Problems with Rn's in clinicals

MinnRN · Apr 8, 2005

There are a variety of nursing "atmospheres" out there. I have had good clinical experiences on a floor with one shift and completely different experiences on the same floor at a different time of day.
You sound like you've been practicing for a while. Are you saying that there is no way her complaint can be valid?
As for nurses hiding. I have found groups of nurses gossiping, far, far away from the client with fecal incontinence. I have stood time and again in a pod full of blinking call lights and been the only one there.
I don't think any student imagines they are taking on a full case load. That would be ridiculous and dangerous. I don't know what you're saying when you talk about all the work you do and how that compares to what a student does. You have finished school, you went through your preceptorship/floor training. You have gained experience.
I have a son in the 1st grade, when I help him with his homework I don't gloat about what a great reader I am.

I dont know about the unit you work on, but the nurses on my unit pull together and work as a team, both LPNs and RNs. We are way too busy to hide and IGNORE lights.

The students concerns may be valid.....I was stating expectations that have worked both in and out of school where I work.

I will not apologize if some one is rude and snotty to staff or patients and they are called to task for unpleasant behavior.

MUTUAL respect is expected from everyone, student, nurse, md, ancillary staff, etc.

as for your remark about gloating, I was not gloating. Merely stating a fact.

I would not be doing what I am doing if I wasnt good at it, and enjoyed my work.

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · Apr 8, 2005

MUTUAL respect is expected from everyone, student, nurse, md, ancillary staff, etc.

And some people make it very difficult for others to respect them.

HisTreasure, BSN, RN · Apr 8, 2005

I am a LPN student and I thought I would chime in. Only once or twice can I recall encountering a rude nurse. My issues, as one of the earlier members mentioned, revolve around the CNAs and PCTs. I am one of the youngest people in my class. I am 23 but I am lucky if I have a day when I actually look 19. :chuckle That said, I have had MANY problems with the CNAs and PCTs and them not taking well to my age while doing clinicals. :stone Some have been very helpful and treated me well, while others outwardly resented me.

I had one CNA who was possibly in her fourties tell me, "I applied to that program four times and didn't get in, but now I see they only accept babies. I am happy I didn't graduate from there. I will just go to MCC and get my RN!" Another lady at a different facility refused to do AM cares on her pt, as I was doing Meds. I finished meds and went to do a check on my patients and this lady was still unwashed and lying in her own wastes. I was disgusted!:angryfire I bathed her and when finished I found the CNA and questioned her. While the situation probably could have and should have been resolved privately between us, she decided to get loud. So loud in fact that the charge nurse and my instructor came over to us. I explained the situation, and she didn't deny it. In fact, she said "I'll be damned if I take orders from a toddler!" How rude! True, these issues more revolve around my age but I still wanted to add my little vent.

On the other side, I became pretty good associates with an RN on the floor we just left. In fact, she gave me her phone number. She explained to me that for the most part students are a big help, but because we may not be fully oriented to the floor (don't know where this or that is), we have restrictions on what we can do, and while most of us are checked off on most skills there are still some people who need an instructor present when doing certain things which all interferes with the RN's and LPN's routines. I will never understand to the full extent what she means until I am a floor nurse, but I pray that when I do become a floor nurse I remember my days as a student. (Which after 5 years of stress I probably won't!:rotfl: )

HisTreasure, BSN, RN · Apr 8, 2005

What really irritates me is the way the young ones slaughter the English language, and this includes the BSN students, not just the LPN students. (We get both from different schools.)

:chuckle I'm young and I try to use proper English! Here we go again with the prejudice against us "toddlers" Ha! Ha! :rotfl:

LPN1974, LPN · Apr 8, 2005

:chuckle I'm young and I try to use proper English! Here we go again with the prejudice against us "toddlers" Ha! Ha! :rotfl:

I'm not prejudiced at all against you "toddlers" going to school

I say "Good for you, girl!"

I'd much rather see you in school than taking a job as a CNA on the floor and giving meds with virtually no training to do so.

I was very young also when I went to LPN school I was 20.

I am so glad I did when I had the opportunity.

I just wish I had gone on later to RN, but I didn't. I was busy raising a family, and it just never happened.

If you can get the opportunity, you should go for your RN later. Do it while you are young and fresh and before your brain cells start to die.

HisTreasure, BSN, RN · Apr 8, 2005

I'm not prejudiced at all against you "toddlers" going to school
I say "Good for you, girl!"
I'd much rather see you in school than taking a job as a CNA on the floor and giving meds with virtually no training to do so.
I was very young also when I went to LPN school I was 20.
I am so glad I did when I had the opportunity.
I just wish I had gone on later to RN, but I didn't. I was busy raising a family, and it just never happened.
If you can get the opportunity, you should go for your RN later. Do it while you are young and fresh and before your brain cells start to die.

Thanks for the encouragement! I am actually starting Excelsior immediately after I get my license. I have a family too, so if I get hired at the psych center for weekend evenings and/or nights I will be able to pursue my RN and keep take care of my children and household at the same time! Good luck in all your endeavors! (It's never too late to keep going!)

caroladybelle, BSN, RN · Apr 9, 2005

I don't think anyone realizes how hard it is just to go in to a new place and FIND the stuff you need, while also learning a new career and also dealing with CNAs and RNs who resent your presence and at the same time abandon their patients to you to go off and HIDE.
and I swear they do

First, as I am a traveler, I am quite familiar with "hunt and search" for equipment.

And chances are the RNs are not hiding, they are trying to get two minutes to gather their thoughts and do the annoying but required paperwork, free of distraction.

caroladybelle, BSN, RN · Apr 9, 2005

You should be appreciative of nursing students. We give people a break. When we have patients, we have two patients that we do all of the work for. Not the RN's that would have originally had them. Therefore, taking the work off of them. Our instructor is there to teach us. If nurses on the floor are kind they teach as well.

Unfortunately, that is incorrect. I generally end up doing MORE work when I have students, not less.

To paraphrase from "The House of God", show me a nursing student that does not double my workload, and I will kiss their feet.

And it is not a matter of "kindness", it is a matter of time. When the staff is overworked, the patients come first and teaching comes second. The facility and the nursing staff, as a general rule, do not get paid or receive any benefits for teaching you and it increases their workload.

TStewartfan · Apr 10, 2005

Unfortunately, that is incorrect. I generally end up doing MORE work when I have students, not less.
To paraphrase from "The House of God", show me a nursing student that does not double my workload, and I will kiss their feet.
And it is not a matter of "kindness", it is a matter of time. When the staff is overworked, the patients come first and teaching comes second. The facility and the nursing staff, as a general rule, do not get paid or receive any benefits for teaching you and it increases their workload.

I was really offended by this post, I don't ask to be taught by the nurses on the floor, they have jobs to do and I stay out of their way as much as physcially possible. They call us in when they need assistance and we come running to help. We stand back and let them do what needs to be done and they contact us if something special needs to be taken care of and they know we can do it. I have never heard one of the RN's complain about us being on the floor, they complain about each other it seems, but 99.9% of the time they are happy to see us. Our instructors (of which there is two) are the ones who teach us, not the RN's. They already have enough work to do. I pray I never have that negative attitude towards students like some RN's have, because I have been in their shoes and so have those RN's, we all weren't born nurses.

I am sorry but I don't have that problem with the nurses on the floor I work on, they seem to be glad that we are there. We are on a Advanced Medical Care Unit which is a step down from MICU, SICU and ICU and every patient is on a heart monitor. By having us take care of the not so sick patients, they can take care of those who really need the attention. I don't follow the RN's around, I don't ask them 40 million questions and I do what I am there to do. Now, if there is a problem I will hunt down the RN and if she is not there, I will find the 2nd in charge. Just last week we had problems and could not find the RN charge nurse on our side of the floor. I knew where she was at, she was at lunch, but I WILL NOT INTERRUPT anyone at lunch unless its a life or death emergency, in this case it was not so I just found the 2nd person in charge to confer with and went about my day. Sometimes I only see the RN's at the beginning of the shift at conference and when I am giving report at the end of the day. The RN's don't have to follow us around like babies. We have instructors to do that.

caroladybelle, BSN, RN · Apr 10, 2005

I regret that you do not care for my post.

I was merely pointing out to the poster that I referenced that Nursing Students are additional work. You might not like to think so, but they frequently are a hindrance.

You do not have to like it, but that is my experience with students. You will have your experience with students soon enough.

*PICURN* · Apr 10, 2005

From my experience as a nursing student.....

9 times out of 10 the nasty nurses who have issues with students work @ crappy facilities with awful ratios. They are severely overworked and don't have time to teach and I am sure they are stressed w/their patient load as it is......still no excuse to "eat their young".

You will notice when you do your clinicals at facilities that are better staffed and have better ratios, you will find NICER nurses. Ones that will welcome students and have time to teach.

TStewartfan · Apr 10, 2005

You had to be a student one time, none of us were born nurses, that was exactly my point. If you don't teach the young ones, you will have no one to relieve you when you are tired and overworked. I understand that nurses today are tired, heck you can see it in their faces but the students shouldn't be treated as garbage because of that.

I hopefully won't ever come in contact with you because having such a sour outlook on students that I KNOW you once were, makes me sad. My mother and numerous friends of hers are nurses and they do everything in their power to teach others. Now, work comes first and foremost I know that and if students in the past have bugged you I am sorry for that. But every nursing student has to do time on the floor, you may not like it but it is a fact of life. I have a friend of mine who is in her sixties and went to nursing school at 38, she helps me more than I can ever thank her for. In fact the nurses on the floor I work with keep asking me when I am going to be finished with school because they want me to come up there and work with them. You know why??? Because I stayed out of their way and when I had to ask a question, I didn't stop whatever they were doing, I usually ended up walking with them wherever they were going and talked to them as they walked. I am not a young student, I am 39 and I bust my butt every week to prove that I deserve to be in this program due to the fact that the majority of the program is made of young people. Maybe its due to the lack of respect that SOME and I make a point to say some because I have ran into probably 90% of the younger students I go to school with who have that respect for the older nurses, but there are some who have no respect but for themselves.

I have taught classes in the past and my ultimate goal someday when I retire it to be a nursing educator, so I cannot have the attitude that you have towards students or I would be a lousy instructor. I love to learn and I love to teach something to others that I know. Its a wonderful feeling to know that you have passed on something worthwhile to the next generation. And yes I already have two degrees so this is not my first time around. I worked for 17 years at one job and decided I needed a change.

Jodi Levins, Student Nurse and proud of it.