Problem w/RN's & CT's on clinical day

Nursing Students Male Students

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A recent clinical day pointed out to me how lazy some people can be. We were on a Med-Surg floor for clinicals recently, and found out that SOME RN's & CT's think of Nursing students as a paid day off. In this semester, our instructor told us that AM care was not what we were there for, so we did not perform this task. Within about an hour and a half, I was being lectured by a particular RN, saying "that's what you are here for". Of course, when the client in the room next door put on his call light and started yelling that he needed help, the RN was at the desk reading a romance novel.

Any thoughts?

Not all unit staff eat nursing students. I had 4 yesterday (I am a CCT) and I put them to work to supplement staff we were missing in the EC. I made sure that any patient they did something gross on they got to do the cool stuff too. All of them said they were grateful for my help in keeping them cooridinated as my nurses didn't have much time to assist them. I showed them everything I usually do and walked them through IV starts, blood draws , putting patients on monitors, but they also were shown where to take patient to radiology and were extra supplies are. I looked to them as additional team members. Example One girl got to do a foley after having to try to assist that patient use a urinal. But then I also showed her how to empty the bag a take a UA specimen. I think they learned a lot and I kept them useful and off the nurses nerves. PS my ec is a county facility its usualy nuts. Next time look for a nice tech who can make sure you get as much experience as possible.

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Specializes in LTC, Nursing Management, WCC.

We had some rotations where we were not responsible in doing total cares. That was later on in nursing school. There was to be a transition into more of an RN role. Now before I get flamed...I am not saying that RNs should not do cares. What I am saying is that clinical experiences only last X amount of hours. So once we got more advanced, the program wanted us to start doing more higher level nursing so that we could get the critical thinking piece. This of course made the aides mad because they had to do their regular caseload...but I was to be with the RN now. Of course we were given more patients also. Don't get me wrong...I of course helped out with lights because that is the responsibilty of ALL nursing staff.

But once we got to a certain level...we had more patients assigned but we also got pulled to other patients when it came time for more indepth learning. It was the time to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

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Specializes in EMS, ER, GI, PCU/Telemetry.

there are lazy people everywhere. i have worked in a hospital for many years, in different settings, but mostly ER. we had nurses, who even if you said "your patient just coded" would tell you they were on lunch, they are few and far between. most nurses, especially in an acute care setting, will be more than working their butt off, and if they have time to sit down will take advantage of it, because after 12 hours on your feet, they hurt!

don't be so quick to judge, unless you have worked in a hospital setting as an employee and know the ins and outs of the daily routines of that floor.

and my advice to you, as a fellow nursing student, is take advantage of the fact they want you to do pt care, as long as it is ok with your instructor! i jump at the offer to help change a patient or do a dressing change, not only because i know the nurse or tech really appreciates it, but because i may learn something. you never know, because they may have some cool kind of skin disorder or something i have never seen. i like to stay busy and i am super nosy and love to learn about everything. just food for thought.

good luck to you.

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A part of nursing is the A.M. care, and it is a good way to do a skin assessment. No one should feel that they are above bedpan duties. Sometimes, the hospital has no CNAs, or if they do, they may be busy somewhere else, and can't come right away, so the nurse has to, unless she is busy on emergency.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, psych, 7 yrs EMT.

Just my thoughts: AM cares are a vital part of your assessment. I have had many patients that "Have no complaints" when you ask them but during AM cares when you talk with them, problems may become apparent. example: While doing AM cares for a patient that said he felt much better than the day before, we began chatting during his bath. He then said to me that he didn't want to bother anyone with his problems because thats not the way he is. Anyways, this patient confided in me that he had been having some chest pain but it "wasn't that bad and not a big deal." I immediately called the MD, notified the charge and got a set of vitals. Everything looked ok until his cardiac panel came back. BNP elevated and a Trop of 0.68... Airlifted 25 minutes later straight to the cath lab.

My point here is sometimes the things like AM cares are looked upon as just bath time but in reality it's precious time with your patient when the rest of your day is gaurenteed to be non-stop. It's your first assessment of your patient. An opportunity to see the patient and recognize any possible signs or symptoms that may not be apparent during an in and out visit. As far as nurses being lazy: I have tried to think of a nurse that I work with that could be deemed lazy. I cannot...At the end of an 8 or 12 hour shift each and every nurse on the floor is exhausted. The demands on us grows each and every day. When the day comes that a student has one of our patients it's often just a little bit off of our plates and another hand in a sometimes grueling environment. Maybe allows us a few more minutes to spend with another patient. Being a student vs. working on the floor is a whole different expierence and my body screams that to me everyday when I get home from a long shift. Good luck to you and remember, sometimes we just need to take a break. :)

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Yes, AM care provides a great time for assessment. The issue for some nursing students is that they have limited amount of time on the floor and if they end up with primary responsibility for all of the AM care every time, they may miss opportunities to see and do other things that are also important to their education. They also won't have any idea of how a nurse is supposed to function who doesn't have the opportunity to do AM care for their patients if there are aides for whom that is their primary responsibility. As students, we had lots of time to do assessments and were required to be incredibly thorough, but we didn't learn or practice how to do a focused assessment in just a few minutes, which is all the time you'll have sometimes when you have several patients to juggle.

I had one nurse instructor who would have us "round" together on each others' patients. We would have the opportunity to listen to lung sounds or to see a skin condition that we might not have otherwise had the opportunity to do. We would see more than 10 patients in a day instead of just one or two. Seeing several different patients with COPD or CHF or whatever else, as opposed to just one or two can really help bring the textbook knowledge to life. And I think that would be more useful as a learning experience than doing a few more bed baths. Of course, students shouldn't forego giving AM care if they're just going to sit around waiting for something "more interesting" to happen.

In regard to laziness, students generally don't spend enough time on any one unit to really be able to accurately judge the work habits and patterns of the staff nurses. Better to just stick to non-judgemental observations... the nurse said "x" and was doing Y... as opposed to making assumptions about their motivation.

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Specializes in geriatrics,emergency,hospice.

Well I can relate to what alot of people here are saying. We are did our Adult Nursing I rotations (just finished today) at the same hospital we did our fundamentals at, and on the same floor as well. Needless to say, we were told this semester we are to focus more on the RN aspect of nursing than the CNA/Tech focus of nursing. We made alot of techs mad, because they were used to us doing all the AM care on the entire hall. We still did alot of the AM care, but it's now more focused on head to toe assessments, passing AM meds, dressings, etc than giving bed baths. Time management skills are essential, I can tell you that. The nurses appreciated us more this semester because we took alot off of them. We still answered call lights and did alot of baths, but that wasnt our entire focus, you know what I mean. We also observed nurses sitting at the desk. And you know what? More power to them! They are there on their feet for 12 hrs, and we are there like 8 tops. And with the computer charting, just because they are sitting at a computer doesnt mean they arent working. I guess we are really lucky, ALL the nurses we work with are very appreciative and thankfull, as we are to them. What previous posters said about AM care being so important, they couldnt be more right. You never know what you are going to walk into when you walk into a patient's room.:p

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I didn't read the entire post, so forgive me if I repeat something. I am a nursing student and I have had my share of the grunt work as some would call it. At first I was very frustrated and felt like I was just being dumped on. This semester I changed my attitude and willingly provided all the grunt work with a smile and a good attitude. I even find myself circulating around when im not busy and asking the other nurses if they have anything I might could help them with. I've even made lunch runs.

Funny thing happened this semester. Nurses started hunting me down to come see the cool stuff. I even had the opportunity to do chest compressions during a code. I'm wise beyond my semester and it really has paid off. Once all the crap is out of the way the nurses are pretty good about letting you experience he things thy normally don't have time for. It's a scratch my back I'll scratch yours type of relationship.

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I didn't read the entire post, so forgive me if I repeat something. I am a nursing student and I have had my share of the grunt work as some would call it. At first I was very frustrated and felt like I was just being dumped on. This semester I changed my attitude and willingly provided all the grunt work with a smile and a good attitude. I even find myself circulating around when im not busy and asking the other nurses if they have anything I might could help them with. I've even made lunch runs.

Funny thing happened this semester. Nurses started hunting me down to come see the cool stuff. I even had the opportunity to do chest compressions during a code. I'm wise beyond my semester and it really has paid off. Once all the crap is out of the way the nurses are pretty good about letting you experience he things thy normally don't have time for. It's a scratch my back I'll scratch yours type of relationship.

Yes same thing happened to me last semester. When I was finished with my patients, helped the other nurses and techs, and they would give me a heads up on a procedure I had not seen yet. And like others have stated, AM care is a good time to interact with your patients. One isn't going to enjoy all aspects of nursing, but if one keeps a negative attitude about it, its just going to get worse, your going to make silly mistakes and could cost you your job!!

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