you love scared stiff students? i'm not a preceptor. i think i should put in a few more years before considering that since presently, i like to fly by the seat of my pants! do you like being a preceptor? we get students on our unit and we've gotten various types. and yes, we've had to "arrogant" one and a "scared stiff" one. you seem like a level headed type of person based on your other posts.

Tweety, BSN, RN · Mar 12, 2006

i was just wondering why you love a scared stiff student? i used to be a scared stiff student. i thought i was having a heart attack every time i had to go to clinical........... you seem like a level headed type of person based on your other posts.

thanks for the vote of confidence. i didn't mean to come across as a sadist "i love scared students".

let me put it this way. there are many students who are scared stiff when they arrive, i was one of those. or scared when they are doing something they've never done before like starting ivs.

i probably should have said, i have no problem working with and teaching, totally inexperienced and scared students. last semester my student was shaking so bad starting an iv, she needed a little extra tlc and boost of confidence and she nailed that iv (with shakey hands, but i bet the next time she won't be so shakey).

i work with students who are also techs at our hospital and they are generally well received, and fortunately aren't treated like this original poster is.

i like being a preceptor. i was assigned a student this semester but unfortunately i'm on vacation and have to pass. i primarily precept new grads and new employees.

i'm sorry your experience with preceptors is bad, those type of people have no business precepting. i don't understand how they get put in that role. it's a committment to the student, to the future of nursing, and it's a payback to those who have helped me when i was new and scared. it's my duty. i hope that doesn't sound to arrogant. i'm working on getting my bsn and am seriously considering being an instructor one day. (if i can get over my fear of public speaking, but i love one on one time with students.)

ERNurse752, RN · Mar 12, 2006

My guess is that your actions were interpreted as being a know-it-all, even if you didn't intend to come across that way.

There was someone in my nursing school class who was always talking about her experience and always trying to teach the other students how to do things. She may have known, but she was a student just like the rest of us, not a nurse, and not a teacher...so a lot of people didn't like her.

I would say you definitely don't need to act stupid and helpless...just don't talk about your experience unless someone asks you directly.

Good luck with graduation and enjoy your new career!

BeenThereDoneThat74, MSN, RN · Mar 12, 2006

i really need a little insight. i guess i will say a little about myself. i started working in a nationally known rehab facility in 1998. my mom was a primary nurse with brain injuries and my step-dad was the primary for sci. i had great teachers, plus they had worked there for so long that i knew most of the staff. i "blossomed" over the next five years and found nursing to be my niche. i was born to be a nurse, no doubt about that. everyone around me also said this. my mom taught me how to look at things from a nurses stand point rather than from a patient care tech. and that is how i became the caregiver i am today. i am not conceded, but know that i am good at what i do bc of what my supervisors say, my coworkers, doctors patients and their families. okay, so my mil is also an rn who said i am one of the smartest non nurses she's met, talking to me it felt like i was an rn right along with her and there were things i knew that she didn't. talk about a boost.
i am 28 and am now in lpn school and will graduate in july. yes, i am sailing through. i am very sure of myself and am very confident. i don't pretend to know things i don't know, but i will tell someone when i am educated in something. so in clinicals i thought my nurses would appreciate having a student who was not knew to nursing and who actually knew what she was doing. i found that was not taken well. they thought i was being abrupt with them. i was so nice! my instructor told me about this one day in clinicals (second day) and i was torn apart. i want nothing more than to please people and impress. my patients loved me and the nurses didn't. the only thing we couldthink of was that i was simply too comfortable and meshed too well with the actual employees. you really wouldn't have known i wasn't employed there. i didn't need their help really and i think that was bad. i should have acted more helpless. like i was a stupid student who didn't know anything. . i knobut i want to know why a nurse would prefer that to someone who has experiencew i am not licensed right now and that is a big difference, but i still have eight years of experience. i have been a cna, a pct, a unit secretary, i worked in a facility with mentally disabled adults, i taught all new techs that came through our doors and i am not a child either. i am 28 for pete's sake. so, can someone please tell me why they don't appreciate that? since then, i keep my mouth shut and act more stupid. "hi i am a stupid little nursing student who doesn't know anything-teehee". i know that was childish, but that is how i was treated. i just need some input. thanks.
oh, but this week, my nurse was an instructor at another college and told mine that i was going to be a great nurse :)

hmmm... where to begin....

you seem rather sure of yourself, no doubt, and that's great. to me, it makes my job easier, when a student has some sort of confidence, but it needs to be balanced with some humility. there seems to be a fine line between confidence and cocky. my advice...keep the confidence to yourself, it will shine without you trying to display it. let the instructors notice your confidence (they will), and impress them- not the floor nurses. they are not giving you your grade.

you also seem to think that there is nothing between being confident and stupid (you used that term twice). i find that very insulting to your fellow students. are you insinuating that someone without any medical background is automatically stupid? on the flipside, i've seen many a tech, emt, unit clerk, etc. who are not smart, yet assume that they can become a nurse. i am not calling you stupid, and yes, your experience is advantageous, but the bottom line is you are not a nurse yet. you need to learn to become a nurse. while i don't know you, i cannot possibly imagine that you know everything already. that is not an insult to you, but what you percieve as the nurses' role may be rather different from whay the nurses' role actually is. technically, you may have a lot of experience. you know how to do vitals, fingersticks, record i&o, and other skills. now you need to apply, analyze, interpret. maybe you already know how to do this. if you do, great.

as far as your age, i'd be careful with this one. if you look at the ages on this bb, many are old enough to be your mother or father (at the least). age and # of years as a tech do not necessarily = competence. i am truly not attempting to minimize your experience. you are a baby in the world of nursing (and i am a toddler at 32, with 12 yrs nursing exoerience!!).

my advice (if you want it), just lay low, do what you have to do for your instructors, and just be a student. not a stupid one, not a cocky one. just a student. let your actions speak for themself.

BeenThereDoneThat74, MSN, RN · Mar 12, 2006

i was just wondering why you love a scared stiff student? i used to be a scared stiff student

and it probably made you a better nurse. more acutely aware of the severity of what was important, and the consequences of wrong-doing. i was not a scared student (i wish i would have been :chuckle).

mel1977 · Mar 12, 2006

thank you for the input. LUckily, I am not a "know it all". My classmates will tell you that. I am confident AND receptive to learning. heck, I tell other you will never learn or know everything nursing. I learn something new every day. I swear I say that. My teachers appreciate my experience AND my willingness to learn. When I get my evals my teachers say I am doing great and keep up with what I am doing.

I don't feel anyone who doesn't have experience isn't good. I don't know it all and on the flip side, I haven't learned anything new either. I am passing meds, doing total patient care and haven't done anything new yet that I didn't already know how to do. Am I bored? maybe. I don't know. I haven't done IVs yet. I have not done one procedure I haven't already done as a aid.

Anyway, I don't "talk " about my experience. I tell them where I work and when they are teaching me, I watch, I learn, I may say, I have done that before......but more so so they don't have to spend time teaching me things I already knew (like how to put teds on or plexipulses or why). Since that one day, after I cried and cried in the breakroom I totally changed my ways. I don't act stupid, actually that was a poor word choice. I won't use it again, I didn't mean that to come off the way it did-I hope you all know that. I am not a mean person. I am a person who wants to teach, learn, and please. I have not discussed much about my experience since. If asked I tell. BUT, the nurses AREN'T teaching either. BC all we do really is patient care on a medsurg floor. WE don't actually spend the time with that nurse. She spends her day doing the things she needs done, we only speak to them when we report off or need to tell them something. Anyway, since then the nurses who said I was abrupt have since changed their ways toward me, I am much more humbled. I guess I just thought they'd like someone who didn't need too much explanation and Could be left on their own(which of course, our instructor is there all day with us too. we can't do anything new w/o her there.) I see other students actually paired up with a nurse, we don't do it that way. We are given the patient and we are responsible for that patient and we don't interact with the nurse that much.

I am not concerned anymore. The biggest thing is I dont' work there, and my teacher agreed that maybe I settled in too easily and a student shouldn't do that. My fault.

Again, I am not the know it all, she didn't make it. I give my experience and I am always open to learning and relearning. I appreicate the nursing field and respect it.

Is this any better? Maybe I should not have said so much and get away from the point. I am better now and past that situation and am pushing forward and even my teacher noticed I was doing much better. But please, send me more comments. WE change hospitals next week and I get to start all over again, will be unfamiliar with how things work there (I have been at the same one for fundamentals AND medsurg on the same floor both times). And I have to learn again.

neneRN, BSN, RN · Mar 12, 2006

I like the scared students too, I don't know how to explain it; but its very gratifying to help someone feel more comfortable doing a new skill, to help them see that they often know more than they give themselves credit for. It can be a huge boost for these students to have a seasoned nurse compliment them on doing a skill correctly, they're just so appreciative.

I like the confident students too, who you can tell have prepared for clinical, and really know their stuff, they're so eager to learn and try new skills.

I cannot stand students who have a know it all attitude and will even decline to do certain procedures because "I've done that before." Sorry to say, but when I encounter a student like that, you're on your own and I'm not willing to teach you. I'm not saying that the OP falls into this category, but sometimes all it takes is a comment for people to percieve you this way.

BeenThereDoneThat74, MSN, RN · Mar 12, 2006

I don't know it all and on the flip side, I haven't learned anything new either. I am passing meds, doing total patient care and haven't done anything new yet that I didn't already know how to do. Am I bored? maybe. I don't know. I haven't done IVs yet. I have not done one procedure I haven't already done as a aid.

So, help me to understand this (and it may sound a little weird), but, as an LPN, what more are you expected to know??? I don't mean this to sound negative in anyway, but maybe I'm missing something here. Maybe I'm missing the diff. between an LPN and RN program. There has to be more to this than passing meds and total patient care. I said this in another thread, AND to my students (who are RN/ADN), nursing is more than doing. It is about knowing. To me, that is the essence of post conference. Taking what you learned in lecture and applying it clinically. So you're all done with that?? 'Cause I'm not, and I'm the teacher.

hospitalstaph · Mar 12, 2006

I am so glad that this thread was started. I have worked in lactation (outside of the hospital) for 9 years and have an interest in pharmacology, so I have taken many, many CE classes. I also have a family member that has extensive health problems and have been very involved in his care. I am far from what you descibe as a "stupid" student. However, you can bet your tail that when I start clinicals, I will be quiet and observant. I am not there to impress only to learn.

T