j0622

Yes, I did become some defensive at first, but what she said is also right with a second thoughts. I believe things will get better in the future. After all, nursing is a relationship, not an individual.

Thanks for your advice. Very straight and clear. You are a very insightful person. I need to work on my communication skills. My confidence will improve overtime. I promise. I will keep you advice in mind.

Ma'am you are perfectly right! There is a long way to go for nursing students!

Yes, you are right. I agree with you. It is not right to treat bad with bad. Bing kind and generous is the way. I need edit the wrong thought. I should not let fear and timidity get in the way. Thanks for being patient.

Yes," being strong and capable even if you are terrified" is something I have to practice. Sometimes, being humble or modest is not a good strategy to deal with difficult situation. Saying sorry makes people more angry. Being mean and difficult will earn more respect, at least, people will not pick you up because you are not the soft peach. LOL. That is a hard truth. Thanks for the tips.

Ma'am, you confused the two patients. But, it is OK.

I was not sure at that moment. I felt grateful when she gave me a chance to do it. I did the vitals fine. LOL. The good thing was the patient just got one stick. The IV was successful at first try. Good for that poor lady. She is a fighter.

I totally agree with you that the best interest of the patient is the RN focus. I am wondering how do you deal with this ethic dilemma. Letting a nursing student or new graduate practice IV is definitely not the best interest to the patient. Why not a experience one with 20 years of experience? However, if we never let them practice, they will never learn how to do it, so there will be no capable new working force in nursing field, and older nurses can not work forever. So, if the RN who let the students practice should be blamed for not thinking about the best interest of the patient?

Thanks for your encouraging words! Right now, I was more prepared. I will become better.

Yes, the whole post is about my failure. You are so right that I failed to build a therapeutic relationship with the patient. I did stayed to see if they need anything else that I could help, and that is why when the preceptor needed another needle I could get it to her right away. But, I did not know how to support the patient who became more and more agitated because of my presence. Holding her hands? Could it be a physical assaults to her without her permission? She was already so mad at me despite of my non-stop apology. Yes, I failed to achieve any relationship with that preceptor. Yes, I did not know what a port in the superior vena cava is. Shame on me! Nursing student should know everything about nursing. But, I know what it is a port now when Google and other helpful people who patiently taught me now. I agree that letting a nursing student or new nurse to start an IV is not to the patients' best interest. Why not a more experienced nurse? It is an ethical dilemma. I know that the patient whom I started an IV on has a higher chance to get a second poke compared to an experienced nurse. I never feel proud of that. I always feel sorry for that, and I always feel gratitude if the patient agreed to let me do it. I had no problem with any another patients or receptor during my whole ten-day clinical rotation. But this situation, I did not know how to deal with. The red flag is that I sense the patient may not want me to be there at first. She thought I was not nice to her, so she said " be nice". I greeted her and introduced myself the way I did to any other patients. Seriously, I had no problem at all with any other patients. I asked her permission before everything I did. I asked her "Ma'am, I am going to put the blood pressure cuff on you, is it OK?". She said "be nice". When I sensed that she did not trust me at all, I should not even be there, I was so confused, let alone starting an IV on her. It is my mistake! I admitted it, and I learned from it. And, please do not project my experience to any other nursing students or new graduates, especially the one you have to precept. The post is just about my failure, not others. Nursing students or new graduates will ask dumb questions, and seem have no skills at all. They can get scared. They do not know everything about nursing. They may make stupid mistakes. If you are not comfortable to be with them, please please refuse the assignment.

Thanks for your kind words. I was afraid of confrontation even it is not my fault. LOL and Tears! Being a student, or a new nurse in the future, sometimes, we do not really know if we did it right or not, or should we confront or not, or they treat us right or not. I guess this is part I should make an effort to learn in my future practice. Thanks!

Very appreciate that you shared your experience with me. I was stupid at that moment. I should have been more careful with the first patient who ended up cursing me. I did not follow the way you described to get a good vein. I kind of rushed. Stupid confidence! My bad! It should be done as thorough as you described. I will keep this in my mind for my future practice. Thanks!

Yes, the patient acted out like I was going to murder her. No experience at all to deal with such situation.

Most people will think this way, I believe. Most nurses I met are good and respectful. Unfortunately, not everyone wants to see others become more capable. It is fine when that person is not a preceptor. When I have to deal a preceptor who does not want to teach me or let me do anything, it is so frustrating, and I started doubting about myself. Will it be my problem that my preceptor does not want to teach me? What do I do wrong? Am I good enough? ....... Those are pretty bad feelings. Anyway, I was through those feelings now. I will not allow this to crash my little fragile confidence I made a great effort to build up. LOL. I need those tiny confidence or assertiveness.

Thanks for being a good preceptor. I like teaching. Someday, if I have a student, I will treat him or her like I wanted to be treated when I was a student.

I definitely agree with your saying. I tend to think "treat people the way you want to be treated", so people treat you well when you treat them well. But it is not a universal law. I tried to improve my emotional intelligence. I know I should not be emotional about it, but the anger or shame or frustration just got me. I felt so bad for myself that day and the day after. Today, I feel much much better. I really need to work on the "emotionally separate yourself" part. Totally agree. I will keep in mind.

Hi, I just came across your post. Yes, you will meet some very rude and mean nurses. And you should be prepared. I never prepared, so when I got into the situation, I did not know how to deal with it. Good luck! I added my post here. If you do not mind, you can take a look.

Thanks for your encouragements. I was so confused when I was in that unit. I helped around non-stop. Cleaning the room, setting the stretcher and doing errands. I do not understand why some nurses just treated me in a mean way. I mean, most of nurses I met are good and respectful. But finally, I understand that it is not my problem. Some nurses feel so good when they see new nurses or student fail or struggle. I did not know why, but it is true based on my experience. I did not know it before, but I will be cautious to stay away form them. I will never be like them.

Yes. I am very glad that I told that nurse I was not comfortable to do this. She mumbled or complained like I was not even trying to take a look. I ignored her. I know I made a right decision.

Thanks for your kind word. I was just so confused at that time. I did not know how to respond to that situation. Most nurses they are respectful. They are nice to me. At least, they made eye contact and talk to me. Some of them taught me patiently. I am always grateful. But this one is too much. I just pray that I will never meet a person like her.

As a nursing student going to graduate in May, I know I should not get obsessed with my bad feelings about my last day clinical rotation in the hospital. I have a bright career and future in front of me. However, I need to get it off chest. I never expected and understand why some nurses want to see the new nurse or a student fail. I started an IV on a old lady. When I put a blood pressure cuff on her , she said “be nice”. I did not pay attention to the red flag. Then when I was trying to locate a good vein, she said “be nice” again. I was a little confused, but I still did not get the dangerous signal. I did three IV successfully before that. Stupid confidence. Shame on me. When I started to get needle in, she started screaming, “What are you doing? It hurts.” and starts cursing like “shi*” . I got nervous. The vein is fragile, and she kept moving, then I blew the vein. I felt bad, and I kept apologizing. She was so mad, and turned to the nurse, “Why you do not do it?” And the cursing is really bad. The nurse said nothing to calm down the patient. She took it over and chose another hand. She showed off her skill and told me, ”See, you should choose this vein.” I can tell from her voice she felt very proud that my failure would show how capable she is. I felt guilty, so I still stayed around to see if she needed anything. With all the confidence, she failed that vein too because the patient kept moving. She had to do on another location. She asked to get another needle very impatiently. I got it for her ... and the patient is still cursing. This time, I walked away. I could not bear those words. About an hour later, I walked toward the nurse. She rolled her eyes on me. I do not think I deserve that, so I approached her and apologized that I did not get it. She avoided eye contact and said nothing. I asked her if the patient got her any trouble because of me. She said no. I could feel she didn’t want to talk to me, so I said thank you and left. I felt really bad, but I got a lesson - if you do not feel right, walk away. When I was about to leave, another nurse asked me if I could take vital signs and start IV for her new patient. I never talked with that nurse before. She never asked me to help or so. I said OK. I was there to learn and practice. The patient was 80 years old. She has chemo therapy a year ago. She was on wheelchair with oxygen. She had really difficult vein. They put a portal under her clavicle. With all that info, the nurse still told the patient that I was going to start an IV on her. I didn't feel right. I know my limit. This IV needed a very experienced nurse. Why would this nurse do that? I told the nurse directly I didn’t feel comfortable to start IV. She asked another nurse to start it. The nurse ended up spending a lot of time on it. And, she was in ICU for more than 20 years. I was glad that I dodged a bullet. Did she do it on purpose? I don’t know. But, I had enough. I turned in my badge on the educator’s desk and left.

Good to know. Thanks! The same for houston campus?

I thought we have to wait after orientation to register the class.

Hi, I had the same situatuon. I got it by searching the email using"texas woman ", and it popped up. Then I saw it in the spam. I did search one by one in the spam, but no luck! I totally understand the feeling! Use key words to search for it. Good luck!

No. Jiust teas and gpa.