gozojoan

I agree with so many of these comments, but I have to say that I hope I would find the compassion in my heart to treat him as I would any other patient. i would certainly struggle with this, but i would try to consider the possibility that this young man, like many other bombers (columbine etc...) is extremely conflicted and troubled to the extent that he actually believes that what he did was right. We cannot and should not forget what he has done, but we need to remember that we don't know all the facts. So easy for me to say considering I have not seen the horror first hand.

You will never be able to appease this nurse. My guess is she has a few insecurities of her own. She needs to get over herself but probably won't.

In the event that there are other nurses in your organization with the same first initial, go with first name, last name, degree then license. Always put your degree first. - they can take away your license, but never your degree

Rule of thumb for school - for every credit hour, plan on tripling that. That is how much time a week you should schedule. so, if you're taking a 4 credit class, schedule 12 hours a week for that course. So if you're a full time student, that pretty much equals a full time job as one of the previous posts mentions. If you have no choice but to work, you will have to be sure that you spend your time to study efficiently. Remember, school is temporary (if you want it to be) you will get your life back after graduation and it will be worth it.

Nurses with depression. Not so uncommon for so many reasons. By nature, I think many of us may be drawn to nursing because we understand and have experienced a sense of need or helplessness, therefore we want to help others through their times of trouble. For others, we may become depressed after watching and becoming entwined in the sorrow and pain that our patients and their families experience. We often then build walls to protect ourselves and fail to care for ourselves properly. We are faced with difficult decisions everyday and feel the frustration when it is impossible to provide what we consider proper care. We burn out, lose sleep, eat more, exercise less, drink more and possibly quit nursing all together. We really have to be sure we take care of ourselves first before we can take care of others and realize that all we can do is all we can do. We can not hold ourselves to superhero expectations. We are human. We need to cry and more importantly, we need to laugh. We also must come to realize that although the need for antidepressants may make us feel like a failure for not being able to care for ourselves, we need to remember that sometimes taking antidepressants IS taking care of ourselves. Just like a diabetic needs hypoglycemic agents, we may need to suck it up and admit we need help. There is nothing wrong with that. After all, we realize our patients need help and don't think less of them. When appropriate, there is better living though chemistry AKA antidepressant.

wow am I glad I'm not you. Get out and get another job! Having to deal with that says a lot about your coworkers. I am a big believer in getting HR involved, and claiming that you work in a hostile work environment, but be forewarned that it may turn into he said, she said. As stated in a previous post DOCUMENT DOCUMENT DOCUMENT! You may want to think about having something lined up in regard to another job prior to doing this.

Having taught nursing for more than 10 years, here's my advise: 1. Negativity and fear spread like wildfire. Listen to your teachers not your peers (believe it or not, your teachers have more experience than your classmates). 2. Do not ask "will this be on the test?" Ask yourself, "will I be able to understand and react to this if I have a patient with this?" 3. Remember, your teachers actually want you to succeed. You will get out of it what you put into it so don't blow off what you think is the easy stuff - the easy stuff is the foundation for what is yet to come.

Bottom line patients have the right to know who the person is that is taking care of them. That includes their job title. To mislead the patient is dishonest and violates patient's rights. What if the MA gave advise? That is not within the scope of practice and if that advise led to patient harm she could have some heafty legal problems and the practice could be included in a suit since the MA is working under their supervision.

when i write up the evaluation for the "know it all" student, i usually address this in the area or objective that deals with professionalism or demeanor. depending on how the student demonstrates his/her "advanced knowledge" there are several ways to go. if the student is offensive or annoying to other classmates, i might address this as being courteous or professional when dealing with peers or other members of the health care team. demeanor can also be addressed when dealing with patients or families. the behavior a student demonstrates when receiving constructive criticism may also be addressed. their ability to correlate theory into practice is also a way to hopefully bring them into the reality that maybe they don't know it all. just a few ideas

I can certainly understand your frustration with students at times and I have experienced this as a staff nurse on occasion. Hard to compete with the diploma programs even though that too can be a sore subject. I originally graduated from a diploma program and now I teach for one. Prior to teaching for this school, I taught clinical for an associates program and for a BS. It's been my experience that the size of the clinical group and abilities of the instructor makes all the difference in the world. It is especially hard for the instructor if he/she is unfamiliar with the facility teaching at. Having students shouldn't make the nurse's job more difficult, it should help them. If this isn't the case, the school probably should reevaluate how it is preparing students. Even though assisting with education is something that a professional should assist with, it is not the staff nurses responsibility to teach the student. Their priority is the patient. It is much harder to find the right balance as a nurse today. Bottom line is that these students are the future of our profession and there is a definate history of eating our young. Nursing is a much more difficult profession today compared to 20 years ago with the shortage and the downsizing of nursing staff due to lack of appropriate reimbursement. In order to make things better in the future, we need new nurses and this isn't going to happen when students are treated with hostility. The situation needs to change.

This is not a good situation at all. Students in my opinion should be immediately removed from this clinical area and another area should be used to fulfill the objectives of the course. Although it is necessary for students to learn to deal with all types of people, there is no excuse for hostility. One thing is for sure, this all needs to be put down on the evaluation for the course at the end of the semester. Ideally, your instructor should address the issue with the staff herself or the unit manager. If your instructor is not able to remedy the situation, perhaps you could address the issue with the director of the school. It might be good if you read your student handbook for information on how to proceed with complaints. Good luck