dumbnurse
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Disclaimer: I am not a student but a nursing educator and I worked for Bellarmine part-time for 5 years as a clinical instructor. Also, I did not attend Bellarmine. First off, the money is big, needing a CNA is big and the time invested in the accelerated BSN program is mind altering big! As for credits transferring I cannot imagine that Bellarmine's would not transfer anywhere in the U.S. Bellarmine is relatively small with an awesome campus, the student culture there is welcoming, their athletics are competitive and it just "feels good" there. I know students who have left and went back home from New York to California and they are proud to be called alumni. It's a tough program and if I had it all to do over again I would have went to Bellarmine. Good luck and remember, that wherever you go you should be held to the same standards.
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As nurses we are expected to act professionally in our interactions with staff, patients and families. Our profession depends upon that expectation for accreditation, integrity and trust. So, when you have a student who is already in their mid twenties, and should have some concept of professional behavior and an expectation of accountability, displays behaviors that are dismissive of those expectations, how do you turn that around. 1st incident: My group of 8 students left a conference room, with me in the lead, down one flight of stairs to an elevator 100 ft away to go upstairs to the assigned unit. I had previously showed the group where the elevator was and what floor we were on. We arrived at the elevator with one student missing. So as not to prevent the elevator from being used, we went up the elevator to the floor. I waited there for a few minutes while talking to the rest of the students, when some 20 minutes later the students arrived with this explanation; "I heard that the oxygen was on and I went back down the hall to let the nurses know." "What?!" 2nd Incident: I told the students on orientation day that while they were expected to be at clinical at 0630, I gave them a 15 minute window till 0645 that if they could make it by then they would be allowed to stay. Citing the oft used "7 minute rule" in our area hospitals that gives the employee 7 minutes on either side of their scheduled shift time. My phone rang at 0430 but I don't answer that early. As arrived at the hospital at 0600, I rang the number who had called me. The aforementioned student asked me if we were in clinical or simulation that day. As it was still early I thought for a moment about the sim day schedule and clinical and said , yes we are in clinical. The student said nothing else and hung up. At 0630, no student, 0645 no student, 0700 she shows up after assignments have been made and nurses have given report to the oncoming shift and students. I reminded her of the orientation conversation about arrival times and when I mentioned that she would be sent home, she went off! She became loud, threatening to sue me and the school, became belligerent to the point of me having to escort her outside, all the while stating that "it's the teachers responsibility to tell the student what the schedule is" and "don't mess with my education"! Well at this point it was either call the police or the school so I called the clinical coordinator. After discussing the situation with her, and letting her know that if I did send her home now there would definitely be a need for the police and that it was the first incident of being late, so I would allow her to stay. I ensured her that I would write up a student disciplinary form and follow the school's policy. Later I found out, that this may be a pattern and to make sure that I documented everything. The student returned to the floor and completed her day without incident. 3rd incident: We were about the leave the floor for post-conference and I told the aforementioned student to got to the breakroom and wait till everyone arrived and we would go to the conference together. Once I gathered everyone else and they were all waiting at the elevator, except for her, I walked the unit again looking for her, to no avail. I returned to the elevator and we went to the assigned post conference area. Thirty minutes later I get a call from her asking "where are we?", saying that she had went to the assigned area and we were not there. By the time she got to the room we were about done and frankly I was frustrated and tired of the situation. I dismissed the other students and asked her what happened. "I went to the assigned area and no one was there" she said. In her defense the assigned area she went to was about 50 ft away from where we were at the nurses station which she may have not seen us but would have been able to hear us. She thought that she could remain on the unit with out supervision and "hung around" till someone showed up. I am failing her at mid term for paperwork and behavior and would like to be completely rid of her but will need to follow policy. Please tell me what I did wrong and how to ensure that the student gets the education she deserves and I get the respect I deserve without turning this into a nightmare related to the "me too" culture.
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As an instructor in clinical I browbeat the students with medication administration processes. Trying to get students to understand the nuances of doctors orders and what Pyxis will do is a challenge until they see those things written. As an instructor to those nurses that have students on the floor, please show them how to interpret those orders that don't make sense, what "house policy" and your board of nursing says and never, ever, give meds that you've not seen drawn up or pulled yourself.
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I write this at the near end of a 35+ year nursing career. From my beginnings in Education in 2007 until now, I have watched and waited and hoped that more nurses would enter the field of education. While this may have happened to some degree, the number of students and number of educators leaving has outpaced the incoming instructors. Now we have many more adjunct instructors (clinical) than full time faculty, due largely to the serious pay cut from a bedside nurse to a fulltime educator. Covid has smacked us in the face with that reality. So here's the problem, much like that patient with paroxysmal SVT who needs an ablation to correct his/her dysrhythmia, the nature of clinical nursing is at that point. So, a clinical instructor has 10 students on a med/surg/pcu floor and maybe they have a total of 30 students in one week. The first couple weeks of clinical you must identify the high performers, the in betweens and the ones that you will need to spend more time with because they are Covid era students. Now 10 students who are all prepared the same, with backgrounds in health care, possibly an LPN and otherwise familiar with the hospital setting would be wonderful. But that is not the reality...two of the ten are not in health care, three of them are repeaters from last semester, five of them have accommodations for exams and maybe three are already doing an RN's job as an LPN. Thankfully some facilities are allowing students back into observation areas which takes away some of the pressure of having ten students to watch (but remember, you must ensure their objectives are met and maybe go see them during observation). So, now, five years down the road, managers are seeing that the needed skills for orientation are not there, I.e. giving adequate patient handoffs, understanding charting, never speaking with doctors or even becoming comfortable around them, etc., so we stop observations again to help ensure that those skills are focused on again. And we are back in the same boat or messed up conduction system! I would have loved to have gotten $100 an hour in an ICU where I worked for 21 years and I do not begrudge those nurses who have stepped up and exposed and sacrificed their lives for patients. But I'm wondering what sort of event will ever make teaching nurses more attractive so that these conduction problems can be avoided? Anyway, that's an old man's damn opinion, and I still love my job, but it needs an ablation!
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"Operative words there are "in the US." This is an international forum and osceteacher and myself are in the UK - unsure where other posters are from - and trying to proselytise and/or pray with patients in the UK can and will get you fired." And that's why in 1776 we decided to leave 'bloody' England for our religious freedom, among other things! Thank you...
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I got pissed at the allnurses.com website one day after I could not retrieve my log on info for my alter ego username, which was my own fault, hence forever known as...
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"I teach as if any of my students will be the one to care for me". Me
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"Damn right my pressure is high. How else am I gonna get my Viagra?"
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"Male nurses are only a little less annoying", said the ancient surgeon on rounds.
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Davey, I thought the patient was going to say, "Oh great, so which one of you gets the job"?
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'Whadda you mean, call respiratory therapy? That ain't no damn oxygen delivery mask"!
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Unfortunately this points to a larger problem...we are all trying to do too much. Whether it's a sour relationship, stress on the job, multiple responsibilities, we all need to take a step back and remember to be mindful of ourselves and those close to us. Pay attention to what we are doing each and every moment of the day. Have a plan when there are too many things going on to just separate yourself from the extraneous. Too many sad stories such as this.
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We'd love to help but you are not giving us much to go on!