Guest1188630

We all have our own computers. That's not what I said. If you read some of the comments in the thread- it seems like people are saying we need to put up with things like not having a chair or water where we work at a clinical site. Also, 11 students DO use the same computer on the drug cart.

Also, we have to keep at this. Women's Right to Vote, for example was won over DECADES and there were several times it was almost derailed because people could not agree on the best way in how to get it done. I am not assuming that nurses ahead of me are not active- but we need to remain that way. We have to keep advocating and we will be ignored more than listened to. And thank you for all you have tried to do:)

OK- understood and thank you for your time. This may be my narrow experience- all I know is that it seems like there are some improvements that can be made- and working together is a good start. I just want it to be clear- we get to ask for chairs and water and not be labeled as "entitled."

Gosh Fellow Nurses- I couldn't disagree with some of you more-are these negative answers how you would speak to a patient? I might take you more seriously is your whole industry wasn't in decline-I am not blaming nurses for this, but what you are saying is just not the correct way to go about this situation and nurses CAN play a part in the solution. Your industry needs to change and you may want to think about ways to help do this. There are several petitions on Change.org and other groups you can make your voices heard in. Especially now that things are in crisis- this is the exactly right time to start asking for what you want to be a successful nurse-not just financially or benefits but also in your day to day duties and environments. Healthcare is business- I am not saying I agree with that-but that's what it is. In business, when you want something- you negotiate for it. To quote a popular saying "closed mouths don't get fed." I am NOT an entitled person- I am a person in a first world country asking for tools I need to succeed. I need a chair and a table or desk to complete the 1 hour assignment on my computer that is required of me during that clinical session. That is a the tool I need-so I asked for it. Believe me, the executives at the top are asking for plenty- and they are not taking the left-over money and putting it back into the pockets of the poor. They are having the company lease them another top of the line Mercedes and pay for their premium gym membership and first class airline tickets. I've been doing the expense reports for years-believe me. I am not asking for champagne and roses- I get to ask for a chair and water in our country-it is not me being weak or "entitled." In business, lot of times, they can write things off as business expenses-there's tons of ways to get things done- it's all in how how you ask for them and who you partner with in management. But you have to have the desire to do them-I realize this is not what most nurses want to do, but if you want to improve your situation, you have to open your mouth and ask for it. Negotiating for most people is often worse than going in for a root canal, but it is necessary. Not like a Karen ?, but like a person who is asking for the tools they need to be successful and to continue working in their company. You don't have any people to partner with in management? Well, that's part of the problem. You have to develop those relationships-they are your colleagues-not your masters. Business is give and take- let them know what you need and let them know what is working-everyone benefits. And guess what? In the case of our clinical site, I asked in a nice way and the teacher asked in a nice way and the clinical director asked in a nice way and like magic, we had an unused room at the facility with chairs for everyone. Ask and ye shall receive:) Is this going to happen every time? No, of course not, But it will NEVER happen if we don't ask. In fact, the one site was so problematic, the clinical director put us for one day a week at another spot-which is LOVELY. The one site wasn't working so she changed it for the better. The new site actually want us there and in turn we work hard for them and are now passing meds and doing patient care and helping out in every way we can. The last hour of clinical we go to the room and we do our paperwork on the computer. So 11 fellow students have benefited from me saying " Gosh, can we do better here?" You may say that is only one instance but it isn't actually. By starting a dialogue with school administrators, I got the situation for myself and 30 fellow student nurses improved. I have had the copy machines and printers upgraded to newer models-they were on a service contract so only had to ask for better machines-no one had asked in years so they had just kept the same. I got the water dispensers all serviced and working- BTW clean water is a HUMAN RIGHT. "The human right to water and sanitation is a principle that acknowledges that clean drinking water and sanitation are essential to every person's life. It was recognized as a human right by the United Nations General Assembly on 28 July 2010" If you do not have access to clean and abundant drinking water while on the job-you may want to think about asking. I got the teachers and course directors to look at our student workloads across classes and make a few adjustments so that big projects and midterms etc. did not land back to back in one week-these are all things they should be doing but had not because COVID messed everything up. Now fellow students ask me to send and email about this or that-and I do it. We don't get everything we want but at least we try and everyone is feeling better-not abused and overwhelmed. Nursing doesn't have to be a miserable drudge- it's only if you put up with sub-par behavior and standards- and fellow nurses- when we are not putting the gas mask on ourselves before helping others- we aren't doing it right. We don't have to be so tough and put up with crappy situations- if your current job is pushing back on you and your team when asking for basics- keep your resume tuned up, look on Glassdoor and read the reviews for a better place and move on up! Honestly, not all places are the same. We need to fill up our own gas tanks- then we can go. Just like a car- we need to be maintained. I am stunned by some of the fellow nurses and former nurses self-care. I'm not talking about going to the spa, just basic stuff. We don't have to be hard as nails with ourselves- the job is tough but we don't have to be not even willing to put a bandaid on ourselves if we need it. I know you will say "it's not like that in the real world" or "this girl is in for a BIG surprise" or whatever. You may be right- But I survived in the tech industry and believe me, it is just as tough and more of a wild west atmosphere- look at some of the headlines about how they treat people in tech. Will you get everything you want? Of course not, but ask and keep on asking as the bible says. Start a dialogue, not a one-off argument. Develop relationships- if you don't have time at least try to help anyone else who is working to improve your situation. Be patient- be kind. Have a thick skin. Bring in people-doctors, administrators to improve your situation. Make it better for the generation of nurses who follow you. Life is too short -we spend too much time at work not to have it be tolerable. I will close now and go back to my studies, but would like to end on this. I have asked both the State and the school to look into adding a basic communication class to the curriculum- in the first semester of school so we can benefit from it. As nurses we communicate with everyone from Doctors to Families to CNA's to Janitors-and yet they don't teach ANY of the major communication schools of thought like Non-Violent Communication for example. Knowledge is power.

And Sleep RN -thanks for all you do. Again, my problem isn't necessarily with the people on the ground- although it irritates me when our teacher is always late. I believe leaders need to lead by example. However, I am not getting a "COVID Discount" on my classes and the school seems to be making a nice profit at my expense. By my count, we are a million dollar class- 30 students at 36K- so we get to have chairs. The school could do more- they must be incentivized to change- in fact, after a few of us asked for better standards- we ended up at a much nicer facility one day a week and were welcomed by staff and told we could use their lunch room etc. Ask and ye shall receive I guess. I'm sure everyone in the nursing world is so exhausted and everything is in disarray, but I will use part of my new blood to try and raise things up for everyone- I refuse to let people profit from cutting corners with me-it doesn't have to be the Ritz, but is has to be decent. Thanks for your time everyone-the information means a lot to me.

Yes- I'm starting to see a pattern here. I am sending you out good energy to survive- and perhaps thrive where you are at- and to let you know I plan to start organizing and pushing back on these "for profit hyenas"- I do have some experience in this as I worked in the tech industry which is notoriously awful to women. I know we have a good union as well. I will stick to my conscience of helping my patients and being the best nurse I can- but I will spend the rest of the time pushing back on this horrible model- nurses aren't a human sacrifice and the status quo must be updated.

No worries- I just took it the wrong way-easy to do in writing-thanks for your thoughts and time. I think COVID has just cast a pall over everything and made things weird. I will soldier through and just come prepared for every situation.

OK- thanks so much for taking the time to respond-this makes sense. So just take the ups and the downs in stride-not all places we do clinicals at are great and set up well- I can do that. One additional question- are some actual jobs in facilities like this? Specifically, do they have a break areas with enough chairs and microwaves to heat your lunch and stuff ? Do you typically get to tour the facility you will work at for before accepting the job?

OK- here's the thing tho- I am asking are these standards OK in the nursing school world for a 36K pricetag? Lack of chairs, no supplies, late teachers? Is this what I should expect at all places? Some places? I get nursing is hard work-I am a hard worker. I just want to know if places are all this rough. I want to know if this is a systemic problem or just this school I guess. Sorry if I wasn't clear in what I was looking for in terms of responses.

Wow-I am stunned at your response. I am not some "unemployed folk" I lost my job because of the pandemic. I enrolled in nursing school because I wanted to help people and fill a need in the shortage of nurses in our state. I am not sure how I could've have researched if a school had standards to provide enough chairs for students at a clinical or if they would put us in a place that was not welcoming and was under-supplied. I am doing very well academically-I already had a college degree and worked at a high level job-COVID changed that. I was looking for support and understanding from fellow nurses so I can understand what is happening. Your response feels really negative to me and sadly is not the first harsh response I have received when asking for help-are nurses nicer to patients than other nurses?

OK, I am understanding this now. Thanks so much for taking your time to respond to me. It helps me understand what is happening.

Thanks for the answer:) I think I am stuck and In reading the student comments about the private nursing schools in CA-they all sound the same amount of awful-all the public colleges are backed up and not offering classes or pre-reqs due to COVID- only 1 person took the NCLEX from my local community college last year. Another question-what's the deal with the limited numbers of people accepted into programs at school and limited offerings of classes? Is that a traditional nursing thing- like being snobby? I always thought it was a supply and demand thing with school-need more programmers for software so offer more classes and encourage people but nursing seems to have this weird code about getting "accepted" in the program and only offering it "once time a year"...it just seems like a weird POV when there is a nursing shortage making things rough for everyone-and then nursing programs are being snobby and limited....does the State only let you have a certain number of graduates per class in your school? I just can't figure out how this system works....it seems like a lot of people are interested in nursing, but some people have shared problems with instructors etc. saying they "aren't good enough" I hope the real working world isn't like school in this regard...

Have been attending an LVN Program in since August 2021-I keep thinking things are better but they do not improve- I came from the business world and had the opportunity to work from some nice places. This place is really yucky. The administration and operations of this school has been, well, awful. And they charge 36K for a 13 month program. They are always out of everything and all the equipment is broken down. The clinical site where they have us is awful as well and after 7 weeks we are still doing CNA stuff , not passing meds. We have to bring our own washcloths and N-95's and face shields and have to wait outside in the cold until our teacher gets there. She is always 10 minutes late. They won't even let us have water or heat our lunch up anywhere. There are not even enough chairs for us all to sit in the room they give us, and they make us switch places all the time. It is so unprofessional all across the board- are these normal standards for LVN- are we like the trash nurses because we are not RN's yet? I am in California so I would love to hear if this is the norm. When I ask questions they just explain this is how it is because of COVID-but the students in other clinical sites in our school are not experiencing this. How do you even deal with this-I tried to email the Clinical Instructor Coordinator and she blew up at me- I don't feel like asking for water and a chair is out of line. Is nursing like camping? Do they even have break rooms like most companies do? I just don't know what to expect.