kris113

I am a fairly new nurse. I will start out by saying that I use my resources and double check anything I am not 110% sure about. Today I was at the end of a hectic shift and was connecting a patient's NG tube to continuous suction. I had a funny feeling when I left the ward, but I had checked all of my patients, my charts, my meds. When I got home I was running through everything I had done that day... then I placed the feeling. I am pretty sure I connected the suction bottle up incorrectly (pt to wall nub and wall nub to pt). I called the ward and asked the night nurse to switch the tubing around. Now I feel completely inadequate and feel like quitting nursing. My question is if anyone else has done anything like this? How did you get over it? I feel horrible and sick to my stomach at the moment.

I agree with the previous posts. (I am the OP). I find that there is an imbalance between our requirements for school and actual practice. I myself do not hold myself "equal" to nurses as some others do, as honestly, I have NO clue to what their day involves. The thing is, that we get written up by our instructors if we are not holding ourselves on an equal level (mind you, we never sit at the desk), if we don't question practices, etc. I just got a fairly dismal evaluation- my patient care was great, but my instructor didn't feel that I was interacting with the nurses on their level.( ie. I stay out of the way and help where needed, I don't tell them I'm taking a certain patient on, I ask if that's ok.) It feels like we are being shot in the foot so to speak. (Although then we could practice our skills on ourselves.lol) I don't mind earning my way- or earning the trust. I know we don't know everything... Looking over this post, it could be construed as complaining and blaming, which I'm not trying to do. I just wanted to have a good understanding of the position that we (students) are in. I think I'll challenge the school instead lol.

Thanks for the replies!

Hi, I am a second year student currently doing my third semester of practicum. During a praxis session, our teacher and my class were going through comments that had been made during our placement, and previous rotations that she had had. She said that one of the most common comments that she has had through the years was " Students always have such a sense of entitlement". I'm wondering what this means. The students that I have always worked with help out around the ward, although we are limited in some areas as per our scope of practice (and we do have to do extensive research on the clients we have). Our teacher couldn't tell us what the "sense of entitlement" meant. In school we are taught to hold ourselves equal to the staff, and advocate for our patients. As we do not hold a full patient load (often we only have one or two patients), and do not work full twelve hour shifts, we cannot fully understand the position the nurses are in on the wards. We also do understand that we are probably the last thing that a nurse wants to add to their day- more questions and responsibility. I am asking this question in the hope that some experienced nurses may clarify what is meant by a "sense of entitlement". What are we doing/ or should we be doing to display this? (We really do want to be good, hardworking students, which contribute!) - K.